Chapter 80: The Curse of the Moon
Seeing Ren's relaxed, almost bored demeanor, Natsu gritted his teeth, his entire body screaming in protest. His magic was completely gone, and his head was spinning. He was exhausted, but his pride was what stung the most. He still had an S-Class Quest to complete; how could he possibly fall here?
Absolutely not.
"It's… not… over yet!!"
Natsu roared, slamming his palms on the ground. He used the last dregs of his strength to leap up, forming two fiery blades with his flame-wreathed hands, spinning rapidly in the air.
"Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus Explod—"
Before Natsu could even finish shouting the name of his move...
Snap!
In an instant, Ren had closed the distance. One of Natsu's ankles was caught mid-spin by a large, iron-grip hand.
Immediately after, Natsu felt an irresistible, brutal force dragging him from the air and slamming him, head-first, towards the ground.
Boom—!
"Ugh ah ah!"
The ground cratered. But Ren didn't stop.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ren, his face completely devoid of emotion, grabbed Natsu's ankle and repeatedly, mercilessly, slammed him into the ground. He swung him left and right, like a dog playing with a rope toy, each terrifying impact causing the earth to tremble and shake.
"Natsu!"
Lucy couldn't bear to watch this scene. She covered her mouth, her eyes wide with terror. At the same time, she was incredibly afraid, fearing that she would be the one to be treated like Natsu next.
Happy also trembled with fear, his fur standing on end. After all, although Natsu was the mastermind behind stealing the S-Class Quest, he was the main accomplice in the theft.
Ren, in this state, recognized no one. He was simply... eliminating a problem.
After a few more brutal slams, Ren stopped. He let go. Natsu's body, now bruised and swollen, his face resembling a pig's head, fell to the ground in a motionless heap. Everyone was unsure if he was even breathing.
"I gave you a chance," Ren's cold voice cut through the silence. "But you didn't seize it. It looks like this quest still belongs to me."
"Qi... Ren..." Gray asked, his voice strained with some concern. "You didn't... do anything permanent to Natsu, did you?"
Although he and Natsu were rivals, he didn't want Natsu to be killed or crippled.
"Don't worry," Ren said, turning his cold gaze to Gray. "I knew what I was doing. He looks a bit miserable, but they're all just superficial injuries. It's just a lot of pain. He'll be bouncing back in two or three days."
This form, Fushiguro Toji, was a master of his own body and, by extension, all bodies. He was incredibly familiar with human anatomy. He knew exactly where to hit to cause debilitating, non-lethal pain, where to hit to cause a critical injury, and where to hit to kill. Natsu had only received the first.
"A bit miserable?" Gray thought, looking at Natsu's unconscious, broken-looking form. "He looks absolutely terrible..." But he still said, "That's good! That's good!"
Ren's gaze, like a predator scanning for its next target, then fell on Lucy and Happy.
"Eeek—!!"
The person and the cat, who were hiding behind a large rock, immediately trembled with fear.
"You two…" Ren said, taking a step toward them.
Before Ren could finish his sentence, his terrifying, oppressive aura was too much.
Lucy and Happy scrambled out, fell to their knees, and pressed their heads to the ground in a desperate bow.
"SORRY! WE'RE SO SORRY!" Lucy wailed, tears and snot streaming down her face.
"WE WON'T DARE TO DO IT AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!!" Happy shrieked, his voice cracking.
"Hmph! I'll let you off this time," Ren snorted, the threat in his voice still palpable. "Wait until you get back to face the Master's punishment!"
With that, Ren snorted coldly, then released the Fushiguro Toji transformation.
The effect was immediate. The terrifying, oppressive aura vanished. Ren's muscles seemed to deflate slightly, and the cold, arrogant light in his eyes was replaced by his own. He immediately staggered, gritting his teeth as he leaned against a rock for support.
Lucy and Happy, feeling the killing intent disappear, slumped to the ground, panting. A wave of relief, so strong it made them dizzy, washed over them. Ren, in that state, was too terrifying.
"We finally survived…" Lucy whimpered, her legs feeling like jelly.
"Aye~!" Happy sobbed.
Ren stepped into the village, and all the villagers, who had been watching the one-sided execution, secretly watched him from behind their houses.
The moment the transformation was released, Ren felt the backlash. His entire body screamed in protest. He felt sore all over. This was the after-effect of every transformation into Fushiguro Toji. Forcefully raising his physical capabilities to that superhuman level, his normal body couldn't quite handle the strain. It was like putting a dragon's engine inside a normal car; the car would fly, but the chassis would crack.
Fortunately, his current physical fitness had greatly improved over the last six months, thanks to his relentless training and the restorative effects of Sun Breathing. Otherwise, one transformation like that might have put him out of commission for a while.
Ren picked up a chair that had been blasted out of a hut and sat on it, crossing his legs to hide his trembling. "Everyone, come out!"
"…"
All the villagers remained still, hidden behind their homes. They had just witnessed how Ren had brutally, and without magic, beaten the fire-user who had arrived with Lucy. If they were beaten like that, they would have died long ago.
Ren's voice, now his own but still laced with annoyance, turned cold. "Do you want me to personally invite you out?"
Swish swish swish!!!
All the villagers, hearing the threat in his voice, immediately ran out in fear, gathering in the center of the village, their hands raised.
The village chief, Moka, cautiously asked: "This... Mage-sama…"
"My name is Ren, and I am the person in charge of this S-Class Quest," Ren said, trying to sound professional despite the aching in his bones. "I am the Mage who officially accepted this quest. Those three idiots," he gestured to Natsu, Lucy, and Happy, "stole an S-Class Quest request from the guild and secretly ran out to do the quest. So, I taught him a lesson."
"So that's how it is!"
The villagers now understood why Ren had beaten Natsu so severely. It turned out that the other party had stolen his job.
"I apologize for the damage caused just now," Ren said, looking at the two houses Natsu had been blasted through and the gate he had personally destroyed. "These damages will be deducted from the quest reward after the quest is completed."
The village chief quickly waved his hand and said: "It's fine! It's fine! They're just some cheap pieces of wood, found everywhere in the forest! They can be repaired quickly. Please, don't worry about it!"
"Alright," Ren said, getting to the point. "Now, tell me about the quest situation."
Although he already knew, from his memories of the anime, how to lift the so-called curse, some procedures still needed to be followed.
"Okay!"
The village chief turned to his people and instructed: "Everyone, take off your cloths."
Swish!
Everyone in the village—men, women, and even children—removed the heavy cloths and cloaks that had been draped over their bodies.
The moment they did, Gray and Lucy gasped.
They saw that parts of everyone's bodies were in an altered state. Some had purple, reptilian scales growing on their arms. Some had small, gnarled horns growing on their foreheads. And others were covered in various carapaces, their hands and feet looking like the limbs of a demon.
"This is…" Gray was very surprised to see this.
"Gulp!"
Lucy involuntarily swallowed. Even though she had seen it on the boatman, Bobo, and was somewhat mentally prepared, seeing this situation—an entire village of people slowly transforming—made her feel a shiver down her spine.
"You're very surprised, aren't you?" Moka said, his voice full of despair. "All living creatures on this island, even the dogs and the birds, have fallen under such a curse."
Gray, ever the pragmatist, asked his question: "Where is the basis for you saying this is a 'curse'? Couldn't it be some kind of illness? A magical plague?"
"We've had over a dozen doctors look at it," the chief said, shaking his head. "They all said there's no such disease. Moreover... our transformation is related to the 'Moon's Magic Power'."
"Moon's Magic Power? What is that?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.
"This island, since ancient times, has accumulated the light of the moon. The entire island used to shine with a soft, white light. However, a few years ago... the moonlight... it suddenly turned purple."
"Purple?" Gray and the others were a bit surprised. Aren't moons always white? How could moonlight turn purple?
As if on cue, one of the villagers shouted, "The moon... the moon is out!!"
Happy pointed to the sky. The moon, which had been hidden, slowly rose from behind the clouds, casting a sickly, violet moonlight upon the earth.
"It... it really is purple!!" Lucy whispered, unnerved.
The moment the light touched them, the villagers groaned.
"This is the curse of the Moon's Magic Power... Ugh... Ugh ah…"
"Ugh ah ah ah!!"
All the villagers suddenly cried out, their faces contorted in expressions of pure pain.
"Hey! What's wrong with you?!" Gray shouted.
Seeing the villagers in such pain, Gray and Lucy both panicked a little.
In a flash, all the villagers began to transform. Their bodies convulsed, bones snapped and reformed, and their skin split. Their partial, demonic features spread. The scales covered their bodies, the horns grew, and their forms twisted.
Soon, their entire bodies had turned into terrifying, purple, full-demonic forms. They were no longer human.
Gasp—!!
Lucy and Gray were utterly stunned.
Ren, who knew this was coming, was also startled. To be honest, at night, any one of these people alone could scare someone to death, let alone an entire village of them appearing together. Even though he knew they were just villagers, it was the same; who wouldn't be afraid?
"I'm... I'm sorry to have startled you," Moka, the village chief, said. His voice was now a deep, demonic growl, though his eyes were still sane. "When the purple moon appears, we turn into these... these ugly forms. If this isn't a curse, what else could it be?"
"By morning, everyone will return to their original appearance," he continued, his demonic face a mask of tragedy. "But... some people, whose minds have been devoured by the demon form, will not be able to change back. If left unchecked, everyone will eventually be killed by them. Out of desperation... I... I even... I even killed my own son."
The village chief, tears streaming down his demonic face, held up a small, worn photograph.
"That person... Eh?!"
Lucy and Happy's faces changed when they saw the photo of the young man. It was the boatman who had brought them here. It was Bobo.
"Because of this purple moon's magic power, we became like this... and gradually, our minds were also devoured, turning us into true demons. My son... he fled, before his mind was lost. But the curse follows him. Soon, he too will become a monster, just like us."
"So there's only one way," Moka said, his voice dropping to a desperate plea as he looked at Ren. "There is only one way to help us break this curse, and that is…"
He pointed a clawed, demonic hand at the purple moon in the sky.
"Destroy this moon!"
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