Up, Down, and Hammer to the Face

In terms of manpower, Porla had us beat.

Not only Phantom Lord had several branch Guilds all over Fiore, but he had a lot of mages in his main HQ, not counting the S-class and the Dragon Slayer. Not that they were going to make any difference, I was beyond livid at this point, and anyone unfortunate enough to stand in my way was going to experience pain.

Accidental deaths when earth-shattering spells are flying around without anyone caring where do they hit are a logic consequence. I was the offended party here, I was the one that has been shot with a MWMD (Magical Weapon of Mass Destruction) called the Jupiter cannon, and only thanks to Erza's awesomeness Magnolia has not been obliterated from existence. Whatever happens from now on, unless Porla had the entire Magic Council on his pocket, he is fucked.

Among the usual protests and whining of the Rune Knights, was the one about how the mages had zero problems in tossing around powerful spells that care little about the collateral damages. Be it people or buildings. The thing is, that even if the Rune Knights had a point, they are also a bunch of hypocrites, because when they are in the field, they also use destructive spells and artifacts. The only difference is that the Rune Knights had better PR than the Guilds.

That being said, now it was my turn to start tossing spells around, since the war on Iceberg and the battle with the snake assassin, I have not used the most dangerous spells of my arsenal. This is probably the first time that I am going to use a couple of things that Yimir left me when I defeated him.

That was a very Campione moment, it was a blast from the past.

The insides of the walking house were not all that different from other houses, the only difference was the constant presence of Phantom Lord's paraphernalia, and absence of anything resembling personality. The entire thing looked like an empty barrack with the symbols of Porla`s mad guild all over the place, I disliked it a lot.

"Skoll", I ordered one of my wolves. "Look out for any of the pack inside, Hati, go back and reinforce the lines of the Guild". The rings flashed once in response to my orders and I sent the magical rush of the wolves taking my magic to empower theirs.

Skoll rushed inside of the manor, howling in advance of the hunt. I was worried about where were the rest of my Team. Natsu was already trashing the place, but Erza was hurt and she has charged back into the walking abomination, Lucy should be near Natsu, otherwise, the beautiful blonde was screwed.

I do not want to be rude to the lass, but Lucy is still pretty inexperienced in a real magical battle, her talent was real and I know that Lucy is a very clever girl, but compared with monsters like Natsu, Erza, or me, she was comically way out of her league. Spirit magic is powerful, make it double about the Zodiac spirits, and Lucy had several of those, but a Spirit is as strong as the mage that summons and Lucy is still young and raw.

Mental note for later, talk with Loke and bitchslap him if he is trying to commit the slowest suicide ever.

Skoll was the first in taking down a bunch of Phantom lord's mages. The claws and fangs took a heavy toll on them, and to be honest if they died and the Rune Knights wanted to be dicks about it, I will point out that Mythological beasts are considered as Spirits in terms of law, and during a Guild Battle; and illegal Guild Battle, started by Porla by kidnapping a mage and shooting a MWMD that could have blasted Magnolia out of existence; all casualties are considered KIA.

My route to the top of the walking guild, where I assume Porla must be twirling his stupid mustache like the two-bit villain that he is, was a bit different than the tracking that Skoll was doing to try to locate any of our pack. The wolves considered my Team our pack, with me as the Alpha. My route was straight through walls and roofs. Punching and piercing anything in my way, I climbed by brute force the bloody thing.

Using ice pillars as stairs, I crashed any furniture or wall that stood in my way, I caught several mages of Phantom Lord when I unleashed my spells, but if they are taken down by such spells, that means that they are nothing but cannon fodder. One of the most audacious of the bunch managed to destroy my ice construct and charge at me with a lance of sorts.

I dodged the lance, kicked the little bugger on the balls, and when the pain forced him to let the spear go, I grabbed it, twirled it around, smacking his chin and face in the process, sending him flying to the walls and using the spear to nail another mage to the wall. The mage was conjuring a ball of green light, and the spear cut the spell short when the weapon pierced his stomach and nailed him to the wall.

The brutal method that I have used to dispatch two of them, put the fear of god on the other goons, and they stopped their spells. I jump at them and continued my crippling of the Phantom Lord Guild. The first one fell to the ground with his jaw shattered, the next was a girl that I buried a frozen dagger on her ribs, frozen lots of her insides, and the third one become another figure embedded on the wall.

These five stooges are nothing out of the ordinary, mere fodder for the Guilds. Any Guild Master worth half his salt would send any of these thugs to a real mission and they will return on coffins. It was one of the major differences between our Guilds. Fairy Tail was more of a quality over quantity Guild, on the other hand, Phantom Lord has stretched thin all over the country. The main assets of Phantom Lord must be somewhere up, and by all that's sacred, I am going to find them and shove their arrogance up their asses.

If Natsu was around, I would have competed with him about who will find and beat the Iron Dragon Slayer to an inch of its life, but right now, I am alone and furiously cleaving a bloody path among the low-quality meat that Phantom Lord had protecting the floors of the walking building that Porla has used to attack my Guild.

Crushing through the floor, I found myself in a big space, some kind of hall of sorts?. There were armors around the walls, so this must be a training hall or an armory. Anyhow, I crashed through a group of surprised mages and I started to dispatch them with savagery and brutality. I was not in the mood for delicacies, so I went for the throat and be my merry way.

Quantity has a quality of its own, and the dozen or so mages that I was fighting, tossed so many spells around that it was just common sense that one will finally hit me. At the beginning of the fight, they were pretty disorganized, so, I took advantage and eliminated the closest ones to me, with several weapons made with [Ice Make] magic. Cutting limbs, shattering bones, ripping muscles, and in general inflicting as much damage as I could with the minimum expense of my magical power.

After Levy's Ice letters, I was mostly recovered, but I had just risen from the infirmary after being stabbed in the heart, and I was not at one hundred percent. I was about to battle a Wizard Saint and even if I was confident about my chances, I will not waste any magical power showing off.

It took me an entire minute to clear the room, something that demonstrated that I was not entirely healed. I had bruises, and a couple of nasty gashes; already covered in ice to prevent bleeding and to accelerate the healing; along with several other small wounds all over my torso and arms. One of the bastards even stepped on my toes. I felt the bones crack under the stomp.

That was a dirty trick, rude, and uncalled for.

I freeze my toes, so they were protected by an ice block, and to do not move them much. Later I will heal them, give me a freezer, and after a couple of hours, and I will be peachy. Perks of being a Slayer. To be honest, I only needed an Ice Dragon Slayer Lacryma and I will the trifecta of the Slayers.

According to the rumors on the grapevine, there are more than God, Devil, and Dragon Slayers magics gallivanting the world. Fiore was a small country compared with the rest, and it was more than probable that big countries like Alvarez, or Desierto, have bigger diversity in their magic styles. For the moment, I am not all that interested in augmenting my arsenal but the quality of it. A hundred rusted sword breaks faster than a dozen perfect ones.

After eliminating the rest of the thugs around the floor, I climbed the stairs at the edge of the floor and found myself on the outside again, in the middle of a rainstorm. I walked into the rain with a smile, letting the rain fall upon me, cleaning the dust, blood, grime, and dirty of the battle that I have been fighting until now.

For a bit, I just stood there, with my arms open and washing under the cold rain, enjoying the nature shower and with a smile on my face. Lowering my arms, I turned my head to the blushing lady at the side of the open platform. We were standing on the arm of the walking manor. The manor was now kneeling and with the arms junctures and wires snapped because of the clash of Icebreaker and the sudden and involuntary release of [Abyss Break]. I have crippled the pride of Phantom Lord and I was proud of it.

"So….", I drawled at the silence of the blushing lady, a pretty little thing with blue hair and big eyes that was practically steaming under the heat of her blush. "I take you are one of the S-class mages of Phantom Lord?", I asked.

She stammered and covered her face with her hands, not letting go of the umbrella that she was carrying to protect her from the rain. I was responsible for this?. I mean, I walk around half-naked all the time. After a quick checking, I realize that I still had with my pants and boots on. It was a relief, I was afraid that I have lost my boxers and I was killing people with the crown jewels hanging on the open. That would be incredible rude, even if we were in the middle of a Guild War. Erza has already hit me several times between stammers and blushes because I walked around naked, or in my underwear, when we go on a date together.

"Sweetie?", I raised an eyebrow and cleaned the rain from my eyes. "You okay?".

Still steaming, she turned her red face to me, trying to summon as much dignity and willpower as she could. At this point, any attempt to salvage an image that she could have was destined to fail, but I gave her points for trying.

"Juvia is Juvia of the Rain", she said with a steady voice, "water of the Element-4".

"Nice to meet you", I smiled and shook my head to clean a bit of the water on me. I was thankful for the shower but I will return soon to the inside to keep looking for Porla. "I am Gray Fullbuster".

"The Iceman", she whispered and widened her big eyes.

She was pretty, nothing like Erza, no one will ever be nothing like Erza, but Juvia's dress only accentuated her womanly curves. Erza and Lucy had her beat in looks, though. I did all I could to ignore the poster comment that she made under her breath, one of these days, I am going to hunt Jason down and flay him alive for publishing that bloody poster.

"Juvia is confused", Juvia moaned turning around and hugging herself under her umbrella, squirming about what to do now. "Juvia has never felt like these, Juvia is hot, Juvia heart is racing, Juvia is in love?".

Oh, shit, NAY.

"Ah, about that sweetie", I cut short her ramblings before they went a bit too far. "I am in a relationship now".

I was the one confused now, after how Erza and I loudly make out in front of the Guild Masters of Fiore during their meeting, I was convinced that my status as Titania`s girlfriend was in the open, and all the Guilds in Fiore and beyond will know about it. Heck, even in the bloody magazine "Sorcerer Weekly", appeared an article about our relationship, asking if Titania has found her Oberon.

Juvia froze and I swear to god that her head went 180º like the fucking girl on that movie about a Christian exorcist.

"Juvia had not listened well, Gray-sama already has a girlfriend?". The neuter tone made all the alarms in my brain flare. Stalker alert. However, I was hoping that Erza's name and reputation were enough to keep this stalker away.

"Aye, Erza Scarlet and I are in a relationship for quite awhile", I confirmed, and I barely dodged the boiling stream of hot water that Juvia suddenly launched at me. Damn, the girl can summon magical circles in a heartbeat. That or her mastery over [Water Magic] was out of the charts.

[Ice Make] magic with only one hand was unstable and weak, but if the mage was utterly strong, then, even the weaker constructs are strong enough to hold on. I raised a wall and with a hand gesture, froze hundreds of water droplets and sent them as if they were the pellets of a shotgun.

Juvia took the pellets head-on, the pellets passed through her water body, or directly melted under the extreme heat that her body of boiling water carried. It begged disbelief, it was the first time that I saw [Water Magic] react that strongly to emotions and a living example of a female wizard scorned. Bloody hell, Juvia was angry, sad, despaired, and rambling about how everything was unfair and how our love was impossible, yadda, yadda.

This lass was nuts, but considering that she was an ace of Phantom Lord, her sanity was up to debate the best of days. I kept the scalding water at bay with a liberal application of [Ice Make], the magic that Ur taught to me never tired me much, and my creations, even if I make them with one hand, are always pretty strong. I blame such empowerment to my status as the Ice Slayer of two categories, the Devil and the God, and my unique biology that turned my entire body into an Ethernano factory.

With a grunt, I dodged another dangerous stream of hot water. Once I landed, I clenched my teeth at the sudden spike of pain in my legs and torso. I was not completely healed and I was being an idiot, fooling around with this crazy lass. It was time to put an end to this charade.

The next attack was a veritable flood of boiling water that if I wanted to dodge, would have tossed me out of the arm of the walking Guild. Icebreaker manifested in my free hand and with a wide swing, I hit the flood with my hammer. With a sudden and violent eruption of steam and ice, the flood was frozen. I extended my hand, and a giant arm ending up in a claw of ice erupted from my arm, grabbing the maelstrom of water that was Juvia, astonished at what she was seeing. Before she could react, seeing that my ice; black for the use of God Slayer magic; did not melt, I dragged her to me and touching her I froze her, not giving a shit about the boiling water. I have fought and froze a Lava Dragon Slayer, boiling water was cute more than anything else.

The thing is, that when the steam cleared, I realized that I was still grabbing something soft, tender, and very nice to squeeze and fondle. Of course, the cute and embarrassed yelps and moans of Juvia were the indicators that what I have grabbed to freeze her, was her breast.

For the love of Pandora, Erza is going to kill me, also, you, traitorous hand, let that deliciously squeezable breast go already!.

Like it was a snake, I released the breast of Juvia, curiously, she emitted a sad whine, but lowered her eyes with a nuclear red blush on her face. She was trapped in my black ice, a black frozen casket that she could not release herself. If she tried to turn into water, she will freeze, the only reason why she was still moving was that I have not put more magical power into the containment.

"My apologies", I stared at my traitorous hand; the black hand of the Devil Slayer, who was still flexing and doing groping movements. "That was uncalled for, I lost track of what I was touching, sorry".

The rain around us felt with more force, and the sky over our heads was cloudy, gray, and feeling really gloomy. Don't tell me that this girl's emotions brings forth the rain?. Shit, that must have been a horror growing up, being the eternal rain-woman. Juvia has surrendered already, trapped inside the casket of black ice, but I can read her body language and the lass was depressed as hell. Curse me and how I can not let a pretty girl in such a sad state.

"Cheer up lass, after the rain", I called to her and clenched my fist, freezing the rain and dispersing the clouds above us with a wave of my ice magic. "There is always the sun".

The light of the sun covered us and I welcomed the warmth, the rain has cleaned me from the previous dirty, blood, grime, and sweat from the battles before I reached this arm, and now the heat of the sun was drying my body and warming it up.

The expression of the rain woman was of surprise and elation, she watched the sun as if she was a small girl that has received a present for the first time. The heat of the sun rays tickled her pale skin and she smiled, with heated cheeks, at the sensation, enjoying the vision and sensation of the sun over her. Something that she had not experimented, for who knows how long.

"Gorgeous, don't you think?", I smiled at her with a closed eye, trying to get a drop of water out of it and the lass went nuclear and fainted with hearts for eyes, and steam erupting from her head and body.

Oooookay, that was very curious, and I have the sensation that it was going to bite me in the ass later, but right now I have other worries. I left the lass behind and jumped to an upper floor of the building, I crashed through the window and rolled before taking out ice weapons, but I dispelled them in a second when I saw that there was only Elfman and Mirajane in there.

The siblings were over the broken and groaning bodies of a bunch of mages, in the corner of the room, Boze and a dark-skinned girl with a similar cap to what Makarov usually weared, but different color and with the symbol of the Phantom lord in it. With my sudden appearance, the battle between them had stopped to see what has crashed through the window.

"Shit", hissed Boze, widening his eyes under his glasses.

He has recognized me in a second, we both are survivors of the Iceberg war, but he was sent back way before the end of the war. The dark-skinned girl eyed me with curiosity and appreciation, but she recognized me as well; I hate my fame.

"Boze", I recognized the wizard. "Long time no see".

"Yeah", chuckled Boze swallowing, "sorry for all of this Iceman, all business, nothing personal, you know how my boss is".

"Boze?", asked the girl at Boze's side. "We can take all of them, the white-haired bimbo is useless, and the hunk with the animal arms is not at our level".

Those were some very offensive remarks, I frowned at them and Boze paled. Elfman did not lose a beat to shout about how those remarks were not manly at all, and Mirajane had a cold smile that I took note of asking her to teach me how to smile like that.

That smile could make sharks pause, and make them ponder very seriously about their life choices.

"Sue, shut up", hissed Boze to the girl. "Against the white-haired siblings, sure, against the Iceman?. Not even in a fucking joke". Explained Boze the reality to his companions. "Maybe with Gajeel around, but he is busy fighting the Fire Dragon Slayer and the horse size dogs of the Heartfilia lass".

Thanks for the info Boze. That eases some of my worries, and at the same time, explained where Skoll and Hati ended up. I felt magic being drained from me due to their battle with the Iron Dragon Slayer. Natsu alone was enough to beat Gajeel, but with two mythical beasts at his side?. Beasts that are more than capable of chewing iron for breakfast?. Then Gajeel was screwed.

"You have learned", I chuckled standing in front of the Strauss siblings so they will not see my glowing red eyes, a consequence of overusing Devil Slayer magic. Since Iceberg, my eyes became naturally red, but when I use Devil Slayer magic they tend to glow red. They are very threatening.

Around us, black frost and cold mist started to gather, dimming the lights of the room into a very dark, cold, and sinister state. It did wonders for any intimidation attempts against weak-willed enemies, Boze was not a weak-willed individual, but he was way out of his league and he knew it. Sue, the lass at his side, started to realize the landmine that she has stepped on, and stiffened at the ominous atmosphere that whirled around us.

"We surrender, Iceman", said Boze raising his hands and after a piercing glare to Sue, she did the same, albeit begrudgingly. "We do not want to be crippled, or die, at your hands".

"Good lad", I chucked and my voice was almost feral in quality. "In honor of our time together as comrades in arms, I will give you an advice, get as many as your friends as you can out of here, and pronto, the moment Porla and I will try to kill each other, anyone inside of this walking junk will be fodder".

"Thanks Iceman", sighed in relief Boze. "And for what my word is worth, I was against any of this shit. Porla has fucked it up, even if we won the Guild War, the Council is going to fry his ass for the Jupiter Cannon, the kidnapping of the Heartfilia lass, and several other clusterfucks".

"Porla was never the more stable of the Guild Masters", I shrugged, letting them go.

In truth, I liked Boze, he was one of the mages at Iceberg that I respected, and I knew that he was just a man trapped in a bad job. With any luck, they will found a better Guild to settle on after Phantom Lord is taken down, be it by my hand, or at the hands of the Council.

"Boze?", asked Sue, unable to believe what she was hearing, "are you out of your mind?". Sue was about to turn around, and she already had her spell half-formed, when a black spike that has surged under her feet almost pierced her chin, all the way to her brain.

Frozen by fear, Sue stopped in her tracks. Her spell vanished in a burst of light. Her eyes tracked the black frost from the base of the spike to my foot. I have summoned a spike from the ground, without even moving, and she knew that only because I stopped the attack, she was still alive.

"Idiot", sighed Boze. "Told ya". Boze grabbed Sue by the shoulder and pushed her towards the stairs that lead to a lower floor. "Good luck Iceman". He waved goodbye and I waved back, I had nothing against the lad after all.

"That was manly of you Gray", commented Elfman.

Just like me, the white-haired man was only carrying ragged pants and a broken jacket of some sort. However, his magic looked stronger than usual, something must have happened during his battle to rescue Mira.

"I take that the destruction of the [Abyss Break] and the sudden cracks all over this Machias are your doing?", smiled Mira with a teasing smile.

"Guilty as charged", I smiled back releasing my ice over all the place and making it disappear in a burst of magic particles. "I take that you have already defeated one of the, so-called, S-class of this Guild?", I questioned back.

"Yep, it was a manly battle", flexed Elfman with a complicated expression on his face, and Mira supporting him with a prideful smile. So I was right, something happened when I was not looking, later I will ask them to tell me what happened if they want to share it, of course.

Together, we went deep into the upper levels of the walking guild, the fucking Machias was massive, and even if part of me wanted one for myself; a walking house, how cool is that?; right now, the thing was being annoying. Now that we are together, any opposition that we found, from shades that tried to reinforce those on the outside, to a bunch of mages from the Guild that patrolled the insides, were easily dispatched and taken down.

I have been rampaging on the lower levels, but I can not see much of a difference between the idiots at the lower levels and the mages that we have found up here. They carried some interesting trinkets, and I kept some of them as loot. It was a Guild War after all.

"Ey, Mira", I suddenly realized something as we kicked the asses of another bunch of mages. The most interesting thing among them was a magician that was able to manifest spectral hands but lacked anything resembling combat experience.

"Yes Gray?", she asked. Mira was not a front-line fighter these days. The scars of the death of Lissana ran deep on her and Elfman, and she has not taken a job in quite some time. However, I was seeing her tossing her Satan Soul destructive bolts of darkness. Curious.

"I can guess why Gildarts is not around", I froze an idiot with a wave of my hand and punched him into a wall. "Seeing him around is the oddity, but how come Laxus and his peanut gallery are not around?".

Mira frowned in disgust, okay, I had the inkling that Laxus and Mira had a very complicated relationship, but judging from the expression of Mira, if she could, Laxus would have been neutered with a rusty spoon.

"That asshole laughed", almost spit Mira, tossing a particularly big dark bolt that sent their victims to a world of pain. "We spoke through Lacryma, and he laughed at the attacks, saying that it will cull the weak from the Guild, and that he will help if I stripped naked for him".

This time, it was me the one that summoned a massive ice fist and crashed through the insides of the guild, until It erupted on the other side of the building, carrying a dozen unfortunate thugs that were sent flying to the waters below. Good thing the walking building had come from the coast, the fall will be at the waters of the beach under the hill where Fairy Tail hall stood.

"Oh", was all that I said.

In the name of sanity, Laxus, my boy, what the fuck are you thinking?. Okay, we had our discrepancies, but giving the cold shoulder to the Guild like that was beyond stupidity. It was outright treachery. No mage on the Guild will ever trust you after that, well, maybe your loyal peanut gallery, but that will be it, and if by some miracle, Laxus become the Guild Master, Fairy Tail will lose ninety-nine percent of their members before serving an asshole like Laxus.

Also, asking Mira to strip?.

That is wrong on a lot of levels. Lacryma visual foreplay was something that I have heard of; side note, see if Erza is open to it, it will be awesome; but this was not it, this was pure blackmail. Blackmailing Mira, the elder sister of half the Guild, and one of the most beloved wizards, in and out of the Guild. Mind you, that I had my suspicions that Mira and Laxus still hold a candle for each other, however, after this?. Laxus will need to triple check any drink that he takes on the Guild for poisoning.

Laxus has crossed way too many lines lately, and only my worries about Makarov prevented me from having a fist-talk with Laxus about when to be an asshole and when not to be an asshole. But after this?. Kiddy gloves are off.

All my thoughts stopped to an alt when I heard the scream of Erza, when I listened to the pained scream of Erza. I don't even remember what I did, but before I know it, I was sprinting through the insides of the Guild, crushing walls, people, I didn't care, and after summoning Icebreaker to my hand, I tossed the hammer directly at the surprised face of Porla.

Erza was floating in the air, with her black armor on, the one that granted mobility and flying capabilities, trapped in some kind of magical telekinetic grip that Porla had conjured. When my hammer punched his stupid face into a wall, his concentration failed, and Erza was free of the magical grip. She recovered quickly and landed on the floor, kneeling and panting from the battle that she fought. I was at her side in a blink, helping her to get up.

"Gray?", she asked, blinking a pair of times to focus her sight.

"The one and only, my love", I smiled, helping her stand.

"What are you doing here?", she frowned at me, oh, by Pandora, I love when she gets all strict and then I disable her with teasing, tenderness, and intimacy. Still, that's for another moment.

"Skoll and Hati told me everything, and Mystogun recovered Makarov's magic. I joined the battle as soon as I could", I answered in a second, I know full well how Erza tended to headbutt anyone that was not fast enough with their answers.

"Is the Guild Master okay?", Erza was worried about the man that was practically her Grandfather, and seeing him beaten and sick hurt her a lot. Erza was not the only one, when I saw the frail form of the old man, I almost went berserk.

"Makarov is a tough little bugger", I smiled with all the confidence that I could muster. "With Mystogun recovering his magic so quickly, and under Porlyusica care, he will recover in no time". I do hope it was the case.

Mira and Elfman joined us, Elfman carried Erza as I stepped in front of them and raised a black wall to block a series of purple projectiles that would have skewered us. Porla, idiotic asshole that he is, was a powerful mage worthy of the title of Wizard Saint. In terms of power, Porla would be several steps down Makarov, who has already swept the floor with the idiot when Porla stepped out of the line during one of the meetings that the Guild Masters of Fiore had regularly.

"Get out of here", the ink substance of the Devil Slayer expanded and covered my sides, covering my Guild mark, turning them from blue to white. Even with the corruption and dark magic of the Devil Slayer over me, my mark was visible and clear.

"No, not again", protested Erza, but she was bruised and exhausted.

Tanking the cannon shot that almost obliterated Magnolia and our Guild has taken a toll on her, and not even five minutes later, she invaded the enemy Guild, cleave a path to the top floor; and if the shit stain on the side is another of the Element-4; defeating an S-class, and even facing the Guild master of Phantom Lord, one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

I am in love. Who would not be?. Erza is truly the best girlfriend ever.

"Elfman, Mira, knock her out if it's needed, but please, move out", I commanded gesturing my ice to become a rain of swords that attacked Porla.

The man tried to blast them in one go, as if it was minor magic, but when the swords managed to nick his arms and torso, he lost his smugness and used a bigger explosion magic. I did not recognize what kind of magic did he used. It was a purple explosion of sorts. Quickly, Porla sent dozens of shades at us, his favored magic in fact, and I clapped my hands, summoning two massive claws that crushed the shades between them.

"Gray…", Erza used her sword and Mira's shoulders to stand. I understood that she wanted us to run out of here. Porla was out of our league. Or that what's she believed, Erza, like the rest of the Guild, did not know what kind of monster I truly was. Even if I have told her that I will never hide anything from her, I have not yet told everything that I could do.

Now that I though about it, Erza did not know that I was a God Slayer as well, ops.

With a grunt, I raised a massive black wall that shot spikes at Porla and his shades, that were forced to defend from the barrage. I let go of a lot of steam, the sides of my body was already covered by the ink-like substance of the Devil Slayer, but my right side was freezing the air around me, instilling the divine powers of the God Slayers on the surroundings.

I quickly turned around, covered the distance between Erza and me, and kissed her on the lips. Elfman blushed and turned his face around, Mira blushed and giggled but stared at our kiss very intensely, and Erza tried to grab me and never go, but she was weakened and battered by the battles that she had endured so far.

"Go", I let her sweet lips go, much to my disappointment, but the wall will not last long against Porla. "I will return to you, always". I promised Erza.

There was no time for more goodbyes before a strange ray of white energy pierced the wall. I mutated my Devil arm into a black ice claw that caught the ray before it pierced Erza or me. The bloody thing has pierced my ice, my flesh, and finally collapse at my bones. That hurt, that hurt a fucking lot.

"Go!", I shouted at them before I turned around and unleashed my spell.

"[Ice Devil Slayer Rage]!", I opened my mouth and a veritable rock shattering blizzard surged, crashing through my wall, destroy lots of shades, and forced Porla to raise his magical shield before he was turned into frozen chunks.

The spell passed over the shades, destroying them, and pushed Porla and his shield several meters back, crashing through the walls behind him, and several more walls beyond that, before it finally reached the outside, tossing ice, corpses, and wreckage to the waters below.

"Now that I have your attention...", I smiled with a fanged smile, exhaling clouds of cold breath. Slowly, my black permafrost was turning the place into a frozen nightmare of black ice and coldness. When my powers worked together, I became an apex monster.

"The Iceman", spitted Porla to the side, trying to dismiss the cracked state of his magical shield as if it was not a big thing. But we both know that his arrogance has been swept at the same time as his shades. "Your fame seems to have an iota of truth".

"Aye, sure, try to delude yourself more", I cut short, calling forth the second of the cards that I was going to use against him.

My hammer was already performing a little trick on the outside, if Porla looked at his back, Porla would have seen my hammer circling and creating a tornado of black snow surrounding the walking Guild. Just in case, Porla ended up being more than I can chew, I had planned a massive strike that will fuck the entire machias and Porla, for good.

My comment did not sit well with him, and frowning, Porla summoned several magical circles. Dozens of magical projectiles went after me, performing impossible curves and feints to bypass my shields, and the black ice creations that blocked the rays. The homing rays were dangerous, but my defensive creations blocked them without problems.

My clawed arm was severely hurt and if I had not frozen the hole, my blood would have been falling to the floor in quite the amount. Whatever the magic of Porla has, it has penetrated my black ice, that was the reason why my creations were lesser than the hordes than I toss at D-listers. Fewer creations mean bigger strength and control over them. One of the lessons of Ur.

In nine months, I will be seeing her again, and was another mark on the "Reasons why I am going to win" column.

Taking the stance of [Ice Make], I raised a gigantic bear trap, trying to reduce everything on its maw to mulch. Porla teleported himself out of the maw and commit the grave mistake of teleport at my back, trying to stab me with a steel dagger than carried some kind of poison.

I crouched, and the stab passed over my head, I grabbed his arm, and before Porla could recover, I slammed him to the ground with a shoulder throw. Training with Miki had its advantages after all, I will miss my "rewards" after our spars, but I was a taken man now and I would never betray Erza in any way, shape, or form.

Twirling around, I tried to stab his head with my devil claw, but Porla was tougher than I thought, and he recovered before I could stab him. From the floor, he pointed two fingers at me, and only thanks to my instincts, I summoned an ice shield in time. The ray pierced my shoulder, instead of my head, but in order to wound me, Porla has delayed his teleportation too much and my claw ripped half of the left side of his face.

Porla reappeared a dozen meters ahead, screeching in pain, with half of his face bleeding profusely, and with lots of his teeth marked with scratches. Pity, a bit more, and I would have pierced through his mouth and rip through the back of his head and his spine. My shield was the only thing that had blocked the ray before it pierced my face as well, and instead, it had pierced my shoulder.

What kind of magic was Porla using?. Such penetration was not normal, it had bypassed divine ice, true, a bit of a rushed shield, but that was no excuse to dismiss the sturdiness of my creations. Porla had some interesting magical tricks at his beck and call.

Rage and adrenaline empower Porla now, a common mistake, the moment that he lost control of his surroundings, he lost. Summoning an army of shades, all of them carrying some sickly looking purple energy weapons, Porla sent a volley of purple spikes of energy at me, screaming for my demise at the top of his lungs.

I simply sat on the ice throne that had surged at my back.

Throne of Ice was the second artifact that I inherited from Yimir, and up until now, I have never used it. Mostly because of the conditions that are needed to summon the powerful artifact and for the fact that it was a MWMD. Once I sat on the throne, the world belonged to me, the more powerful I was, the stronger will be my domain, and its size.

Porla eyes widened to comical proportions; and his jaw meet his new friend, the floor; when his magic entered into the range of my throne and it just froze.

The shades became frozen statues, perfectly still and floating in the cold air, even their weapons became ice, the purple spikes, still connected to Porla, stood perfectly still in the air, from their surface, small snowflakes of magical remnants fall to the ground. Absolute silence filled the space where Porla and I have been fighting, only the howl of the wind through the holes in the building, and the cracks of the ice creeping all over the place broke the silence.

"How?!", howled Porla that did not believe what he was seeing. "What have you done?".

I did not respond, once my consciousness was on Throne of Ice, I became severely detached from the rest of the world. I was the king of my domains, and Porla was just a very annoying intruder that has wounded those that I care about.

I raised my claw and the magic of Porla mutated, fusing into a massive black ice Hydra that jumped at Porla. Porla reacted in a second and blasted the hydra with some of his purple explosions, jumping in small lights all over the place, destroying the hydra, and commanding more and more of his shades to attack me.

The shades froze as soon as they entered into the reach of my throne, become ice chunks, and fused with the hydra, reinforcing it and making all the efforts of Porla useless. Porla cursed and changed of strategy, floating over the Hydra, he created a massive magical circle over our heads and make it rain thousands of purple spikes.

The hydra was blasted into smithereens, but from the throne, a black mist emanated and formed an umbrella over my head. The purple spikes fall into the black mist, froze, and become more reinforcements for my defenses. Porla teleported back to the floor and pointing his finger at me, shot one of his strange piercing rays directly at me.

Snapping the fingers of my claw, the black mist that has protected me jumped at the strange ray and intercepted it. The ray destroyed the mist, but the ray became a long line of ice that almost froze Porla's extended fingers. Porla took something out of his jacket, a cube of some sorts, from the cube, dozens of magical circles erupted and created a maelstrom of different magics.

A tornado of acid, electricity, and fire surged from the circles and went flying at me. Grunting, I clapped my hands together and a black cube of Ice entrapped the tornado. I had to clench my teeth and overwhelm the magical destruction capabilities of the tornado with my ice. Making my black ice, sturdier than the tornado.

Then Porla committed his last mistake, believing that I will be distracted by the effort; actually, it was a good supposition; but his arrogance in believing that he had me finally cornered worked against him. Porla blinked to my side, aiming his poisoned dagger to my neck. Porla never had the chance to even start the stab. The moment he appeared, his eyes widened and in less than a blink, he blinked back to the edge of my domain, about nineteen meters from my throne.

Putting a lot of effort and magic, I needed almost a minute to finally contain the devastating combined spell; I wanted to ask Porla where the heck had he found such a powerful weapon; into a box of black ice. Stabbing the palm of my hand with the nails of my claw, I let my blood run down my arm and onto the surface of the compacted cube of ice that I had created. Quickly chanting a spell, runes manifested on the surface of the black frozen box, and with a final glow, the runes settled, and I found myself with the equivalent of a magical nuke in my hands.

Wow, I am good or what.

Panting by the effort and the magical drain of the runes, I leaned on the throne and put the black box inside of my [Re-Equip], just to be sure. I was not the only one recovering from the ordeal, Porla was in very bad shape, because he has bite hook, line, and sinker for the more obvious trap of the throne.

The moment where I sat on the throne, I did not move, that made Porla think that I was stuck there. That I can not move from the throne, so he teleported at my side and tried to stab me, taking advantage of my lack of mobility. It was not a bad supposition, indeed, I am technically bound to the throne, but I can move inside of the domain of the throne just fine.

The problem, and it was something that Porla should have realized the moment that his magic became ice, was that all of my domain was at below zero temperatures. Porla has essentially teleported himself in the middle of a zone that was at a temperature that would freeze any living organism into statues in less than three seconds.

Porla teleported, his brain registered the sensation of dying and teleported back. The bastard was barely hanging at the other side of the room, with his body covered in frost burns and the part of his face that I have wounded before, showing the purple and black coloration of frozen necrosis. Breathing was a chore for the man, exhaling clouds of mist, with his lungs half-filled in frozen mucus and small pieces of frozen blood from the internal hemorrhages that were defrosting right now.

The checkmate caught him completely off guard.

At the very beginning of the battle, I had tossed Icebreaker to his face, sending him flying to a wall and possibly sending several teeth flying, but my hammer did not came back, and instead, has been all this time circling the entire walking guild. The velocity and the air displaced by the artifact created a tornado that sucks all the heat all around. Ice formed in the absence of heat, ice that permeated the atmosphere inside of the tornado, and that I can absorb with each inhalation of air.

Breathing restored my magical power, something that was not the case for Porla, but all that preparations had another, more direct and straightforward, application, and that was accumulated inertia and kinetic power to fall upon my enemy like the wrath of god.

Distracted like Porla was, he did not see the incoming missile that entered from the hole above us; created with the rain of purple spikes and the tornado inside the icebox now; in fact, Porla did not felt the impact of the hammer, it was so fast and carried so much momentum and power that Porla died before he could even realize that he has been hit.

A painless death. Pity, I wanted the bastard to suffer, but the minute that I have needed for containing the tornado was also the time that Porla passed trying to recover from almost dying by freezing, that should be enough.

Icebreaker hit the top of the head of Porla, buried the head into his torso and due to the pressure, Porla exploded in a gruesome manner. His organs, bones, flesh, and internal liquids were sent all over the place after the force of the impact surpassed the durability of his body.

I ended up covered in the blood and minced chunks of the remnants of Porla's corpse.

The hammer continued down and went through all the floors of the Machias, destroying everything on his path before exiting again from the bottoms of the Machias, provoking the collapse of the structure. Thanks to my throne, I had frozen and created enough ice to stood where I was. The rest of the building that was not so anchored, collapsed under the amount of damage that the battle has inflicted on it, and the proud walking guild of Phantom Lord fell to the sea below, cleaved in two.

A dark sensation ran through my body, my smile become predatory as I recognized the origin of such sensation, who would have thought, that piece of darkness that I believed exterminated was absorbed by the Devil Slayer magic inside of me. I was not very human to begin with, so I was not all that entirely surprised. Still, it was a pretty nice reward for defeating a Ten Wizard Saint.

The light of the sun illuminated the ice throne, and the ice pillars that supported my position on the wreckage, and I enjoyed the warmth of the sun over me. Even if I was covered head to toe in chunks of minced flesh and blood, I leaned on the throne and enjoyed the rush that came with the victory.

Fairy Tail won, like I always knew we will.