Seeing how relaxed Kaien looked, Natsu clenched his teeth.
He had to complete this S-Class mission.
There was no way he'd go down like this—not yet.
"It's not over!!"
With a roar, Natsu slammed his palm into the ground and leapt back to his feet. Flames swirled around both his arms, forming twin blades of fire as he began to spin rapidly.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—Crimson Lotus—"
Before he could finish shouting the move—
SLAP!
A large hand grabbed him by the ankle mid-spin.
He didn't even have time to react before he was violently whipped downward.
BOOM—!!
"Uwaaah!!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Kaien slammed Natsu into the ground over and over, the sheer force making the earth quake with each impact.
"Natsu!!"
Lucy couldn't bear to watch. Her heart filled with terror, afraid she'd be next.
Happy was trembling even worse.
Sure, Natsu was the one who dragged them into this, but he was technically the main culprit behind stealing the S-Class request.
And this version of Kaien?
Didn't recognize friend or foe.
After a while, Kaien finally stopped.
Natsu was bruised and swollen, his face resembling a pig's head.
Kaien let go, and Natsu collapsed to the ground, motionless. No one could tell if he was still conscious.
"I gave you a chance, and you wasted it.
Looks like this mission is still mine after all."
"Kaien… y-you didn't… kill Natsu, right?"
Gray asked cautiously. He might argue with Natsu all the time, but he never wanted to see the guy die.
"Relax. I held back.
It just looks bad—mostly surface wounds.
Hurts like hell, but give him two or three days and he'll be bouncing around again."
Kaien had absorbed the knowledge of Toji Fushiguro, and understood the human body perfectly: where to hit for pain, injury, or death.
Just a little pain? It looked far worse than that, but Gray still replied, "That's… good. Good to hear."
Kaien turned his gaze toward Lucy and Happy.
"Eeep—!!"
The girl and the cat instantly dropped to the ground, shivering with fear.
"You two…"
He hadn't even finished speaking when—
"We're sorry! We're sorry!! We'll never do it again!! Never ever again!!"
They shouted as they bowed over and over.
"Hmph.
I'll let you off this time.
But expect punishment from Master when we get back."
Kaien snorted coldly, then canceled his Toji Fushiguro Take Over state and returned to normal.
Lucy and Happy collapsed in relief.
"Finally… I thought I was gonna die…"
"Aye~~!"
Kaien stepped back into the village.
The villagers were still hiding, peeking at him from behind their homes.
Now that he had exited the Take Over form, Kaien immediately felt the aches across his body—every muscle sore.
That was the usual side effect of channeling Toji: forcibly boosting his physical stats to such absurd levels took a toll.
Good thing his body had gotten stronger lately—otherwise, each use would leave him bedridden.
He picked up a chair, sat down, and crossed one leg over the other.
"Alright. Come out."
"…"
No one moved.
They'd just seen him savage Natsu.
If that happened to them, they'd be dead.
Kaien's tone dropped.
"Or do I need to come get you myself?"
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!
Everyone came running out in a panic.
The village chief approached nervously.
"U-um… honored Mage, sir…"
"My name's Kaien. I'm the one officially assigned to this S-Class mission.
Those three idiots stole the commission from the guild and ran off to do it on their own.
So I taught them a lesson."
"Ah, so that's what happened!"
Now it made sense why Kaien beat Natsu so brutally—they'd stolen his job.
"Apologies for earlier. If there was any property damage, take it out of the reward money after the mission's complete."
The chief waved his hands frantically. "No, no! It's fine! It was just some wood. We've got plenty in the forest—we'll patch it up quickly."
"Alright then.
Let's talk about the mission."
Even though Kaien already knew how to lift the curse, he had to follow protocol.
"Of course!"
The chief turned and shouted, "Everyone, remove the cloth!"
SWOOSH!
All the villagers pulled off the cloaks they'd been wearing.
What was revealed shocked them all.
Many had mutated bodies: scales on their arms, horns sprouting from their heads, limbs wrapped in chitinous armor.
They looked like walking fragments of demons.
"What the—"
Gray's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Gulp."
Lucy swallowed hard.
She'd seen the boatman's cursed arm earlier, but seeing an entire village like this was something else.
"Surprised?
Every living thing on this island—even dogs and birds—has been affected by the curse."
Gray voiced the question on everyone's mind.
"You keep calling it a curse… but what makes you sure? Couldn't it be some disease?"
"We've had over a dozen doctors look into it. They all say it's not any known illness.
Besides… our transformations are tied to the Magic of the Moon."
"Magic of the Moon? What's that?"
Lucy asked curiously.
"Since ancient times, this island absorbed moonlight.
It used to glow like a jewel—radiant and pure.
But a few years ago… the moonlight suddenly turned purple."
"Purple?"
That caught everyone off guard.
Wasn't moonlight supposed to be white?
"The moon is rising!"
Happy pointed up.
The moon emerged from behind the clouds, casting eerie purple light across the island.
"It is purple…"
"This is the curse of the Moon's magic.
And now… ugh… ahh…!"
"Grrraaaahh!!"
The villagers began groaning in pain.
"Hey! What's happening to you?!"
Gray and Lucy ran toward them, panicked.
In the blink of an eye, the villagers began to transform—fully.
They morphed into terrifying demonic creatures, their bodies twisted into monstrous shapes.
"GYAAAHHH!!"
Lucy and Gray were frozen in fear.
Even Kaien was startled.
To be honest, even he had to admit—if one of these monsters jumped out at him in the dark, he'd scream. And this was all of them at once!
"Sorry you had to see this.
Whenever the purple moon appears, we turn into these hideous forms.
If this isn't a curse, what else could it be?"
"At dawn, we'll turn back.
But there are some…
Some who've lost themselves completely.
Their minds devoured by the curse."
"If we leave it like this…
those people will kill the rest of us.
I had no choice…
I even had to kill… my own son."
The chief wept, lifting a photo.
"That man… wait—?!"
Lucy and Happy's expressions changed instantly.
It was the boatman who had ferried them here.
"Because of the purple moon's power, we've become monsters.
And our hearts are slowly being consumed too.
Soon, we'll all become true demons."
"There's only one way to break the curse…"
"Destroy the moon."