Dark and Shock - Fraxus

Chapter 11

The next day it was raining. Not a light smattering but not a pouring amount either. Instead, it was a medium drizzle, and it was quickly proving itself to be uncomfortable, making it's way under their clothes and sending rivets of cold water down their backs.

"Yeesh it's cold." Lucy shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Natsu reacted to this by trying to summon up a small ball of fire for his mate, before it got extinguished by the rain.

"Dumbass." Gray snorted.

Natsu glared at him. "You wanna fight, Ice Brain?"

"Sure, Ash Stick."

"Shut up both of you." Erza snapped, clearly not in the mood for their antics. The two boys quickly shut their mouths, sending each other occasional glares but otherwise staying silent. Erza was scary like that.

"Laxus, please stop sending off sparks." Evergreen said, shying away from the lightning dragon slayer when he yet again emitted sparks, making the water on him hiss and sizzle with electric charge.

"Can't help it. It's the weather. Think there's gonna be a storm soon." The blonde grunted, looking at the clouds that were amassing together in a large dark cloud.

Natsu sniffed the air. "Yeah, I smell a storm."

Freed frowned. "That could be quite worrisome. But there's nothing we can do. We will just have to pursue onwards and hope we make it to some shelter before it finally hits."

"Alright, we better get chopping. Natsu, Gray, if you two keep arguing or even send looks, I will personally make sure you never say the light of day again." The murderous look Erza sent was positively chilling, and the two collectively gulped.

"Y-yes Miss Erza." Natsu stuttered.

Lucy snickered softly from beside Freed. "This is the only way you'll ever get the pair of them to shut up."

"Oh?" Freed said lightly, sending Lucy and inquisitive glance.

"Let's not get distracted yeah?" Grey said nervously, attempting to divert the conversation. "Like what exactly is this mission?"

"We have to dispatch a couple of bandits killing villagers and plundering from them." Evergreen explained, wrapping her jacket tighter around herself.

"This should be easy!" Natsu exclaimed, cracking his knuckles. Unlike the rest, with the exception of Laxus and Grey, he wasn't shivering or feeling the cold at all.

"Do I need to tell you to be quiet again? You are giving me headache. If you don't shut that blabbering mouth of yours I will personally nail it shut." Erza said, sending daggers at the pink haired mage.

The red head was clearly feeling the loss of her strawberry shortcake that had ended up on the floor.

Needless to say, no one was brave enough to utter another word for the entire journey to the small village.

However, when they arrived, they found the entire village deserted. The houses were entirely desolate, and looked like there had been no inhabitants for at least a few days. Some of the houses had a thin layer of dust blanketing the surfaces, while others had mould, half finished food still on the table.

"It's so strange... there's no signs of struggle or any blood anywhere." Lucy said, looking nervously around. "But it also doesn't look like they had planned to leave. There's still travel essentials and supplies present in most houses."

Freed assessed the situation grimly. He exchanged looks with Erza, and a wave of understanding passed between them.

"Let's go to the portal."

***

The question of what happened to the villagers was soon answered when the small group arrived at the entrance of the portal.

Piles of decaying flesh lay outside the entrance in varying states.

Every single corpse looked to have been killed in a painful and gruesome way, their faces frozen in extreme pain and terror.

On their bodies were spiralling patterns of magic, alongside large presences of dark, evil magic.

"How horrible." Lucy whispered, staring with horror at the dead villagers. There were at least a dozen children laying amongst the decaying corpses, flies circling by the masses around the bodies.

"However sad it is, we do not have time to bury them." Freed said, a stinging feeling permeating his eyes and body. "The demon may still be here."

Immediately the group tensed, suddenly hyperaware of their surroundings.

"Come, let's head in." Erza said, leading the way closer towards the portal. The others followed nervously behind her, Bickslow bringing up the rear.

The closer the group approached the glowing portal, the more the group felt a strong sense of unease, growing more with every step they took.

"Maybe we should-"

As soon as Evergreen uttered the words a blast of magic threw them outwards, slamming them against the wall.

"W-what?" Lucy gasped, celestial key in hand.

Through the settling dust, the group could spot a slowly approaching figure. A tall, lanky man with long, flowing silver hair and red piercing eyes. In his was a small ball of magic.

He grinned evilly. "Well, I certainly did not expect more guests today! Especially powerful mages like yourselves. You'll be wonderful to devour."

"Hah! Like you would ever get the chance," Natsu exclaimed, a ball of fire in his hands. However, before he could act further, the fire was sucked from his hands.

Natsu stared down at his hand in horror.

"Hahahaha, it won't be as easy as you thought! After all, I absorb magic."

Lucy left out a gasp. If the demon absorbed magic, how were they supposed to defeat it?

"Then we'll have to fight you without magic!" Erza cried, drawing her sword.

"Well, I admire your determination," the demon said, sending a powerful blast of magic at group, causing them to scatter.

The blast exploded, ten times more powerful than than the first one that had alerted the group to the demon.

"This is bad news." Erza said grimly, glancing at the manic figure.

"Heh. It" about time to show him a true fight," Grey said, gearing up his demon magic.

"Oh? I sense demon magic..."

"Yeah, and it's about to punch you in the face!"

The blast of ice sent from Grey slammed into the space the demon had been seconds before.

"Nice try. But I'm not talking about you." The demon said, and for the first time, the group could see a hint of fear behind his eyes.

"If it's not me, then who..."

The group instinctively looked at Laxus.

"Freed."

Laxus, looked to his left, where he expected the green haired male to be. But he was met with an empty space.

"Now that I think about it... where is Freed?"

They all looked at each other in horror as they realised that ever since the demon in front of them had appeared, they hadn't seen Freed.

Freed was missing.