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Chapter 16

Merrion

"My name is Merrion. I was born into a family where everyone were Wizards but me. I tried to learn magic but I just... couldn't do it. I was determined to make them proud in a different way - if I couldn't learn magic, I'd have to find some other way of being important. I started studying volcanology and got a degree in it. This volcano in particular caught my attention with its frequent outbursts of lava, omnipresent column of ash and the fact that none of it could be predicted. I started researching the volcano itself along with a number of people that I'd studied with. We came for two nights every month and after a while, started noticing patterns in the eruptions.
"Once, we turned up, stayed for a few hours and then the volcano erupted. We'd been preparing for this moment for ages so none of us were injured in the process. We continued working and started to prepare a room at the back for all our most important work. It was totally lava proof so nothing could get in. We'd nearly finished when one of my friends started shouting about a claw and a monster. There wasn't anything there so naturally, we thought him insane. He left the study shortly after.
"The volcano erupted many times after that when we were around and each time, someone said they saw some kind of monster in the lava, shortly after all leaving the course. After a while, we started to worry about it, brought on new members and carried on working. It was only when the lava was clearing one day that we all saw the demon. We hid in the back room and when we came back out again, the glass was smashed. We weren't worried, the glass was strengthened and healed itself when touched by the lava so left it.
"This demon kept on coming back, various people left but I stayed. One day, I was already in the back room searching for some files. I heard a crash, a scream and I ran to the door but it had closed and locked. After a while, trying to open it, it gave way. The glass was smashed again but there wasn't anyone else there. The only signs that there had ever been anyone around was a number of small drops of blood, leading me to believe that my friends had been murdered.
"The volcano was so big, I assumed that the killer had been living under our noses and had gotten around without our seeing. I was scared so sent out a notice to all the big guilds. However, I'm not a great believer in my own theories and switched my studies from the volcano to the demon, the reason it's always erupting and sending up ash clouds. I stayed where I was in the volcano, not going outside of our main eating room for fear of bumping into the killer myself. One of the people working with me had put a spell on the fridge so it was always stocked up with food so I never got hungry.
"You kill the demon, you kill the volcano: that's what I learnt. All the time, I thought there was only one of them.
"I'd been living by myself for so long, absorbed in my studies that I'd forgotten that human civilisation lay just outside. I was making diner for myself, the volcano erupting at the same time when I heard footsteps, lots of them, and voices. I panicked and ran into the back room, locking the door as I went. I heard you lot come in, stay around for a bit and then the sounds of a fight going on. When you'd obviously gone, I came out to find everyone who'd vanished years before in the room, dead.
"That was when I started to believe in my theory of a killer in the volcano. I swore that if you ever came back here, I'd kill you myself. I was making plans and sounding like a creepy psychopath when you came back into the room. I came out and threw the knife because... well because I believed in my theory.
"When you told me you were wizards yourselves from Fairy Tail, I remembered the notice I'd sent out when my friends died. You saying that made me realise that it was the demon who killed my friends, torturing their souls, something I found out in my research, and you set them free from that agony. Now you've saved their souls, you can get rid of the demon once and for all and for that, I'm truly grateful.
"In my studies, I found out that the demon is weak near the neck. It's magic too, all demons are, but this one, when it kills people, can contain their souls into another object, constantly torturing them for a certain amount of time before they wither away. When you killed the first one, you must've hit it where it's weak.
"But enough of that. You saved my friends. I thank you. And now, you need to avenge their deaths by killing the last demon."