Fairy Tail - The World of Mages -

Chapter 15 - Phantom Arc

“… Oh, you don’t know yet. I’m Ice… in human form.” He said, smiling, which made most of the girls there blush a little. He was quite good-looking but he don't like to be in human form too often. He preferred as wolf... smaller, quicker and... easier to walk. Nobody could understand why, even Happy.

“EHHHH?!?!”

“… He’s half-demon.” Vyera explained while trying to forget her anger over the guild destruction. But the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. To avoid venting her anger on others later, she excused herself to go back.

“Vye-chan! Convince Master to get revenge on our guild!!!” some of them complained since she didn’t comment a single thing on this matter.

“… Jii-chan said its okay. Just leave it. It’s not a big problem anyway.” She replied without looking at them and just headed towards the exit despite unsatisfied complains from others because of her nonchalant attitude.

“I didn't know Vyera was this kind of person. She kinda pissed me off..." Lucy grumbled. Luckily, there were a lot more that understood her better and backed her up even though she was not there, “You are lucky she didn’t lose her control… If she did, this place will be even worse than the 1st floor…” Gray explained while enjoying his cold beer.

“… What do you mean?” Lucy asked.

“You might want to go and see it yourself.” Erza pointed up, indicating where Vyera should be at. Lucy and several others that complained about her went to the first floor and went outside to see what happened. They were curious on what Erza and Gray meant. While Gray, Natsu, Erza, Loke, Jii-chan, Cana, Macao and few others that knew Vyera since she was young stayed on the basement drinking to release their anger on this matter.

Lucy's gang found Vyera just outside the guild, still staring at the wrecked guild, even though it was raining quite heavily now. Then she punched the ground hard, which created quite a crack on it, even leaving her fist print. Sometimes she could had the strength of a monster when she was angry due to the release of the magic power that she didn't try to control.

“Damn Phantom… There’ll be no next time…” She said angrily and left the guild to go home.

Lucy and the gang who saw that decided to retreat back to the basement, “… She’s angry after all… Angrier than anyone of us here…”

“Now you get it. Better leave her alone for a while… Only a few persons here can get close to her when she’s angry…” Erza said while sipping her beer.

Vyera was already at her home, finished bathing and lie down on her bed. When bathing, she could feel the numbness on her left arm. What made it worse, the numbness slowly spread over to her right arm too. It was making her lost the feel of touch from both hands. She even dropped her shower a few times earlier. Luckily Gray was not downstairs, or else he would come up immediately.

She looked up at the ceiling and sighed, “…Seriously, I can’t possibly ask Jii-chan at this kind of time…” She decided to ask after this whole Phantom thing was over. But then she couldn't understand the reason why they suddenly attacked the guild. The tension between them was not very good but they had never attacked them so directly before. She finally got up, scratched her head, and gave up thinking. She had using her brain and most of the time, rely on her intuition to act. Though she looked like she was intelligent, in reality, she was quite weak when it came to thinking.

She got up to get a drink. The moment she lifted up the glass, she couldn’t feel any strength and the glass slipped from her hand, crashed on the floor with a loud noise, shattering in pieces. Her hand was trembling.

She immediately heard some hurried footsteps approaching. The door was opened quite violently.

“Vye! What’s that sound?!” it’s Gray and the others, namely Erza, Natsu, Happy and Ice. Strangely Lucy was not with them.

She was squatting down on the floor to pick up the shattered glasses. “It’s nothing… The glass just slipped and fell… No need to make such a fuss.” She said casually.

Even so, they sighed in relief, "At least you are okay…” Gray squatted and began to help her picking up the glass pieces. The rest excused themselves from the room, leaving them both alone.

Vyera didn't say anything for a while and they picked up the glasses in silence. But she was careless and accidentally cut her hand. Fresh blue blood dripped down from her cut. Yes, it was blue. It was not purple anymore.

“Blue…?” Both of them stared at the dripping blood, unable to believe what they have just seen. Gray slowly looked at Vye. She was already in tears, which he hadn't seen for a long time now, “V-Vye?” He called.

“… Gray… I’m scared… I’m really scared… What… What if…” Vye was sobbing. She had tried her best not to think about what would happen but she couldn't hold it in anymore, not after seeing the blood which she was now completely sure not a human's blood. She didn't want to die yet, not now.

“Have you asked Jii-san?” Gray asked worriedly. He had never seen Vye cowering in fear before, except for an unwanted incident with her brother but other than that, never.

“… How could I possibly ask him at this kind of time?” Vye said, still crying, while trying to wipe of her flowing tears.

Gray hugged Vyera without warning, which made her unable to react, “No matter what happens, I’ll always by your side… Remember that.”

“… Thank you, Gray.” Vyera hugged back and finally said, "I will find my friend..." She pushed herself back from Gray's hug and wiped her tears.

“Friend?” Gray asked, curious.

“… He’s an expert in poisons and curses. He might know what is happening to me… I could feel his magic from the town.” Vyera said, cleaning the rest of the glasses and the blood of her hand, “... By the way, what’s with ‘waiting downstairs’??” She asked after remembering it.

“Oh that...” Gray remembered, “Mira-chan said that we had better stayed in group since Phantom might attack us when we are alone… They might have our addresses. So we are going to stay at Lucy’s house.”

“… I’ll follow you guys after I asked my friend. It won’t take a long time.” Vyera said.

He nodded, "Be careful." and went downstairs first to explain to others that Vye had something to do before joining them. Vyera concentrated on her surroundings. She could feel them. Gray’s group was heading to Lucy’s house as planned and the friend she had just mentioned to Gray was at the town’s bar.

“You had better stay where you are until I come… Rick.”

Vyera headed to the town's bar immediately, not wanting to waste anymore time on this. She arrived and saw him sitting at one corner of the bar alone, sipping his beer while looking at women passing by his table. He was still as pervert as usual. But as pervert as he was, he was an expert in poisons. Vyera went to his table and sat down without notifying him first. He was not really caught off guard either.

“My, my… How long has it been, Vye?” He greeted happily.

“Probably 3 years?” Vyera answered, "What? Have you forgotten how I look like?"

“How could I forget such a beauty in front of my eyes?” He said.

“Okay, let's leave it at that. I am here to ask you something.” Vyera started seriously.

He sensed that Vyera was not going to tolerate any jokes and decided to listen attentively while Vyera explained everything about the pain, blood and anything that Vyera could remember about this.

“That bad?" He said, "Hmm… I have never heard anything of this sorts before. Turn around.” He ordered.

Vyera knew what he was going to do, having seeing him treated many patients before, she obeyed and showed her back to him. He put his palm on it and Vye could feel his magic power flowing into her body, searching frantically for something unknown in her body.
He was using his magic power to detect any poisons or curses in the body. It was quite a rare ability and was not that easy to be learnt.

After a while, he stopped the flow and removed his hand from her back. Vyera slowly turned back to face him, preparing herself to hear whatever he had to say.

“So what’s wrong with me?” She asked immediately.

“As far as I know, you are quite immune to poisons right?” he asked, confirming what he remembered.

Vyera nodded. He continued, “To tell you the truth, I can’t figure out what is happening with you. This is the first time I see this kind of symptoms.”

“… What do you mean?”

“It’s neither poison nor curse, though it works like how a poison does. To make it simple, it’s living and slowly spreading in your body. Now, it has spread to both of your arms and chest.”

“That’s where my pain started.”

“I detected the source... the heart. But no matter how I searched, it was nowhere to be found.” He said regrettably. This was the first time Vyera saw him failed in his field of expertise.

Vyera finally said, "It's okay, Rick… I knew all along that it would be like this... Not that I doubt your ability but... I kinda sensed it.”

Rick gave her a sad smile, “Your intuition is great as usual... As far as my knowledge goes, I can’t figure it out, but someone out there might-“

“I don’t think I have that much time. Moreover, you should have heard what happened to my guild… I can’t leave it at this point of time." Vyera said, "Thank you, Rick." Vyera got up from the seat, ready to leave.

“Sorry I couldn’t be much help…” He said with much regret.

"It's not your fault. You are the best out there in this field." Vyera assured him, "See you again, Rick, if... I manage to survive this." Vyera left without looking at him anymore. Her resolve was clear. She believe she could feel it if her death was approaching. If she was going to die, she would leave immediately after the peace was back to the guild. She headed directly to Lucy’s house. Gray was already waiting for her outside Lucy’s house. Without saying anything, Vyera knew he wanted to hear everything that Rick had said. Vyera had no choice but to tell him.

Gray listened to every word she had to say without interrupting. Once she finished, he immediately said, "Vye, you are strong enough to tackle it. Don’t lose hope.”

“I won’t give up. I’ll find the cure after this whole Phantom thing is over.” Vyera said,” Let’s don’t discuss this now. Someone might hear us. Is everyone in there yet?” She asked.

“Lucy is not home yet. But the rest are here.” Gray replied.

Both of them entered the house and found the others sitting around at the living room. Not long after that, Lucy came home with a shock on her face when she saw everyone in her house, without permission.

“Welcome home.” Vyera said after she settled down with all the surprises.

“You should have told me first if all of you are going to come…” She sighed.

“I don’t have a chance. I knew it not long before you too.” Vyera replied.

After a great commotion over the bath, where Erza said that four of them bathed together when they were young which really caught Lucy's interest, they settled down at the living room and started to seriously discuss about the guild.

“Have any idea why Phantom attacked us all of a sudden?” Lucy started.

“Nope. We have had a few brushes before, but they never attacked us directly like this.” Gray answered.

“Jii-chan should stop being scared and just attack them right away.” Natsu said angrily.

“Nah… Jii-chan is not scared. He’s one of the Ten Holy Great Mages after all.” Erza corrected.

“Ten Holy Great Mages?” Lucy asked as this is the first time she heard of this title.

“It’s the title give by the Councils to ten best mages in the each continent. But, Phantom’s master is one of them too.” Erza explained.

“Mira and Jii-chan are just trying to avoid the fight. The damages will disrupt the order of the magic world.” Vyera said, “After all, Fairy Tail and Phantom have almost the same strength… For example, Phantom’s master and Jii-chan… The Element 4 and our S-class mages… and also…”

“Also?”

“Our fire dragon slayer and their iron dragon slayer…” Erza grinned.

“There is another one besides Natsu?!” Lucy shouted in shock, “Then… does he… eat iron and stuffs?”

“I guess so, as the name suggests.” Vyera chuckled, "That will be really interesting to see."

But that peaceful conversation ended there. Someone came in a hurry. It’s someone from the guild, an old man with smoke magic called Wakaba.

“So here you are! Quick, at the town's park!”

The moment they saw his face, they knew there’s something grave happened at the park. All of them wasted no time and headed there straight away. There were a lot people crowding under the biggest tree that was there in the middle park for many years now.

What’s there was more than what everyone could tolerate. Levi, Jet and Droy were pinned on the tree in the Southern Park of the town, bleeding all over and unconscious.

Nobody could stop their anger after seeing their precious comrade being treated like this. Vyera clutched her fist hard till it bleed. It didn’t matter anymore whether she was human or not, whether she was dying or not. Her comrades were attacked. She wouldn’t stay still after seeing that.

Jii-chan approached the scene. He was trembling all over after seeing them, in anger, “…Wrecking our shoddy bar I could bear with... But no parent can remain silent after seeing their children's blood...” He broke the stick he usually carried around. “This means WAR.”

Every single member of Fairy Tail, except Lucy and Mira who stayed behind to take care of the three, marched to the Phantom Lord guild right away. The gate was destroyed and the whole guild members were ready to fight without showing any mercy to Phantom. Phantom's members were caught off guard. They expected some attacks but not this fast. Fairy Tail beaten most of them easily.

“Vyera! Erza! I’ll leave you two in charge of this place. I’m going to the top floor to find Jose!” Jii-chan yelled to both of them. Both of them nodded. Jose was the master of Phantom Lord Guild.

Vyera could feel Jii-chan’s magic power, full of fury and anger. At this point of time, nobody could stop Jii-chan anymore. However, the reality was not as what everyone expected. Not long after Jii-chan went upstairs to find Jose, a loud crack was heard from the ceiling and Jii-chan fell down from the top floor, without any magic power left and wounded.

“Jii-chan!!” Vyera immediately approached him being the nearest to him, “Jii-chan!” She called again.

“My… my magic power…” he was trembling again, but this time not in anger, but in loss of power. For someone with high magic power, which was also the source of life for mages, if the power was drained, he’ll be in a serious pain.

“Damn it! Retreat!” Erza and Vyera yelled in unison though this command invited a lot of complains from their comrades.

“No way! We’ve to avenge Levi and the others!” Some of them shouted.

“I can still fight!” The others added.

“This is an order!" Vyera yelled back without paying any attention to their complains, "Without Jii-chan, we can’t defeat Jose! Retreat!” Vyera ordered while she let Elfman carried Jii-chan. “Gray, come on!” Vyera pulled him though he wanted to continue the fight despite being alone.

Vyera was ready to go back to collect Jii-chan's magic power but she could a presence of someone she hadn't met for a long time,” … This magic... Mystogan?" She felt it again and this time she was completely sure it was him. Vyera decided to leave it to him. He could be trusted.

“Let them go. We have the Lucy girl with us. Our objectives are completed.” Someone said from within the wrecked Phantom guild.

Vyera overheard that as she was one of the last few to leave the place, "Why Lucy?" She questioned.

Looks like Natsu also overheard that and directly grabbed one of the enemies there and dragged him towards the Headquarters of Phantom. Vyera wanted to go after him as well, to save Lucy, but Erza wouldn't be able to handle all the members with Jii-chan injured. She decided to leave Lucy to Natsu and went back with others to the guild. Natsu should be more than enough to save Lucy.

On the way back to the guild, Vyera transferred her magic power to ease Jii-chan’s pain. Bisca and Alzack brought Jii-chan to the forest east of Magnolia. A healing mage, Polyushko, also an acquaintance of Jii-chan, lived there. She was the one who taught Vye healing magic when she was young on Jii-chan’s request. Jii-chan needed to plead until she agreed.

Everyone was chased out from Polyshko's house as she didn't like humans. They decided to go back to the guild and wait patiently. Vyera went back with them, not wanting to disturb the healing process. Polyshko-san won't chase her out though. Not long after that, Natsu brought Lucy back and she told everyone everything that happened. She also revealed that she was the daughter of Heartphilia family.

While the guild had switched on the battle mode, ready anytime to battle Phantom, somewhere far away, a girl, a boy and a young man approached the house of the famous fortune-teller.

“… Long time no see, Yume.” The girl greeted the old woman sitting in the middle of the room with the looks of a fortune teller and with a crystal ball in front of her.

“You’ve come… I’ve made the prophecy you have been waiting for…” Yume addressed the girl.

“Say it.” The little girl ordered with a sense of superiority.

“…’The seed that was planted 18 years ago has grown strong and ready to blossom at her core... when the crescent moon appears in the darkness of the sky’…”

None of them was shocked by this prophecy.

“As I thought…” said the girl, “Let’s go guys, to Magnolia town, as fast as we can.” She commanded.

The boy and the young man nodded and three of them set off towards the destination immediately.