The sun was already high, an indifferent eye in the sky, when the Tower of Heaven finally emerged on the horizon, tearing through the blue line of the ocean. And with it, a wave of silence fell over our small and noisy boat.
At first glance, from a distance, it could have been mistaken for a natural rock formation, a column of black, twisted, and agonising stone, rising from the waters like the accusing finger of a dead god pointing at the heavens in a final act of blasphemy. But as we approached, the cruel details of its architecture began to reveal themselves. The unnatural geometric lines that spoke of forced labour and inhuman precision. The dark windows like empty sockets in a gigantic skull, watching us in silence. And the immense magic circles, engraved into the very structure of the tower, visible even from this distance, which I could feel pulsing with a sick energy, a magic that made my skin tingle and my stomach churn with a nausea that had nothing to do with the rocking of the sea.
It was larger than I remembered. More… imposing in its ugliness. Or perhaps I, the child who had once walked its dark corridors, was simply smaller then, shrunken by fear.
"What a sinister place…" Lucy murmured beside me, her voice a whisper. She was clutching her bundle of zodiac keys against her chest as if they were a protective charm against all the evil in the world. "It looks like something out of a nightmare."
"That's exactly what it is, Lucy," I replied, without taking my eyes off the tower that grew larger every second, an open wound on the horizon. "A nightmare of stone, forbidden magic, and, for some of us, built on the bones of slaves."
The boat, propelled by Juvia's tireless magic, was rocking violently on the choppy waves, but I remained motionless on the prow, perfectly balanced, my feet firm on the deck. Behind me, the usual and predictable chaos of Fairy Tail was unfolding like a particularly noisy and irritating comedy of errors.
"Urgh… I think I'm going to die…" Natsu groaned, his body slumped over the side of the boat, his face a shade of green that rivalled the seaweed floating around us. "Why… why does it have to be a boat… I hate boats more than I hate Gray…"
"You hate anything that moves and doesn't have legs, flame-brain," Gray observed, from the other side of the boat, leaning against the mast with his arms crossed, trying to look carefree and tough. He had, predictably, lost his shirt at some point during the journey, probably in the first fifteen minutes if I were to make a bet. "Trains, carriages, boats… you're a walking disaster."
"Shut… up… you walking… ice cube…" Natsu retorted, without the strength for a real fight.
"What did you call me, you walking ash-heap with stomach problems?!"
"Gray-sama shouldn't stress himself over the fire-man!" Juvia intervened, without turning around, her hands still immersed in the water, manipulating the currents that propelled us. She was torn between the concentration required for the task and the apparently physical need to glance sideways at Gray's bare torso every three seconds. "Juvia is speeding up the boat so that Gray-sama doesn't have to stay on this treacherous sea for too long!"
"Thanks, Juvia, but—" Gray began.
"And Juvia is also keeping a close watch on the love rival!" she added, shooting a deadly and entirely unnecessary glare at Lucy, who was a good two metres away. "Juvia has noticed that Lucy-san is very, very close to Gray-sama on this small boat! Juvia thinks it is not a coincidence! JUVIA THINKS IT IS A SEDUCTION STRATEGY!"
"The boat is literally five metres long, Juvia!" Lucy protested, exasperated. "Everyone is close to everyone! It's not like I can move to the lower deck!"
"THAT IS EXACTLY what a cunning and planning rival would say to deceive Juvia!"
(I swear by all the bored gods of this and other universes, that if I have to hear the word "rival" one more bloody time on this journey, I will personally throw them all into the sea and continue the mission alone,) I thought, a headache beginning to form.
[The frequency with which Juvia Lockser uses the word "rival" is, indeed, statistically impressive. An average of once every two minutes and forty-three seconds since we left the port,] Eos informed, with her unnecessary and irritating precision.
(Are you… are you actually timing it, Eos?)
[I entertain myself as I can, Azra'il. And human stupidity is an inexhaustible source of data and, occasionally, amusement.]
"Azra'il." Gray's voice, now more serious, cut through the noise and my thoughts. I turned partially to face him, raising an eyebrow.
"What's the invasion plan?" he asked, his dark-blue eyes serious, despite his relaxed pose. "When we get there. You know the place. How are we getting in without being noticed?"
"The main entrance will be heavily guarded," I said, my voice flat. "Jellal is not a complete idiot, however much his fashion choices and his monologues might suggest otherwise. He knows we're coming. He's waiting for us."
"So how do we—"
"I'm still thinking. Assessing the variables."
"You're 'thinking'?" Natsu lifted his head for a second, his motion sickness momentarily forgotten in favour of disbelief. "I thought you already had a plan! You always have a plan, don't you?!"
"My main plan, Natsu," I replied, turning back to face the tower that now filled our entire field of vision, an overwhelming presence, "is to get Erza out of that hell before a single brick falls on her head. The rest of the details," and a small, dangerous smile appeared on my lips, "are flexible."
"That's not a real plan!" Lucy exclaimed, exasperated. "That's just a declaration of intent with a hint of a threat!"
"It's worked for me so far. In various and varied situations."
"So far you haven't been trying to invade a magical fortress in the middle of the ocean guarded by an army and probably a lunatic with S-level powers!"
"Technically," I paused, "I have already invaded a fortress very, very similar to this one, surrounded by a sea of acid, guarded by demons and a lord with three heads and terrible breath. And it didn't end very well for the fortress. Or for the heads."
The silence that followed my declaration was profound, interrupted only by the soft sound of Natsu finally being sick over the side of the boat. (Charming. And, frankly, a relief.)
As we drew closer, the scenery around the tower began to change, to become even more sinister. First, it was the debris we saw, pieces of rotten wood and rusted metal floating on the surface, remnants of what had once been small fishing boats. Torn nets, broken buoys. A single broken mast, floating alone in the water like an improvised headstone on an aquatic grave.
And then, to Lucy's horror, we saw the bodies.
They weren't human. At least not that I could see. They were fish. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of them, of all sizes, floating belly-up, their glassy eyes reflecting the merciless sun, their scales losing their shine. Further on, something larger, a giant ray, perhaps, or some other sea creature I couldn't identify, was floating on the surface, motionless. Dead. Just like everything else in that circle of desolation.
"What… what happened to them?" Lucy asked, her voice a shocked whisper.
"The tower," I replied, my voice cold, "the magic that sustains it, the magical formations on its walls, they probably emanate an energy that is toxic to any life not approved by its master. A slow poison that kills anything that gets too close for too long. A passive defence system."
"But… but we're getting closer!"
"Don't worry. We won't be here long enough to be affected," I said, looking at her over my shoulder with a certainty I didn't entirely feel, but which I needed to project. "At least, that's the plan. If everything goes wrong, maybe we'll start glowing in the dark. It would be… interesting."
"Azra'il!"
"Joking. Mostly."
The boat, under Juvia's precise command, finally reached the base of the tower. And, up close, it was even more imposing, an endless wall of black, damp stone that rose vertically from the murky waters, without a beach, without a dock, without any obvious place to moor, as if it were a rotten tooth sprouting from the bottom of the ocean.
Juvia manipulated the water to bring us closer to a rocky ledge that barely served as a natural platform, covered in slippery seaweed. One by one, we jumped from the boat, which, in Natsu's case, involved him being dragged by an already irritated Gray, while he was still muttering curses against all forms of transport that were not his own legs or a flying blue cat.
"Right, we're here," Gray said, cracking his knuckles and looking up at the endless wall of black stone. The tower rose above us like an architectural nightmare, blocking the sun. "And now, genius? Do we climb up like monkeys?"
"There must be an entrance somewhere," Lucy said, walking cautiously along the base, her trembling hands running over the cold, damp stone. "A secret door, a hidden passage, something…"
"Juvia can look!" The water mage, now in her element, offered enthusiastically. "If there's an underwater entrance, Juvia will definitely find it!"
And, before anyone could reply or elaborate a more detailed plan, she had already dived, her body dissolving into the dark water as if she had never existed, leaving only a few ripples behind.
"She's… surprisingly efficient," Lucy commented, impressed.
"She's obsessed and territorial," Gray corrected, looking, as always, slightly uncomfortable with her dedication. "But, yes. Efficient."
We waited. And the merciless sun beat down on the black stone of the tower, creating a stuffy and suffocating heat that made the air shimmer. Natsu, finally on solid ground and with his balance back, was starting to regain his colour, which meant that soon, he would be insufferably energetic again. I preferred him green.
"Oi, Azra'il," Lucy's voice pulled me from my thoughts. She had approached me, her expression worried. "Are you… are you really alright?" she asked, her voice low. "I mean… being back here. In this place. It must be… awful."
"I am perfectly fine, blondie," I replied, without emotion.
"You don't look 'perfectly fine'. You look like you're about to rip the entire tower from its foundation with your bare hands and throw it into the bottom of the ocean."
"Well, that would be a viable option, if it weren't so noisy." I considered the idea for a moment. "But it would take too long. And it would be much harder to search for a lost blue cat amidst the submerged wreckage."
Lucy stared at me, her eyes wide with horror at my coldness. "That… that was a joke, right?"
"Would you prefer it wasn't?"
"I… I'd rather not think about it anymore!"
"Then don't." I turned my gaze back to the impenetrable wall of the tower. "Happy is alive. Erza is alive. And they are going to stay that way. I will personally ensure it."
Before Lucy could reply with another demonstration of her excessive empathy, the surface of the water exploded in a small fountain, and Juvia emerged, her blue eyes shining with a triumph that was almost contagious.
"Juvia found it!" she announced, beaming, pushing her wet hair back. "There is an underground passage! A drainage tunnel that leads into the base of the tower! Juvia can create an air bubble for each of us to breathe!"
"Excellent," I said, approaching the edge of the platform. "We have no time to waste. Let's go."
"Wait, wait, hang on a minute!" Natsu, who had completely recovered his colour and his ability to complain, held up his hands in protest. "UNDERWATER?! Like… swimming again? I just got off a bloody boat that almost killed me!"
"And now you're getting in the water, Dragneel. Life is full of delicious and inescapable ironies," I replied, without the slightest sympathy.
"But I—"
"Natsu." I turned to face him, and something in my gaze, something cold and impatient, must have communicated the seriousness of the situation, because he fell silent. "Erza is in there. And so is Happy. Every second we waste here, arguing about your motion sickness problems and your aversion to liquids, is a second that they are in the hands of that lunatic Jellal. So you will, yes, get into that bloody water, you will hold your breath if you have to, and you will stop complaining like a spoiled child. Are we understood?"
He swallowed hard, the fire in his eyes momentarily replaced by a reluctant understanding. "…Understood," he grumbled.
"Brilliant. I'm glad we've reached an agreement."
Juvia dived first, and as each of us entered the cold water, she, with an impressive precision, created an individual air bubble around our heads. They were small, translucent spheres that allowed us to breathe normally as we swam, a seemingly simple magic, but one that required an admirable control and concentration to maintain five separate and stable bubbles at the same time, while moving.
"This is so strange," Lucy murmured, her voice sounding slightly muffled by the membrane of water around her face. "It's like wearing a giant soap bubble as a helmet."
"Juvia has practised a lot to perfect this technique!" the water mage, who was now guiding us with the agility of a fish through the dark waters, informed with pride. "Juvia can maintain the bubbles for hours, if it is necessary to protect Gray-sama!"
"This water is absurdly COLD!" Lucy complained, hugging herself as she swam, her teeth already starting to chatter. "H-how can you two," she looked at me and Gray, "act as if this is a bathtub?!"
"Gray-sama's body is naturally and wonderfully resistant to the cold," Juvia sighed, casting a lovesick and rather obsessive look at the ice mage who was swimming calmly beside her. "Juvia greatly admires Gray-sama's incredible and manly resistance. Juvia, in fact, has a list of all of Gray-sama's admirable physical qualities stored in—"
"A… list?" Gray stared at her, genuinely disturbed and, perhaps, a little frightened. "What kind of list? How many items are on this list—"
"I sincerely hope we won't need hours," he completed quickly, clearly deciding, with a newfound wisdom, that some questions were much better left unanswered.
Natsu, for his part, oblivious to everything, was tapping on the film of the bubble around his own head with an expression of idiotic fascination. "Oi, this thing is pretty tough! Like a rubber ball! I wonder if it can take a real punch?"
"Natsu, NO, you idiot, don't you dare—" Lucy started to shout in a panic.
But it was too late. With a "heh," he punched his own bubble with full force. The membrane rippled violently, deforming almost to the point of collapse, before stabilising again, by a true miracle of Juvia's magic.
"ARE YOU COMPLETELY DAFT?!" Lucy shouted, the air bubbles of her fury rising towards the surface. "IF THAT BUBBLE OF YOURS POPS, YOU'LL DROWN DOWN HERE!"
"But it didn't pop!" he argued, with the impeccable logic of a child who has just jumped off a roof and not broken their leg.
"BUT IT COULD HAVE!"
"BUT IT DIDN'T!"
"Juvia can maintain the pink-haired idiot's air bubble even if he continues to hit it with his weak fists," Juvia informed calmly, with an air of superiority, adjusting the sphere around Natsu's head with a simple movement of her fingers in the water. "But Juvia would prefer, for the sake of energy conservation, that he did not test the limits of my patience and my magic. It is troublesome."
"Oi! Who are you calling an idiot and weak-fisted, you crazy jellyfish woman?!"
"Juvia did not mention specific names, only a general description."
"But you literally said 'pink-haired'!"
"There are, statistically, many people with pink hair in the world. Juvia cannot be held responsible for the hasty conclusions that others draw."
(She's getting surprisingly good at this. I'm almost proud,) I thought.
[Sharpening the claws of rivalry. An impressive social evolution, considering her starting point,] Eos agreed.
I ignored the familiar and predictable chaos unfolding around me, focusing my eyes on the darkness ahead, on the outline of the tower's base that was beginning to materialise above us. I could feel them. Hundreds of presences. Guards. Soldiers. Cultists. Ants in an anthill about to be kicked. And somewhere, in the middle of it all, high up, two familiar presences, two lights that I would recognise in any universe.
Erza. Happy.
(I'm coming. And I'm in a terrible mood.)
"Shh," I said, and the authority in my voice made everyone fall silent immediately. "We're here."
Above us, a dark opening materialised, a vertical tunnel that led into the structure of the tower. We swam towards it and emerged into a closed, damp, and poorly lit space that smelt of stagnant water and despair.
The subterranean sector of the Tower of Heaven.
The water dripped from our soaked bodies as Juvia's bubbles dissipated. I blinked, my eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light of the magic torches that were burning on the walls with a sick, green light. We were in a kind of cistern, a large stone reservoir with multiple passages branching off in various directions, like the veins of a dead monster.
"We made it," Lucy whispered, relieved to be on solid ground again. "We're inside."
"Yes," I agreed, my eyes scanning every shadow, every dark corner, my hand already resting on the hilt of my wooden jian. "And, as expected, we are not alone."
As if they had been waiting for my words, the lights in the cistern came on. Not the torches, but others. Dozens of magic Lacrimas embedded in the walls, which flickered once, twice, and then shone with a full, cruel intensity, revealing what the shadows had so conveniently hidden from us.
Soldiers.
Dozens of them. Hundreds. Emerging silently from every passage, from every shadow, from every corner of the reservoir, blocking all the exits. All of them dressed in identical black armour, helmets that hid their faces, weapons in hand, their eyes fixed on us with a uniform, trained, and utterly emotionless hostility.
"Oh, bugger," Natsu muttered, a hungry grin spreading across his face.
A man stood out from that anonymous mass of soldiers, his armour larger, more ornate, clearly the commander of the platoon. He stared at us with a smug and contemptuous smile.
"Intruders," he declared, his voice echoing in the enclosed space, loud and metallic. "Master Jellal predicted that the rats of Fairy Tail would come. He sent us to give you our warmest welcome."
He raised his hand, a slow, theatrical gesture. "To the gates of hell, of course. Kill them all. And don't even leave the bodies to be identified."
And the soldiers, like a silent, black tide of steel, advanced.
The hall exploded in noise.
"KARYU NO TEKKEN!" Natsu's flaming fist, the first to react, as always, hit the first soldier square in the chest, sending him flying like a rag doll into three others, in a beautiful display of human bowling. The Dragon Slayer was in his element, a wild smile on his face, and clearly determined to take out all his accumulated travel frustration on these unfortunate guards. "THAT'S FOR HAPPY, YOU BASTARDS! AND THIS TOO! AND THIS IS BECAUSE I'M HUNGRY!"
"Careful not to set fire to the wrong place, Natsu!" Gray shouted, dodging a spear thrust while forming a large ice bow in his hands with an impressive speed. "ICE MAKE: LANCE!" Dozens of ice stakes as sharp as razors erupted from the ground, impaling shields, breaking armour, and felling an entire row of soldiers in a single, beautiful move. But there were more. Always more.
"GRAY-SAMA, WATCH YOUR RIGHT!" Juvia's voice, a cry of genuine concern, sounded. And she appeared beside him like a vengeful and protective wave, her body turning into pure water to dodge a treacherous sword blow that was coming from behind him. The blade passed through her liquid body without causing the slightest damage, and she, in response, formed a jet of pressurised water with her hands, a liquid whip that hit the attacker full on and sent him flying against the opposite wall with a dull thud. "Juvia will protect Gray-sama with my life!" she declared, forming whirlpools of water around them, which grabbed and threw the soldiers against each other as if they were rag dolls in an out-of-control washing machine. "None of these insignificant soldiers will dare to touch a single hair on Gray-sama's head! They are all… all of them are potential rivals for my love!"
"They're just enemy soldiers, Juvia!" Gray protested, taking advantage of the confusion to freeze the feet of two guards who were trying to flank him. "They're not 'rivals'!"
"Any living being that approaches Gray-sama with hostile, or even overly friendly, intentions is a potential rival for Juvia! The logic is simple!"
"BUT THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL!"
"LOVE, MY DEAR GRAY-SAMA, DOES NOT NEED TO MAKE SENSE! IT SIMPLY IS!"
On the other side of the reservoir, Lucy, who had been lagging a little behind, finally managed to find an opening to summon one of her spirits. "OPEN, GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO!" And, to no one's surprise, Virgo, the celestial maid with a perpetually blank expression and a peculiar taste, emerged from the stone floor as if from a swimming pool.
"I have arrived, Princess. Is it time for punishment?" she asked, with her monotonous and strangely expectant voice.
"NO, Virgo, it's not time for punishment!" Lucy shouted, exasperated. "Just help me deal with these blokes! Quickly!"
Virgo nodded, and immediately began to dig holes in the stone floor with a superhuman speed, creating improvised traps that made the unsuspecting soldiers trip and fall in a comical and humiliating manner. And, to my astonishment, some of the guards, upon seeing her, simply stopped fighting, completely mesmerised by her maid's uniform and her appearance. What a pathetic bunch.
"Why are they looking at Virgo like that? It's creepy," Lucy asked, genuinely confused.
"Perhaps they appreciate good service and a well-ironed outfit, Princess."
"That is very, very disturbing on so many different levels…"
The chaos was absolute. Flames roared, ice shattered, water swirled, and in the midst of it all, screams, explosions, the clanging of chains, and the constant sound of metal on metal. It was noisy, colourful, destructive, and completely, totally, characteristic of Fairy Tail. It was… ungraceful. A messy canvas, painted with primary colours and crude strokes. It needed order. It needed… art.
And then, there was me. In the midst of that pandemonium, I moved in an almost supernatural silence.
My wooden jian, which I had unsheathed, rested lightly in my hand. To the eyes of anyone who had a second to look, it seemed like just a training sword, a toy, a joke in the middle of a battle of powerful magics. They would learn, quickly and in the most painful way possible, that it was not.
I closed my eyes for a second, ignoring the guards who were now advancing on me, seeing me as the easiest target. In my mind, the chaotic sound of battle faded, turning into a distant hum, replaced by the soft start of an ancient and imaginary waltz that only I could hear. It was time for the show.
[Three targets approaching from your right. Attack angles: poor and predictable. Openings in the armour: detected at the neck joints and under the arms,] Eos's voice sounded, providing the score for my dance.
"Let the performance begin," I whispered to the empty air.
I did not run; I flowed. I glided through the chaos like a ballerina gliding over a frozen lake, the jian being not a weapon, but a natural extension of my arm, the baton of a maestro ready to conduct her orchestra of destruction.
The first guard, a large, muscular man, attempted a clumsy, overhead axe blow. I spun around him, a movement so fluid and effortless it looked as if it had been rehearsed for years. With a light, almost imperceptible flick of my wrist, the sharp tip of my jian found the carotid artery in his neck. The cut was so fast, so clean, that he didn't even feel it. He continued his blow, the axe hitting the ground with a dull thud, and only then did the red line appear on his skin, a crimson smile.
I was already moving on to the next before the first ruby of blood had even appeared on his skin and he had begun to collapse.
One…
A second soldier tried to impale me with a spear. I deflected the tip of the weapon with the side of my jian, used his momentum to spin, and with an upward motion, the wooden blade pierced his heart from under his breastplate.
Two…
A third came from behind. Without turning, I took a step to the side and delivered a reverse blow, the tip of the jian finding the soft spot on his temple. The sound of his skull fracturing was a low, wet crack.
Three…
The second and third guards, along with the first, fell almost in unison. There were no cries of agony, just the hissing sound of steel and wood cutting through the air, the dull thud of heavy bodies hitting the stone floor, and the soft sound of my own breathing.
I paused for an instant in the centre of my small and newly created masterpiece. The three bodies lay around me in an almost symmetrical pattern, as if I had positioned them for a macabre photograph. The blood that was beginning to leak from their wounds on the stone floor formed perfect arcs, vibrant lines that shone in the sick, green light of the torches. A living painting, made of violence and silence.
I raised my arm, my sword extended to the side, and with a sharp, quick, and theatrical flick of my wrist, I swung the jian, cleaning the little blood that had stained its dark surface. The red liquid, flung by the force, drew a perfect, straight line on the stone floor. A final touch. The artist's signature.
"Perfect," I murmured, with a sigh of satisfaction, ignoring the look of pure and absolute horror on Lucy's face, who was a few metres away and had witnessed my silent dance. The stage was clean, at least in my little corner. It was time for the next act.
[Performance analysis: Combat efficiency at 98.7%. Artistic style: Impressive, although somewhat… excessive for such low-level enemies. Recommendations: None. Continue. The collected data is fascinating,] Eos commented, and I could almost feel a hint of approval in her voice.
The noise from the rest of Fairy Tail continued, but with a reduced intensity. Many of the guards, upon witnessing the ease with which their comrades were falling around me, were now hesitating, the fear in their eyes overcoming their discipline. I saw in their faces the silent question: "What kind of monster is this woman?". I heard them. And they would not live long enough to find the answer. I had no time for hesitation. I had no time for prisoners.
They were in my way. In the way to Erza. And that was all that mattered.
A group of five, probably the bravest or the most stupid, tried to attack me simultaneously, a textbook tactical formation, with spears pointed forward and shields raised to protect themselves. An attempt to overwhelm me with numbers. A pathetically useless tactic against someone who, in another life, had faced entire armies of demons alone, just for sport.
I disappeared. Not literally, of course; that would be teleportation magic, which would be ungraceful. To their slow human eyes, however, the effect was exactly the same. A mere blur of movement, faster than perception, and, the next instant, I was on the other side of them, my back now turned to them. The spears were still pointed where I had been moments before, piercing the empty air.
And the five of them, in a macabre chorus, fell at the same time. Each with an identical, clean, and precise cut to their throat. Fatal cuts. And silent ones.
"What… what the devil is this…?" one of the remaining soldiers murmured, backing away, the dread finally breaking his formation. "What kind of monster… what kind of monster is this woman?"
I heard him, of course. And I smiled. I continued my art and killed even more soldiers. The noise from the rest of Fairy Tail, who were still fighting on the other side of the cistern, seemed to fade, to recede. Not because their fight was over; there were still soldiers standing, there were still screams and explosions. But there was a pause. A deathly silent moment, where everyone, friend and foe, stopped fighting to look in my direction. To look at the circle of silence and death I had created around me. To look at the pile of bodies forming at my feet. Twenty. Thirty. Forty, perhaps. It was hard to count when they were so… scattered and in so many pieces.
"Bloody hell, Azra'il…" Natsu's voice, for the first time, was not a shout, but a shocked murmur, his fists still aflame, but the fight momentarily forgotten. "You… you didn't have to go that far… They were already practically beaten…"
I cleaned the wooden jian once more in a habitual, slow, and deliberate motion. "They were in my way. In my way to Erza," I said, and my voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. "And I have no time for childish games."
"But… but you… you killed them all, Azra'il," Lucy's voice, small, trembling, full of a horror I didn't completely understand.
"Yes. And what is the problem?"
She said no more. There was nothing to say. And the expression on her face told me everything I needed to know. The fear, the shock, the revulsion. They didn't understand. They are still too naive and kind-hearted.
The remaining soldiers, the ones who were still standing, were now hesitating. Looking at the mutilated bodies of their comrades, looking at me, who was still standing, motionless, in the centre of it all, making quick mental calculations about whether the pay they received was really worth the risk of facing a silent reaper. And, as expected, most of them reached the same, wise conclusion. They ran. Like frightened rats fleeing a fire.
"Cowards! Get back here and fight! Master Jellal will—" the commander, the man with the ornate armour, shouted, but his voice no longer held the same confidence as before. He was also retreating, his eyes fixed on me with a terror he could barely hide under his mask of authority.
And I, who was already tired of this scene, who was already bored with this performance, was in front of him before he had even finished his pathetic sentence.
"Jellal," I said, and my voice was like ice, like the silence of death. "Where is he?"
"I… I don't know anything…"
The tip of my jian, now cold, touched his throat, a silent invitation. A single drop of his own blood ran down, hot and red, contrasting with the cold steel of his armour.
"Where?"
"A-at the top! At the top of the tower! In the ritual room! That's all I know! Please, I… I was just following orders, I swear—"
"I know." I took the tip of the sword from his throat. And, with the hilt of the jian, I gave him a quick, precise blow to the temple. He fell, unconscious, but alive. He had no more useful information to give me, and killing an unarmed man begging for his life, however much he deserved it, would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
(Not that the others, the ones who tried to fight, had left me with a particularly sweet taste.)
[Are you alright, Azra'il? Your adrenaline and cortisol levels are abnormally elevated,] Eos asked.
(I am brilliant. Couldn't be better. Now that the dust has settled and the mosquitoes have been properly squashed.)
[Azra'il…]
(I'm brilliant, Eos. I've already said. Let's continue. We have no time to waste.)
The underground reservoir was now almost completely silent. Just the sound of a few wounded soldiers groaning, and the sound of the water Juvia had conjured draining back into the grates. The water, in some places, was stained a dark red. The smell of blood, of ozone, and of burnt magic hung in the air like a mist.
And in the midst of it all, what was left of the Fairy Tail team: Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Juvia, looking at me with expressions that ranged from pure shock, to concern, to something I didn't want, and couldn't, name at that moment. Fear.
"What is it?" I asked, the irritation starting to return. "Have you lost something?"
"Nothing," Gray said, after a moment of heavy silence. "Just… nothing."
But before the silence could become even heavier and more awkward, before more stupid questions could be asked, a sound cut through the air of the cistern. A creak. A slow, deep creak. Of metal on stone.
All of us, as one, turned in the direction of the sound. A door. A huge door, of solid iron and adorned with runes I hadn't seen in a long time, a door I hadn't noticed before, embedded in the back wall of the reservoir, was slowly opening. On its own. Creaking as if it hadn't been opened for centuries.
"That… that wasn't there before, was it?" Lucy began to say, taking an instinctive step back.
"It's a trap, for sure," Gray completed, forming small ice stakes in his hands out of pure reflex.
"Or," I said, a dark smile forming on my lips, "it could be an invitation."
[Azra'il. The door. It has been remotely activated. From within the tower itself. The mechanism is ancient, but the activation was recent.]
(I know, Eos.)
[That means that someone, on purpose, has opened the passage for us.]
(And who do you think that was, genius? The phantom of the opera? Of course it was Jellal.)
[Probably.]
I looked at the now fully open door. Beyond it, a spiral staircase, made of the same black and damp stone as the tower, stretched upwards, into the most complete and absolute darkness. A path. A direction. A trap so obvious it was almost an insult.
"He… he wants us to go up, doesn't he?" Natsu said, sniffing the air with his dragon's nose. "I can feel it. It's a bait."
"Of course it is," I replied, already starting to walk towards the open door, without hesitation. "Jellal always, always, loved his little games. His chess. Moving the pieces around the board and watching them dance to the music he himself composed. The difference is that this time, the pieces are going to break the board."
"But what if it's a trap?" Lucy asked, concern in her voice. "What if he's waiting for us?"
I stopped on the threshold of the darkness, looking at the staircase that rose towards the heart of this tower of nightmares. And I smiled. "Of course he's waiting for us, Lucy. And I'm looking forward to this reunion. It's been a long, long time."
One by one, they followed me into the darkness. Natsu, with his flames and his unshakeable determination to rescue his friends. Gray, with his ice, his silent strength, and his own demons to face. Lucy, with her newfound courage, her heart too big for her own good, and her celestial spirits. Juvia, with her water and her fierce and slightly obsessive loyalty. And me. An ancient wild wolf, with a contained fury and a promise to keep. We climbed the stairs towards the top of the tower. Towards Jellal. Towards Erza. And, as the last of us entered, the great iron door slammed shut behind us with a final, definitive crash that echoed through the darkness. The game had, officially, begun. And I was more than ready to play. And to win. At any cost.
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Author's Note
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Quick heads-up, everyone: unfortunately, we're going on a short temporary hiatus. 🥲
I've entered exam period at university, and as much as I would love to ignore everything and keep writing magic, chaos, and intense women staring at each other… academic life has decided to show up with a chair.
So there probably won't be any new chapters for about a week, maybe a week and a half at most. It shouldn't be longer than that.
As soon as I survive this exam phase and exit "student fueled by stress, caffeine, and questionable decisions" mode, I'll be back to posting normally.
Thank you all for your patience and for sticking with the story even when the author gets temporarily kidnapped by university life. Wish me luck, because right now my real enemies aren't Jellal, trauma, or forbidden magic.
It's the exams. 😭