Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 87 - Gray vs Deliora

Ice still coated the former battlefield. Mounds of it grew in random spaces. Thicker patches held the shapes and weapons that Gray and Lyon had cast about, while the thinner areas were already melting from the couple of days that they'd been left out.

Gray removed his hands from his coat pocket. The breeze that'd ushered him along continued but joined a crosswind from the hills that propped up around him. His necklace dangled in the wind, frigid.

He stopped well short of where they'd done their fighting. There was a body propped against a boulder, one that appeared restful, yet at the same time, utterly destroyed. Blood ran down the man's nose and from his eyes, his hands that created the most magical and spectacular shapes were broken. His feet were twisted out of place.

Gray knelt and reached a hesitant hand out. He grasped Lyon's shoulder. He couldn't even look the guy in the eye.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Nothing, of course. He wished he could clean up Lyon and just bring him back, have him buried in his home, maybe at the Lamia Scale guild hall if that was still standing.

No, that wasn't what he really wished.

What he really wished was that Lyon would shudder, shake off the fatigue, and wake up. He would open his big mouth and bicker with Gray about how he held off the enemy better than Gray ever could, how he'd actually surpassed Ur for real this time, and how he'd win over Juvia's heart instead of Gray. He wished Ultear were there. Ur. He wished the family he had was with him.

But it was...it was better that Gray was alone. Sure, if he had others with him, they could take Lyon back.

"Ice-Make," Gray muttered, "Coffin."

It appeared at once between Gray and Lyon. Gray stooped to pick up Lyon, then stopped.

Buried in Gray's magic? Lyon would never allow that.

The wind stopped. Gray took a glance around. He nevertheless put Lyon in.

"Just for a second, pal," Gray said. "Let me finish what you started here."

He grasped his shirt and tore it free, letting his necklace dangle loose in the air until it tapped his cold breast. He rose to his full height, rising against the army of undead that appeared seemingly out of the blue.

Leading them in the vanguard was Deliora, the towering titan. Flanking them was that guy Silver.

Gray's father.

And at the rear, Gray could see from the misty black aura, was the necromancer, Keyes.

"If we're gonna do this," Gray called over the guttural mutterings of the undead, "I want Lyon kept out of this. Hear that, necromancer?"

There wasn't a response at first. Gray locked eyes with Deliora. The demon loomed over the rest of the army, capable of crushing much of it with just a few steps.

"Understand," Keyes's voice said through the wind, "that you will soon join this army of the undead. Same as your friend. Same as all the rest of your wizard family."

"Ain't gonna happen," Gray said.

"Even your great mentor could not thwart this demon," Keyes said. "You are far inferior to her, the legendary Ur, queen of the snowy mountains, ice lord of Isvan."

Gray placed his fist in the palm of his hand, bracing himself.

"So be it," Keyes said. "Silver. Kill your—"

"The boy doesn't want anything to do with me right now," Silver said. "He's got something to get off his chest before he and I can chat. Send the big guy. I want to see what my son is capable of."