FairyTail: Etherious Blood [Book 1/2]

Chapter Thirty-Six: Awakening

     (A/N): This chapter is dedicated to Dumamoja ! Thank you so much for letting me use your spell for this and readers please be sure to check out her awesome book "Memories of the Past, Visions for the Future" for E.N.D. Thanks once again and please enjoy!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

--- Time Skip, a few hours ---

     The guilds began their charge today. Team Natsu (Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Erza, and Guildarts) went with Team Saber (Sting, Rogue, Manerva, Rufus, and Orga) and Crime Sorciere (including Kinana). The other guilds split up a while ago and so far the three of our main teams are one hour or more in the lead of the other guilds. The faster the better. Lucy felt anxious about going after Natsu, her hopes were swelling up in her chest with eager to find him. He had saved her more times than she could possibly count, not only her but everyone else here for the matter. Natsu was practically the thing that kept Fairy Tail together, if not for him so many people would have died a long time ago.

     The skies were a scarlet color from the sunset and in the distance we could vividly make out the image of DarkEmber. Zaura and the other exceeds traveling with them flew over head. She made a sudden hissing noise that made everyone freeze dead in their tracks and look up at her.

    "What is it, Zaura?" Gray demanded.

    "I can hear them. I can smell them..." Zaura said quietly, her voice raised. "Demons have spotted us! I can sense them approaching!"

    "Yeah no kidding..." Sting murmured, his nose twitching. "I can smell them alright..."

    "At least Zeref's demons had the decency to bathe!" Rogue added, taking a deep whiff of the air and covering his nose with a greenish tinge on his face, eyes wide as if trying to not puke. "Just smelling them makes me feel like jumping on a train... You know what I mean..."

     Sting nodded and his face scrunched up in disgust too.

    "Well you two will just have to grin and bear it," Erza said coldly. "Our companions are held hostage in that facility and if we want any means of returning them home then we will have to take the odds. Either being painful or disturbing."

    "Save your yammering for when we get flame-brain back with us as well as the other mages," Gray interrupted, eyeing all of them except Erza who glared at him with a dark aura. "Now shut up and let's go!"

     They kept walking, and as they did they noticed that the forests that should have been there were barren and dead. Not a single glimpse of at least an insect could be seen.

    "What happened here?" Kinana asked. "Everything's dead.."

    "Don't forget that this Arbis lady is supposed to have the curse of contradiction too, Kinana. Of course she would kill off anything in her path," Cobra replied.

    "When will she learn that the power of love triumphs even the darkest of curses, including death!" Richard exclaimed.

    "If you mean by 'triumph' to be 'fueling' then go on ahead and keep thinking that..." Serano sighed with a sweat drop. Richard glared almost literal daggers at her.

     They continued on in silence until the strangled gargles and spurts of disgust from the twin dragons became constant. Suddenly they were surrounded, the dead forests finally teeming with life. The demons had arrived. In the lead was Dormain the Slayer himself. He walked up to them with a smirk plastered on his face, his eyes narrowed and glaring daggers at the mages. Taking them all in as if surveying a disgusting painting.