“Now what?” Orin asked. Traveling to Ishgar had been easy. Arthur just had to hope that Selene didn’t find out that he had used the magic she taught him to travel to Ishgar by way of Elentear. Wendy had managed to heal Minerva. Georg however was harder. He’d been lucid long enough for Arthur to tell him about the information Minerva had.

“We do what Georg told us to,” Arthur said. It wasn’t in his hand any more. It was Georg’s responsibility. It wasn’t his. Georg was the guild master.

“And leave Pax and Cullen in their hands?” Orin said, hitting the wall of the guild hall.

“And give them the best chance of being rescued,” Arthur said. Natsu was listening in and he knew it. Arthur had mentioned the idea of getting help while they were here. Georg had been very opposed to the idea. This was a Diabolos matter, and Diabolos would handle it.

“Are you really satisfied with that logic?” Orin asked, his voice raised with rage. “I’m not. They’re my friends.”

Arthur winced. His stomach was knotting more and more. He didn’t want to be in this position. He’d obtained great power, which left him with a great deal of responsibility. He could possibly save Pax and Cullen. Take Minerva, Orin, Natsu, Erza, and Gray and fight the alchemists trusting Team Natsu’s plot armor to save them.

But that was an obvious risk. He didn’t know if plot armor would work here. He had no idea what the enemies they were facing were. Even if they could handle Silver Demon, and Arthur was certain they could, they might not do so without casualties and losses. And Georg had directly ordered him not to do it. If he did it now there would be trouble from Georg.

Minerva was still tired. She’d not be fighting at her best. He wouldn’t either. He’d been doing some fairly intensive training, and then transported people across dimensions, and would have to transport the team to Elentear and then to a point he wasn’t familiar with in Earthland. It’d not be easy.

“I’m not,” Arthur admitted. “But I’m not sure it’s wrong either.”

Orin scowled at him, and walked away. Arthur sighed. He needed to think, and he needed advice.

Arthur had found the aged guild master of Fairy Tail and talked to him about the situation. Two questions had stood out, two questions Arthur couldn’t answer easily. “Do you trust your guild master’s judgment?” and “What does your heart say to do?”

And in the end, Georg’s belief that they needed him in fighting shape. Not just needed the Dark Dragon Slayers Knights, but needed him in fighting shape, was something that Arthur had to trust. Georg knew a lot more about battle than him. Georg had seen his power against Kirin. It was obvious he’d taken notice of it from how much it evidently bothered him. If Georg thought they’d need both of them, Minerva, and the DDSK, Arthur would trust that, whether Orin wanted him to or not.

He just hoped Pax and Cullen could forgive him for that. Wraith too.

And with his decision made it was time to talk to Natsu, Erza, and Lisanna and find out how things were going with them, and with the Thunderbolts.

It was going to take time to heal Georg. Even with Wendy it would be days. It was decided that they would begin to travel back to Guiltina; Georg - or Diabolos’s guild coffers - would pay Wendy’s fee, and for the boat and trip.

But he refused to accept the offered help from Team Natsu. If Diabolos needed another guild to fight its battles for it, especially one from Ishgar, the guild would be dead as an organization. No one would hire a disgraced guild to do monster extermination quests, or to fight dark guilds. For Diabolos to survive it needed to win this fight with its mages.

Natsu and Georg almost came to blows, before Makarov stepped in. Natsu argued what Arthur wanted to argue. Pax, Cullen, and Wraith were guild members, it wasn’t right to endanger them for money. Makarov, though, pointed to the realist perspective; the whole guild would be in danger if it lost its means of supporting itself. And that time was the greater danger there.

Natsu still wanted to come to Guiltina with them. There were dragons there. And Igneel might be as well. In the end Team Natsu would be joining them. Along with Lisanna Strauss. Not to fight Silver Demon, but to travel to the north, and see if they could find signs of the dragon Natsu sought.

It provided an out of sorts, and one Arthur was quick to seize on. It wasn’t the guild needing their help if it was how they paid for passage and information. Georg still did not like the idea, but in the end he accepted it. 3 of his were missing, and there was a fair chance they would be forced to undergo dragonification before they could even arrive to save them. They would need all the muscle they could get.

They bought a boat to go back to Guiltina in, and hired a crew. But they wouldn’t be sailing. Arthur wrapped the whole vessel in his territory and warped it to the horizon. And then he repeated. And he repeated. He would keep this up until he grew tired, or they were clearly far enough away from Earthland to be outside of Acnologia’s notice.

It was on the fourth such warp that Georg’s head rose, his nostrils flaring. “Do ya smell it?” He asked, his head turning towards the southern horizon.

“Smell what?” Arthur asked. He was stretching his magic out again, sending it out until it grew hard to send his space further.

And then the roar came, a burst of energy hitting the ocean nearby and causing it to boil and rise in a mountain of water. It was a magical power that Arthur recognized; though even if he hadn’t, there was only one entity he knew of that could shoot a dragon’s roar capable of changing a map from beyond the range of vision. Acnologia had noticed his magic, and was displeased. He stopped stretching his space and he teleported the ship again with his territory magic.

From there everything was a blur for Arthur. People were screaming and questioning what that was. Arthur couldn’t even remember afterwards what he’d answered. A second blast had come, but it had fallen well short of the vessel, and there was no third. Arthur kept using his territory to teleport further and further, until he felt it all around him, the connection with where he had slowly stretched it out day by day since bringing Altaface to Edolas. And from there it was only a single teleportation to Diabolos’s guild hall. And Acnologia had ceased following at some point.

“Would Selene help us?” Orin’s question shocked Arthur.

Georg growled.

“I doubt it,” Arthur said. “She’d demand a heavy price if she did.”

“She’s the enemy every bit as much as Silver Demon,” Georg said.

“What sort of price?” Orin asked.

“I still owe her two unspecified tasks as a price of her taking over a country instead of razing it,” Arthur said. “And that’s a deal she only accepted because I was strong. I don’t want to know what price she’d exact for helping the weak.”

Orin silenced then and looked down.

“I can’t believe you were even considering it,” Georg growled.

“Pax and Cullen are…”

“Family,” Georg said. “But Selene is the enemy.” Arthur flinched back from Georg’s glare there. Georg knew he needed Arthur; he wasn’t so dumb as to believe Arthur didn’t honestly believe that Selene would destroy them all if he reneged on his bargain, but he didn’t like his guild making deals with dragons. He was still displeased at the offer to help Natsu find information about his adoptive father; or the idea that a dragon slayer would see a dragon as a father.

He was making compromises he didn’t like, and Georg could feel himself nearing snapping.

“I’m going to bed. I suggest all of you do as well.”

It was another day before Arthur and Georg were back into fighting shape. Georg because it took that long for Wendy to heal his internal injuries fully. Arthur because he’d expended too much magic escaping Acnologia. It gave time for the Dark Dragon Slayer Knights to be fully assembled, and for a plan to be made.

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Arthur arrived with the Dark Dragon Slayer Knights, Nebaru, Orin, and Tabby. He was feeling worried. Georg, Minerva, Team Natsu sans Lucy and Wendy who had stayed behind, and Team Skullion had gone first. They had appeared at Minerva’s Territory.

Arthur and his squad appeared instead at the prison holding Cullen and Pax. His moon dragon slayer magic had allowed him to use water as a viewing portal, tracking down and finding Cullen and Pax where they were imprisoned. But he had not built a close enough relationship with Wraith to observe him thus.

He appeared outside of Cullen and Pax’s cell. It was a small room, too small really for two individuals, made of magic sealing stone. Arthur and Orin’s attention were immediately upon the cell, while Suzaku, Misaki, and Kirin immediately began scoping out the area for danger.

“Pax, Cullen!” Orin screamed as he reached for the bars. “Did they do anything to you? Have they tortured you?” Even as Orin began to question them, Arthur’s hand twitched and lashing blades of darkness cut through the bars of the cell.

“We’re getting you out of here,” Arthur said. “Anything you can tell us about what happened while here?”

“You guys shouldn’t have come,” Cullen began. The youthful sand dragon slayer’s hand rose to push his bangs out of his face. “We’re bait for a trap.”

“What kind of trap?” Kirin asked, wheeling on Cullen, and beginning to take control of the situation.

Minerva had tried to keep up with Georg, but the guild master was fast once he started using his magic, and even with her own she had trouble keeping up with him. He had rushed into a fight, attacking 4 of the alchemists of the guild, and bellowing something about how they would regret attacking Diabolos.

And then she’d been somewhere else. She hated when people teleported her without warning; it was disorienting. Between her own and Arthur’s Territory magic and their training against each other she was, however, somewhat accustomed to it and to quickly finding her footing afterwards.

She recognized the bald, overweight man who stood in the chamber with her. “Tsk tsk tsk, you really thought to come after me, girl. Didn’t I teach you that I am your better? I guess it’s time for a remedial lesson. What bones should I break this time?”

Minerva’s hand rose and swept, a mass of spheres of her territory forming in front of him. He didn’t move as she felt her control over her personal spatial disruptions twisted away, the orbs launching back towards her like missiles, ready to explode on proximity.

His alchemy would keep her from teleporting as well, and she knew it. She didn’t try it, though. Instead it was her White Tiger Dragon Slayer magic which propelled her into him, shooting past the explosive nihility spheres, and using the flash of light and roar of the explosions to cover her movements.

He hit the wall and she roared, her roar striking him and sending him flying almost straight up until he hit the ceiling of the large chamber he’d placed her in with him. And then he fell.

“The hell?” He asked as he rose to his feet. “You teleported? How?” He drew his sword then pointing it towards Minerva. “Tell me or I cut it out of you.”

He didn’t stay still though. As she charged forward at a speed the untrained eye couldn’t follow he transformed space, changing his position and stabbing. They both struck where the enemy had been, an instant too late to hit them where they now were.

“This is going to be annoying,” Carpenter sighed. “So I think I’ll just leave you here, and-”

“Admit you can’t handle a child one on one? I’m sure your guild mates will have a good laugh about that one,” Minerva said with a cocky, arrogant expression.

“Oh, that’s it. I’m going to enjoy cutting you apart piece by piece.”

Georg looked from one of the alchemists to another. He’d had a strike force of seven mages at his back a moment ago. And now he was alone, standing before a throne. Well not alone. But he had no back up. He didn’t think the three he saw in this room were on his side.

Sitting in the throne was a man gray with age and so wrinkled and shriveled he seemed almost like a living mummy. His hair hung down to his waist, his beard pooling in his lap. He was dressed in fine silk, and bore long fingernails which stretched from his fingers almost like talons. At either side there was another member of Silver Demon. They looked similar enough to be twins, both tall, straight of body, blue-eyed, and blonde with well-defined but not unduly bulky musculature. They weren’t identical, one was a man the other a woman, but there was something uncanny about each of them.

They wore matching outfits as well. A silk shirt, under a metal plate that covered only one breast, one arm bare and bearing the Silver Demon guildmark, the other covered in a sleeve of chainmail. An armored leather skirt hung to below their knees, beneath which were armored boots and on each hand they wore metal gauntlets.

“Georg Reizen, the Dragon Eater, it is quite a shame we had to meet this way,” the old man on the throne said. “I had truly intended to leave you and your guild alone after you had proven flawed and unwieldy for my purposes. But you picked a fight. You and your little Dragon Knight attacked my subordinates systematically. You had to know that meant war. But I was still willing to give you an out. But then you shot the messengers, didn’t you? You killed some of my finest gild members and now, Craven, Nancy, show him your nightmare alchemy,” the desiccated old man said, his dry, papyrus-like lips curling up into a sickening smile.

“This is taking too long,” Arthur huffed. Cullen had explained things. He’d managed to escape his cell, and while trying to escape the lair he had found a ritual site. Something that would amplify their alchemy to turn the dragon slayers into dragons and then control them. All the rest were going to do was stall for time for that to turn the entire attack force into weapons for Silver Demon’s conquest of Guiltina.

It was deeper beneath the mountain than the rest of the lair, and with the narrow tunnels the full team wouldn’t be able to fight at once without getting in their way. Kirin had decided that he, Suzaku, and Misaki would play diversion, starting to wreak havoc and making certain that reinforcements couldn’t descend after it while Arthur, and Tabby, went down and smashed the ritual device.

Cullen knew the way so he would guide Arthur to it. But it was a maze, and Arthur didn’t know where he was going to teleport there.

“I’m sorry, it’s the quickest I can get us there,” Cullen huffed back.

Suddenly a bronze pegasus had appeared in th tunnel. “Enif, there’s a ritual chamber underneath these tunnels, could you find the path there as quickly as possible?” Arthur asked. “Do a good job and we’ll find some real nice mountains to fly over.”

“Youdon’tneedtobribeme. Bearebe.” The pegasus spat out, and then he was gone with a crack like thunder and a sudden burst of air force. He wasn’t flying, but running down the tunnel, his hooves slamming into stone.

“They’ll notice him running everywhere and reinforce!” Cullen shouted. “Besides we’ll be sitting ducks while waiting for him to come back and report.”

“Archive link,” Arthur said. “You know how me and my Celestial Spirits work. Actually wait, you know where we’re going. Just focus on that and I’ll get the map from you with my Archive magic.” His hand swept and suddenly a hard-light display console appeared.

Cullen’s eyes looked downwards. And then he lunged forward his right hand twisting into a length of steel, a chain running along it covered in sharply bladed ‘teeth’ which were pulled along the chain across the length at high speeds.

“Arthur, no!” Taberius cried and he lunged forward, jumping towards the assailant. But he had reacted too late, and the chainsaw thrust against Arthur’s stomach only to glance aside from his Territory Armor. Arthur’s palm struck Cullen in the chest and sent him flying back into the wall.

“You’re not really Cullen, are you?” Arthur said.

“Oh no. What gave it away?” Cullen asked as his body began to reshape itself, becoming more feminine, and finally full blown womanly, a twisted smile shaping on the face of a dark haired beauty. “I surrender,” She said, throwing her hands up. “Tie me up and leave me be, and you can-”

Arthur’s right hand had turned into a red scaled draconic claw as it planted at her throat, the tips of its talons stroking her throat. “Tell me where Cullen really is, and just how much truth there was to your little ritua…” He cut off. Enif had found the ritual site, and there was an alchemist there working the ritual already.

It was only another instant before Arthur and Taberius were beside Enif. He hadn’t had it in him to kill in cold blood, and hadn’t had a good means of restraint. But someone who surrendered so easily shouldn’t be too much of a problem. He’d brought her along with himself and Taberius as he’d moved to the ritual site. He wasn’t sure if it was a bad idea, or a terrible idea. But hopefully he had enough power to handle it.

The alchemist within wore a heavy, black robe which concealed his face, and most of his body, only his white gloved hands and white booted feet visible extending out from it. “Ashley, I thought you were going to keep him occupied,” He said.

“Sorry, Raimi, he figured me out,” She said. “And have you heard the stories about this one? He’s supposed to be worse than the Raging Tiger.”

The man called Raimi sighed. “Someday the boss will listen to me when I say that you’re not worthy of the guild mark. Still…” His hands disappeared into his sleeves, and popped back out holding two bottles which he chucked towards Arthur. “I’ll show you how it’s done, little sister.”

“Careful, bro. His armor is tough, and I don’t think he showed me anything yet,” the girl said.

“Erza, Gray, Happy! Happy?!” Natsu shouted as his head shot side to side. They’d been right beside him a moment ago, and now… He wasn’t where he had been either. He was somewhere else in the subterranean tunnels which composed Silver Demon’s secret lair.

“Don’t recognize you from the briefing,” a man said, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He wore a business suit, his hair cut short and kept plain, simple, and neat. “That is rather troubling.”

“What’d you do with Happy?” Natsu asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Look, I’m busy with paperwork, so why don’t we make this quick? I didn’t turn to a life of crime to work overtime.”

Suzaku sheathed his blade. He’d brought down the dark guilder in a single cut. And then he heard a man clapping slowly. They wore a rich, flowing cape, and a suit of black plate armor.

“Oooh, now you. You are ripe. Not like the two that those fools brought back previously. You’re just perfect for experimentation.”

“What dost thou mean experimentation?” Suzaku asked his eyes narrowing. He feared he already knew.

The man didn’t answer, but pulled back his arms and began to weave them through seals and sigils of magic. The ground was shaking, the rocks and dust falling from the ceiling. Suzaku knew his guild mates were out there fighting somewhere with everything that they had. He could do no less. He dismissed the fear that made his chest clench. He couldn’t let it dull his edge. He would need everything he was in this fight. But he also knew it would be over quickly. Either he would win or lose in a single blow.

His hand moved to the hilt of his katana, and he launched himself forward, pulling the sword free for a quick draw slice, using the sheath itself to add speed to his blow. He felt something surging through him, the man’s alchemy starting to transmute something inside of him from human to monster. And he could only hope his blow would not land slow.