Fairy Tail - The World of Mages -

Chapter 18

“Ice!!! NO!!!!!!!”

“… Oh? Dead?” Xrytos said that playfully and threw Ice's lifeless body towards the gang. “This body is certainly the best… Now… who’s next?” He said admiring his new body and evilly licking Ice’s blood on his hand. His murder intent made everyone backed off.

“We must kill him right now! His power hasn’t fully awakened!” Minerva commanded. Lucy stayed behind, holding motionless Ice on her arm, too shocked to fight. She did not expect a fallen comrade in this battle.

The battle continued. However, Xrytos was too strong for anyone to defeat. Only Jii-chan and Minerva could fight evenly with him, only if they worked together.
Everyone else could only provide support from the side. They couldn't help much. Most of them were already exhausted. In the midst of battle, Xrytos managed to capture Gray who lowered his guard due to low magic power. Xrytos hold him up high on his neck, chocking him.

“Gray!” Erza shouted once she realized what had happened.

“Damn… it…” he said, while grabbing Xrytos’, or rather, Vyera’s hand to break off of his grab.

Vyera, who was asleep without feeling anything, was awaken when Ice was killed by her own hand. She could feel something, but she couldn’t move.

“Ice!!! NO!!!!!!!” That scream was the last key to wake her up. It was like her life switch was turned on in an instant by that scream.

Even though she had awakened, she couldn’t do anything. She was still chained on the stone wall. However, there was eye-like screen in front of her. She was watching what happened outside from inside her head. She could see that Ice was punched through his stomach and lifeless by her own hand. “Ice...? No... No! It can't be!"

No matter how she felt, the battle continued. She couldn’t think of anything except that her worst nightmare will come true. Everyone will die by her hands.

The moment when Gray was captured by Xrytos, Vye felt the fear of losing another loved one. She could hear his voice, trying to talk to her, believing she could overcome this.

“V-Vye…” Gray said that while trying to break off from Xrytos' grab that was slowly choking him.

Xrytos smirked. “I know you are her lover… If I kill you with this body, it’ll be definitely enjoyable.” he said that happily, using Vye's voice, seemingly enjoying the thrill of murder.

“V-Vye... ” He choked the words out as the air around him was disappearing bit by bit, “… We believe in you… Wake up, Vye!” he shouted with his last strength.

“Gray… Everyone…” She could not betray their trust. She pulled her hands off the chain, trying to break it. It was no easy task, but the voices from her comrades were the ones that didn’t allow her to give up. Forcing herself to exceed her own limit, the chain was slowly broken off from the stone wall. Looks like it had some effects on Xrytos.

Xrytos yelled in pain out of sudden while holding his head. Gray fell on the ground, gasping for air after being release by Xrytos. Erza quickly pulled him away from the demon.

Vye slowly freed her limbs one by one. Xrytos couldn’t control her body as she did that. Everyone was dumbstruck, watching Xrytos yelling in pain while holding his head. Not long, Xrytos just kneeled down on the ground without moving. It was like a puppet that has lost its master.

Some of them wanted to attack but stopped by Minerva. “Don’t attack. It’s weird that he stopped moving all of sudden. Vyera might be struggling to seal Xrytos now… Let’s wait. If he released the demonic aura again then we must…”

There was no need to continue that sentence. Everyone had known what they must do, even though they didn’t want to do it.

Vyera had managed to break all of the chains that strained her, “Finally…” she said as she catched her breath and rubbing her wrists.

“How dare you do that, little girl…” the voice echoed in the darkness. The black soul appeared in front of her once again, with the clear blue sphere at the core of the soul, “Do you know how long have I waited for this moment?”

“… I don’t know and I don’t want to know.” She answered, "I'm only interested in defeating you." She was set to revenge Ice's death.

Xrytos was pissed off, “This time, I won’t be so nice to let you just sleep… I’ll make sure you die painfully!”

“You are no longer in control of my body. I feel no pain and no restrain. I’m ready.” She said and got into a position to fight.

“You won’t win.” He said, sounding like he tried to convince himself rather threatening Vyera.

“... This is in my mind. Whatever I believe, will come true.” Vyera said, “Let’s see whose belief is stronger, shall we?”

“Dream on… Even it is your mind, I’m stronger than you.”

“… Even without any physical body?”

Vyera knew that his physical body was perished in that ice temple, just like Deliora. He will never has his body back and need to possess other mages in order to survive. Without a body, his huge magic power was of no use.

She approached the black soul, fully aware that in this dimension, he could still use his magic as he desired. But as long as she could overwhelm him with her mental power, he could not do anything. She could feel his magic wavelength was distorting. Vye took the chance to grab the blue sphere inside his soul. That sphere was the source of his magic power.

She pulled the sphere out and using her magic, she captured Xrytos’ soul and put him on the stone wall that held her just now. “This is your source of magic.” She hold the blue sphere that fitted perfectly on her hand. “You won’t be able to do anything without this.”

“Give that back, you bitch!” He snapped, trying to release himself from Vyera's grab, even though he should know that he had no chance to win without his power.

“… Hades.” She called and the chain appeared from the stone wall, holding Xrytos’ soul and held him tightly there, “I’ll seal you here forever.”

“You won’t have enough power! Any seal will weaken eventually and I’ll be free once again!” He said that desperately, still believing he could win over Vye.

“... That’s true… But if I seal you with a fragment of my power...”

He was silenced. He knew what would happen.

“You will disappear with me when I die…” Sge said after his magic power was in abnormal wavelength, worse than before, “My magic power is strongest at in my eyesight… I’ll sacrifice my left eye to seal you. Feel happy about it.”

Vye drained out the power from her left eye. The magic power came out in the form of a brown crystal marble. In return, She lost her eyesight on the left eye. Her Your brown left eye became white in color, losing its function.

The crystal was floating on the palm of your hand. She inserted it into Xrytos’ soul, where the blue sphere was located earlier and chanted “Η μητέρα της γης και της φύσης… ποιοι προβλέπουν την εξουσία για με… Παρακαλώ τώρα για τη βοήθειά σας, για να σφραγίσω αυτόν τον δαίμονα εδώ, στο μυαλό μου, για πάντα χωρίς να απελευθερωθώ πάντα πάλι. Η τιμή θα είναι το αριστερό μάτι μου… Η σφράγιση αυτού του δαίμονα θα είναι δικοί σας που διατάζουν… Gaia!”

[Translation: The mother of earth and nature… who are providing power for me… I’m now pleading for your help, to seal this demon here, in my mind, forever without being released ever again. The price will be my left eye… The sealing of this demon will be yours to command… Gaia!]

The magic circle that once appeared in the battlefield appeared again here.

Xrytos yelled, “I’ll remember this, you little girl!”

"... I do hope that we will never meet again..." Vye said before Xrytos disappeared.

The brown crystal of hers resided in his soul, settling itself in the black soul. The chain and the branches of the trees grew on the stone wall to hold Xrytos tight, never letting it go until the end of Vye's life.

Immediately after that, there was a bright white light shining so brightly that she couldn’t even opened her eyes.

After a moment, the bright light disappeared. She tried to open her eyes again. The first thing she saw was that a lot of faces were looking down to her. She could only see the people on her right side. Her left eye could only see darkness. It was completely blind.

“... Everyone?” She said softly while getting up.

They were speechless and a bit wary. Vyera smiled, "It's me. I'm back."

Suddenly their faces were all in tears and and pouring in to hug her, “H-Hey!”

“Vyera!! Thank goodness!!” Mira said since she was the first to hug her.

Although she was happy to see them again, she remembered something unforgivable that she had done.

“Ice!? How is he?!” Vye searched around and saw a laying white figure on the ground beyond the crowds around her. He was on Lucy’s arm. Lucy was crying silently. Vyera slowly approached them.

“I-Ice…” She kneeled down and touched his face lightly; it was cold, “No… It can’t be… No! It’s my fault! I… I killed him! I-”

Someone hugged her from behind, “No, Vye! It’s not your fault! It’s beyond your control!”

It was Gray. He was also crying while hugging her, “It’s not… your fault…” He was shaking.

“No… No… Ice!!!” Vyera screamed her sadness and regret. At that very moment, the rain started to pour down as if expressing the feelings that everyone had at that time.