Chapter 83: The Demon in the Ice
Lucy looked down. The hard, dark floor of the cavern was rushing up to meet them, but her landing was surprisingly soft. She had crashed onto a pile of... something. It was soft, yet firm, and smelled faintly of... Ren?
She realized she was sitting directly on Ren's face. Again.
"Ah—!"
Lucy shrieked and scrambled to her feet, her face instantly flushing a bright, burning crimson as she instinctively held her bottom. "Ren! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to...!"
Ren rubbed his face, pushing himself up from the ground with a groan. He looked at Lucy, his expression not one of anger, but of pure, deadpan annoyance. "I really... really... don't want to smell that."
He was genuinely baffled. He didn't know why, in the entire history of their short acquaintance, he always ended up with Lucy on his face. He had been stifled, barely able to breathe.
Lucy's embarrassment was immediately vaporized by indignation. "This is sexual harassment!!" she shrieked, and, in a fit of rage, swung a perfect straight punch at Ren's face.
Gray, seeing this, winced. "Lucy, no! You'll break your hand!"
But Ren, his reflexes faster than her eye could follow, simply lifted his hand and caught her fist, his grip like a steel trap. He didn't even flinch.
"You're the one who landed on me," he said, his voice flat, as he let go of her fist.
Gray, ignoring their squabble, looked up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. The cavern they had fallen into was massive. "This seems to be below those ruins from earlier. I wonder why there's such a big hole here."
The air was frigid, far colder than the forest above, and ancient, carved pillars rose into the darkness. It was a hidden temple.
"A secret cave!" Natsu, who had landed on Gray and was completely unharmed, seemed very excited. "Since we're down here, let's explore! There must be incredible secrets in a secret cave!"
"Hey, don't mess around anymore!" Gray snapped, shoving Natsu off him. "We're here to find a way to break the curse..."
"Wow—!"
Gray's words were cut short by Natsu's sudden, awestruck exclamation. Ren and Lucy also stopped, their argument forgotten.
"What's wrong, Natsu?" Lucy asked.
"What... What is this?"
Their eyes widened as they looked ahead, into the center of the vast cavern. There, illuminated by a faint, purple light filtering from an unknown source, was a mountain of ice.
And sealed within it... was a monster.
It was a giant, grotesque, bipedal demon, with a horned skull for a head and massive, powerful limbs. It was frozen in a block of ice so thick and vast it seemed to be a permanent part of the cavern.
When Gray Fullbuster saw the monster's appearance, his pupils constricted to pinpricks. His face became extremely panicked, his skin turning paler than his own ice, and his eyes filled with an unspeakable, primal fear.
His breath hitched. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. All he could hear was the echo of a woman's voice, screaming a single word in his memory.
"Iced Shell!"
"Deliora!!!"
"Huh?"
Hearing Gray's terrified shout, Lucy, Natsu, and Happy were all a bit confused. Ren, however, was only surprised to see the frozen monster. He hadn't expected it to be so huge.
"Deli... You know this thing, Gray?" Natsu asked, his excitement fading as he saw his rival's reaction.
"Impossible!" Gray was hyperventilating, his hands grabbing his own head. "It can't be here!! That's... that's... It's impossible!"
Gray was completely flustered, his mind lost in a storm of trauma. Ren, seeing his teammate on the verge of a breakdown, glanced at Gray and said lightly, his voice cutting through the panic, "Gray. Calm down."
Hearing Ren's firm, unshakable voice, Gray flinched, but the fog of his panic calmed down slightly. Although Ren usually seemed unreliable and lazy, almost everyone in the guild unconsciously regarded him as a pillar of stability. When Ren spoke, his words held great weight.
Lucy came to Gray's side, her voice filled with concern. "Gray, are you okay? What exactly is this monster?"
"Deliora..." Gray said, his voice trembling as he stared at the frozen demon. "The Demon of Disaster... Deliora of the Calamity. It's... it's exactly like it was back then. How... how did it end up here..."
Gray was very puzzled; this thing should absolutely not be here.
Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed from a tunnel on the far side of the cavern.
Ren's ears twitched. "Someone's coming."
The group, even Gray, reacted instantly. They immediately hid behind a large, fallen pillar, wanting to see what was happening.
Soon, three people walked over, their footsteps casual. One was a tall man who looked almost like a dog, shirtless, wearing jeans, with long, floppy dog-like ears. The second was a short, stocky man with thick eyebrows and a blue and white trench coat.
"It sounds like someone was talking here," the short one, Yuka, said.
"Arf! Arf!" the dog-like man, Toby, replied, sniffing the air.
"Daytime... so sleepy..." Yuka muttered.
"Arf! Arf!"
"Are you a dog? Why do you have dog ears?" Yuka asked, annoyed.
"Where?! These are decorations!! Understand?! Grrr..." Toby growled.
"I was just joking. Do you have to get so angry?"
"Hmph!"
At this moment, a girl walked over, her face a mask of tragedy. "Yuka, Toby, I have such sad news for you. Angelica... was beaten up by someone!"
"Angelica? You mean that giant, stinky mouse?!" Yuka said, exasperated.
"She's not a mouse!" the girl, Sherry, cried. "Angelica is a hunter running in the darkness! This is... love~~!"
The girl was wearing a full gothic lolita style outfit, with heavy makeup, looking completely worried.
Lucy, hiding behind the pillar, couldn't help but retort in a whisper, "A strange human has arrived. And she's in love with a... rat?"
Natsu stared at the three and said, "They're not villagers from this island. Their scent is different." Natsu's nose was very sensitive and could easily distinguish everyone's scent.
Yuka frowned. "Are there intruders?"
Although he was a bit speechless about Sherry naming a large rat Angelica, that large mouse was indeed a guard they had placed around the ruins, mainly to prevent others from breaking in.
Now that the large mouse was beaten, coupled with the sounds they heard earlier, it meant that it was very likely the intruders had already entered their sacred place.
"We're almost done collecting the light of the Moon Lord," Yuka said, his voice low. "Really, this is such a sad thing. Before Lord Reitei finds out, let's drive them out. Before the Moon Lord appears tonight."
[Akarin's Note: Reitei (零帝), meaning "Cold Emperor" or "Sub-Zero Emperor," is the title used by the leader of this group.]
"Yes, indeed," Sherry agreed.
"Arf! Arf!"
"Since they've seen Deliora," Sherry said, her voice turning cold, "we can't let them leave alive. Let the intruders sleep forever... this is love."
"It's death," Yuka corrected, annoyed. "Kill them."
As the three spoke, their footsteps gradually faded away as they left through another tunnel, presumably to search for the "intruders."
Ren and the others also emerged from behind the rocks.
"Why did we hide?" Natsu immediately complained, his fists smoking. "Wouldn't it be better to just catch them and ask for an explanation? Isn't that right, Ren?"
Ren, who was inspecting the ice, waved his hand. "Don't ask me. Didn't I say? Since you all want to do an S-Class Quest, the decision-making power is temporarily yours. If I act, the quest will be counted as mine."
"Then no! We'll handle it!" Natsu said, not wanting to lose his chance.
"Damn it," Gray muttered, his eyes still fixed on the ice. "Why did those guys move Deliora here? And how did they find Deliora's sealing place?"
Natsu then remembered that Gray seemed to know this monster. "By the way, Gray, how do you know this thing?"
Gray's hands clenched, his voice tight with suppressed emotion. "This guy... this demon... it was originally sealed in the ice mountains of the Northern Continent. Ten years ago, it... it committed all sorts of atrocities in Isvan. It destroyed my village. It was... immortal."
He touched the ice, his hand trembling. "Ur... the Master who taught me and Lyon magic... she sacrificed her own life to seal it, using Iced Shell."
"Although I don't know what it has to do with the curse of this island... it absolutely shouldn't be here." He looked at the tunnel the others had left through. "Reitei... Who is he? If he dares to defile Ur's name, I will never let him go!!"
Gray clenched his fists, his eyes becoming sharp with a cold fury.
"Could the island's curse be related to this demon?" Lucy guessed. It seemed logical, after all. "The villagers all turned into demons, looking... looking like smaller versions of this demon."
"It's very possible," Ren said, his voice flat. "This demon is still alive."
"Good!" Natsu said, slamming his fist into his palm. "In that case, we just need to try and defeat this demon!"
He began to wreathe his fist in fire. "If we just melt this ice..."
Bang!
"Ugh!"
Natsu had just finished speaking when his face took a solid, ice-cold punch, sending him flying.
"Gray, you bastard, what are you doing?!" Natsu roared, jumping back up.
"Fire Mage, get away from here!!" Gray shouted, his eyes blazing with an anger Lucy had never seen. "What if your fire melts the ice?! What if Deliora wakes up?!"
"Is this seal that easy to melt?!" Natsu yelled back. "It's just ice!"
"It's not just ice, you idiot!"
Gray was stunned, then realized he was being overly sensitive. This was Iced Shell, a magic of Absolute Ice applied by his Master. It was said that even the strongest flames couldn't melt it. But still...
Ren patted Gray's shoulder, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "Alright, Gray. You're a bit too nervous. I know this monster might have left a significant shadow on your childhood."
He looked up at the massive, frozen demon. "But as long as I'm here, even if this monster does revive... I can just make it die again. For good."
It was just a demon from the Book of Zeref. It was easy for him to deal with.
[Akarin Note:
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