𝙏𝙃𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 // 𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙭 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙

The person on the other end turned out to be Erza, who explained everything to Natsu.

"Infiltration plan?" he questioned, looking up at Gray.

"Right. You don't think I'd join a band of scum like this for real, do you?" he put his hands on his hips, "but we ain't got time for that now. Let's move, and we'll explain things on the way."

// Small Time Skip //

You rode on some strange, leopard-printed creature behind Gray, arms around his waist. He had somehow put Erza on a speaker option on his device, so we could all hear her speak.

"I started investigating the Black Magic Cult Avatar half a year ago, since it had a connection to Zeref. It was at the request of Jellal's group," she explained, "and just as my progress was stagnating, I happened to bump into Gray."

"That lacrima's amazing!" Happy said.
"It's a pocket-sized communications lacrima," Gray replied, before continuing to explain alongside Erza, "I was seeing Porlyusica about the strange on my body. As you saw, I can control them myself now."

"And as we discussed our respective situations..." Erza said, "we hit upon the idea of this mission."

"Yeah, well, Erza was really the one behind it, but it was also a good opportunity for me to find the book of E.N.D., so I could carry out my dad's last request — he wanted it destroyed," Gray explained.

"But... you didn't even tell Juvia!" you said, "that was pretty harsh!"

Gray stayed silent, looking down.

"It was at my request," Erza answered for him, "I knew that we would have a greater chance at succeeding if we limited the number of people who knew about the mission. Besides, having this kind of knowledge would not protect you."

"So it was for Juvia's sake, too..." Happy said to himself, "but still..."

"I regret what Juvia must have gone through," the Requip mage sighed, "I did not foresee the extended length of this mission — our goal changed partway through. At first, it was just the check out the cult's inner workings... but then... we came across Operation Purify. It was Avatar's plan to massacre an entire town, as a way to call Zeref to them. They somehow got it in their heads that Zeref is drawn to death, and that get enough of it in one place is the key."

"So we gotta stop them, no matter what it takes!" Gray shouted, whilst Lucy just made a noise of shock.

"You shoulda just crushed the lot of 'em! You and Erza coulda done that easy!" you said.

"That wasn't possible," the Ice Devil Slayer sighed, "Avatar turned out to be a much bigger organisation than we ever predicted. That group I infiltrated was just one branch. Not even they know where the cult's headquarters or the other branches are."

"A single misstep could have eliminated any chance we had of stopping Operation Purify. Therefore, we had little choice but to await this day," Erza said.

"Yeah, it's our best bet, since all the branches will be meeting together. We'll crush it all — along with Operation Purify while we're at it!" Gray added determinedly.

You, for a brief minute, stared at the back of his neck and wondered how such a determined soul could be the one who was supposed to kill Frosch. Maybe it was an accident?