Fairy Tail - Eyes of Ice

Chapter 11 - Clover Town Pt. 1

Kai Hope woke on in a cold sweat on the day he was to meet the devil. He gingerly touched his cheeks and slicked back his white hair. Iggy slept atop her little tower in the corner of the room. He longed for Erza to lay next to him but she wasn't there, instead on her way to Magnolia after another quest.

Acnologia's roar loomed in the back of his mind. Jellal's magic flashed. Jose's black eyes haunted him, starting at him agape with despair as all that power had been flushed out in an instant from Fairy Law.

Kai held his hand out and the sword came flying across the room into it. Ikaruga was the only true threat he'd defeated recently. Ikaruga.

He didn't dare shut his eyes but didn't have to for the magnificent black-winged form of Acnologia to take hold in his mind's eye. The nightmare lived so long as Acnologia still flew among the skies. Kai wondered if the dragon sought out the boy, maybe looking to take him out and draw Kairi out of whatever hiding she was doing. Kai doubted even Master Makarov would be able to hold off Acnologia if the beast came to Fairy Tail.

Kai creaked his window open and then clambered up to the top of his building, watching the Magnolia sunrise. The town woke with him, as people milled about and beasts of burden pulled carts along with all of their designated goods in tow. Doors and windows opened all over the town.

The sky turned from a dark color to a magnificent blue as the sun pushed away the darkness and the clouds above to reveal a wonderful canvas overhead. Kai sat on the roof and let the warmth of the sun wash over him.

The question of Kairi's location once more consumed him, but a far more pressing one started to take its place: what the hell was Dragon Force? What was that power that Natsu discovered by eating lacrima on the Tower of Heaven?

And why hadn't Kai ever heard about it before?

Kai closed his hand around a small ball of ice he absentmindedly created and let the bits of it fall with a dazzling twinkle into the breeze.

The bright blue sky further lit up, dredging up memories Kai always wanted to relive but never had the heart to. Memories of those days so long off in Iceberg, training in the open tundra with Kairi. The sky opened for them as the sun bled its light upon them but it never gave any reprieve to Kai of the bitter cold that came day in and day out, regardless of season.

"Kai?" Iggy's little voice popped out from the window below and the red cat flew up to meet him. She perched on the roof next to him.

"Hope I didn't wake you."

Iggy shrugged. "No biggie. Thinking about Acnologia again?"

Kai leered toward the rest of Magnolia but sighed and just nodded. "Always, Iggy. Always."

"But it's not just that this time, is it? I thought you were good with the Tower of Heaven."

"I am." Kai grasped his forearm. "What happened at the Tower is done. That nightmare is at last at an end, but what happened at the tower...What Natsu found. That Dragon Force."

"Are you scared of it?"

"No. But I need it if I want to defeat Acnologia."

"Which has you thinking about Acnologia, which put you on the roof..."

Kai nodded. "Natsu's power skyrocketed when he got that power. Imagine what I could do in Dragon Force if I used my Takeover spell..."

"You'd probably turn into a dragon!" Iggy stood and waddled over to Kai. "You can't even control yourself without a major power boost. You'd go absolutely nuts and probably just destroyed everything in your path."