The world was burning in a cold, blue fire around me.
The flames danced, not with heat, but with an intensity that seemed to consume the very air, reason itself, in equal measure. The silhouette of the colossal wolf, a manifestation of pure and ancestral fury woven from starlight and primordial darkness, roared silently behind me, a promise of annihilation that made the very fabric of reality tremble with fear. And I… I was at the centre of it all. A vortex. A star about to collapse and take everything within a radius of millennia with it. A storm about to destroy everything in its path to achieve a single, paltry goal.
Including, as I was about to discover, the few and rare people that I had, against my better judgement, begun to care about.
[Azra'il.]
Eos's voice, usually a distant hum of logic and sarcasm, cut through the red haze of my anger like a sharp, unexpected blade of ice.
[Azra'il, you need to stop. Immediately.]
(Don't interrupt me now, Eos. I'm… busy. Not now.) The voice in my mind didn't even sound like mine. It was a low, primal snarl.
[I insist. Look at them. Look at what you are doing.]
(I'm not—)
[LOOK. AT. THEM. NOW.]
The order, so unusual, so laden with a force I rarely heard in her programming, came with an impact that managed, for a split second, to pierce the wall of fury I had erected. I hesitated. And that hesitation made me, for an instant, avert my eyes from the distant horizon, from the image of that cursed tower that was burning in my mind, to the immediate reality around me.
And I looked.
Lucy was on the floor. Not just kneeling in supplication or respect. Prostrate. Her small, fragile hands were desperately trying to find some purchase on a marble floor that continued to crack and crumble under the pressure of my power. Silent, but thick, tears streamed from her eyes, and her breathing came in short, painful gasps. She wasn't just scared. She was suffocating. Under the weight of my aura. She was trembling from head to toe. Not from cold. From pure, absolute, animal terror.
And Natsu…
The Dragon Slayer of Fire. The stubborn, loud, and untameable idiot, who faced gods and demons with a hungry smile on his face. He was also on his knees. His fists clenched against the cracked floor, driven into the stone like anchors, his arms shaking violently with the Herculean effort of simply not collapsing, of not being crushed by my presence. Sweat was pouring down his face. His eyes, normally so full of a bright challenge and a childish determination, were wide.
With fear. A fear he probably hadn't felt since he was a child. A fear of me.
[They are at their limit, Azra'il,] Eos's voice sounded, softer this time. [Your power release is not just affecting the environment. It is actively harming them. The pressure is crushing their bodies, their minds. You are terrorising the people you have sworn, to yourself, to protect. The people who are Erza's precious family. The family that, by extension, you yourself said you would protect.]
The wolf of blue flames behind me faltered, its silent roar losing some of its intensity. The flames around me, which before had roared with the fury of a thousand suns, hesitated.
And then, in an act of courage that bordered on sheer insanity, Lucy spoke.
"A-Azra'il…" Her voice came out weak, strangled by the pressure, almost inaudible. But she was looking at me. She was looking directly into my eyes, through the cold flames, through the terror that paralysed her, through everything. And there was something in her gaze that wasn't just fear. There was… a plea. "Y-you're… please… you're frightening us…"
I didn't answer. I couldn't. The voice in my head, the one screaming for vengeance and destruction, was still too loud.
"We… we're your friends, Azra'il…" She struggled to her feet, leaning on trembling hands, her legs faltering, but stubbornly refusing to give up. An act of faith that hit me like a physical blow. "We're… a team… a family… And Erza… Erza needs us… she needs you…"
"Lucy—" The word came from me as a warning snarl, a guttural vibration distorted by the power that was still emanating from every fibre of my being. Don't interfere. Don't try to stop me.
"NO!" She screamed, and the force in her voice, born of pure desperation, made me take a step back. There was something beyond fear in her voice now. Something I knew. Something that I, ironically, deeply respected. Determination. "Not like this! Not this way! She doesn't need a monster to save her! She doesn't need a force of nature blind with rage! She needs Azra'il! Our friend! The irritating, sarcastic, and lazy Azra'il, the one who complains about the tea, who draws things on enemies' faces, who sings and plays the lute in the guild! The person that Erza… that Erza loves!"
Lucy didn't need to finish the sentence. The word "loves," spoken with such conviction, hung in the air like an anchor, pulling me back from the brink of the abyss. And her words, the images they evoked, hit me harder than any physical attack, more than any magic I had ever felt.
(Monster.) The word echoed in the silence of my mind. (Is that what I've become to them again? Just… a monster?)
[Do you remember the Phantom Lord incident, Azra'il?]
Eos's question came softly, almost gently, without any trace of sarcasm or analysis. And with it, like a dam bursting, the memories came back, clear and painful. The attack on the guild. The attack on Levy and her team, left nailed to a tree for our horror. The blind fury that consumed me. The moment I almost, almost, lost control completely, right there, in the middle of my own home. The look of fear, not in my enemies, but on the face of Master Makarov, on the faces of my comrades, of the people who had taken me in and whom I trusted. The silent promise I had made to myself afterwards.
Never again. I had sworn. Never again would I let my uncontrolled power hurt or terrorise those whom I had decided, against all my instinct, to call my own.
And here I was, moments after renewing that silent promise to Erza, breaking it in the most spectacular and terrifying way possible.
(Damn it. A thousand times, damn it.)
The flames began to die down. Not all at once, in an explosion, but gradually, like a tide receding under the command of the moon. The immense silhouette of the wolf behind me lost its definition, dissolving into thousands of threads of light that rose and dispersed into the night air. The overwhelming pressure that was crushing the environment began to ease, to yield, allowing the air to flow normally again, for sanity to return to that destroyed room.
I took a deep breath. Once. Twice. The air felt cold in my lungs, but it was real. It was a start. The floor stopped cracking. The silver sparks, which before had danced with a murderous energy, went out one by one. The last blue flames flickered and extinguished, leaving behind only the silence, the darkness of the night that was settling back in, and the massive destruction that I had caused in my fit of fury. And I stood there, in the middle of the ruins of the casino that I myself had created, feeling the cold, crushing weight of what I had almost done. Of the beast I had almost become. Again.
"Azra… il?" Natsu's voice sounded hesitant, cautious. He was still on the floor, but the pressure had eased enough for him to lift his head, his gaze wary, like one approaching a wild animal that has just been wounded.
Slowly, as if my body were made of glass, I turned to face them. Lucy had finally managed to stand, though her legs were still visibly trembling, and she was looking at me with a mixture of fear, relief, and a strange, unexpected… compassion. Natsu was also getting up, his eyes still cautious, still uncertain, but the fear was being replaced by something I couldn't read. They were looking at me as if I were an unstable bomb, one that could explode again at any moment with the slightest touch. And, honestly? They weren't entirely wrong.
"Lucy," my voice came out, and to my relief, it sounded more controlled, more human, although still laden with a cold seriousness that wasn't usually there. "I'm sorry." The words sounded strange in my own mouth. "I… I shouldn't have… you shouldn't have had to see that. None of you."
She blinked, the surprise on her face almost comical. She certainly wasn't expecting an apology from me. "I… it's alright," she said, still a little shaky, rubbing her arms as if she were still cold. "You just… you frightened us. A lot."
"I know," I said, and I ran a hand through my hair, a gesture of frustration with myself, with my lack of control, that I rarely allowed myself. "Believe me, I know." Lucy nodded, but I saw the way her fingers were still clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. She had shouted at me. She had confronted me. And only now, with the adrenaline wearing off, did she probably understand how close she had been to not having the chance to regret it.
The silence that followed was heavy, laden with unasked questions and answers that no one, not even I, wanted to give. Natsu opened his mouth to say something, probably something incredibly stupid and inappropriate, as was his custom, when the sound of hurried footsteps and a distant shout interrupted us.
"WHAT THE DEVIL WAS THAT COLUMN OF LIGHT?! IT LOOKED LIKE THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END!"
Gray Fullbuster burst through what was left of the casino's entrance, his eyes wide, his body tense and ready to fight. And behind him, following closely like a particularly devoted bluish shadow and, of course, clinging to his arm as if her life depended on it, so as not to be left behind, was Juvia Lockser.
"Gray-sama, be careful!" Juvia pulled him back for an instant, her eyes scanning the completely destroyed environment with a mixture of a warrior's caution and an obsessive devotion. "Juvia will protect Gray-sama from any danger! And from any love rival who may be lurking in the shadows!"
Gray, ignoring her out of habit, stopped in the middle of the destroyed hall, taking in the scene with a silent shock. The torn-off ceiling. The ruined walls. The cracked floor in webs that spread in all directions. Slot machines melted like ice cream. Vaporised glass. And in the centre of it all, me, the still-pale Lucy, and the visibly shaken Natsu.
"What the hell happened here…" he murmured, slowly turning on his axis. "It looks like a magical atomic bomb went off right in here." And then, he saw Lucy's state. He saw the way she was still trembling, her breathing irregular, her face stained by the tears she had shed.
"Lucy?" Gray took an instinctive step towards her, genuine concern in his voice, his protective mode activating. "Are you alright? What the devil happened to you? Did someone hurt you?"
"GRAY-SAMA!" Before he could take another step, Juvia materialised between the two of them as if she had been summoned by some forbidden magic of jealousy, her eyes flaming with an intensity that rivalled Natsu's recently extinguished flames.
"Gray-sama is showing concern for the love rival!" she exclaimed, pointing an accusatory and dramatic finger at Lucy. "Juvia knew it! JUVIA ALWAYS KNEW! The love rival was just waiting for the perfect moment to show herself vulnerable and get close to Gray-sama when he was off guard!"
"Juvia, for the love of all that is icy, can you just stop it for a minute?" Gray tried, in vain.
"Juvia will not allow it!" The water mage clung to his arm with the renewed strength of a lovesick giant squid. "Juvia will protect Gray-sama from the seductive clutches and the crocodile tears of the love rival!"
"I literally almost had my organs crushed by a magical pressure less than five minutes ago," Lucy said, her voice completely flat and devoid of any emotion. "Can we just pause the jealousy soap opera for today?"
"THAT IS EXACTLY what a cunning rival would say to lower Juvia's guard and steal Gray-sama's heart!"
(For all the old and new gods, I give up on this guild. It's impossible.)
[Her consistency in maintaining her priorities, even amidst a post-apocalyptic scene of destruction, is, at the very least, admirable,] Eos commented, and I could almost hear the amusement in her voice.
(No, Eos. Not the time. Definitely not.)
"Juvia." My low, cold voice cut through the air like a blade, and the water mage froze, ironically, in place, her eyes widening in surprise. "Later. You can dispute territory, declare wars of love, do whatever you want, later. Now… not now."
Something in my tone, in my still-charged presence, must have communicated the absolute seriousness of the situation, because, for the first time I could remember, she fell silent. She didn't let go of Gray's arm, of course. But at least she stopped shouting about love rivals.
Gray looked at me, then at the destruction around, at the still-dark expression on Natsu's face. "Alright, seriously now," he said, his voice more controlled. "What happened here? Were you attacked again? Who… who did… all this?"
Lucy and Natsu exchanged a quick, uncomfortable glance. Neither of them said a word, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of a loyalty I didn't deserve at that moment.
"I did."
The words came from my mouth, simple, direct, as heavy as lead. Gray turned to face me, his eyebrows furrowed in pure and utter confusion.
"You?" He looked around again, as if re-evaluating the scale of the destruction with this new information. "You did… all this? Why? What—"
"They took Erza."
Her name, spoken aloud, cut the air like the sharpest of blades, silencing any question he was about to ask. Gray's face became serious in an instant, the confusion giving way to a grim understanding.
"Taken?" he repeated, his voice low. "Taken how? And by whom?"
"By people from her past," Lucy said, her voice small but firm. "Childhood friends, they said. From that place… from that tower. They showed up and… and just took her."
Gray was quiet for a moment. His eyes scanned the scene: the ruined walls, the ceiling open to the stars, me, standing in the centre of it all. And I could see, with a painful clarity, the pieces falling into place in his head.
"So all this…" he gestured to the ruins around us. "All this destruction… it was you. Your reaction, when you found out they took Erza."
It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact.
"Yes."
Gray ran a hand through his dark hair, letting out a long sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his soul. And then, something in his expression changed. Something darker, deeper, more personal. He stared at me, and there was no fear in his eyes, no judgement. Just… recognition.
"You know," he said, his voice low, almost to himself, but for everyone to hear. "When I was coming here and I felt that magic explode suddenly… that pressure, that cold darkness… for a second, I thought it was Deliora. That somehow, he had come back."
Silence. A deathly silence. The demon's name hanging in the air between us like a ghost. Juvia looked at him, her rivalry completely forgotten, genuine concern on her face. Lucy held her breath. Even Natsu, who was still recovering, stopped to listen, the seriousness of that name silencing even him.
"No," Gray shook his head slowly, his eyes meeting mine with an intensity I hadn't expected. "Actually, on second thought. It was worse."
No one, absolutely no one, contested.
The weight of that comparison, of that testimony, hung in the air between us. He wasn't accusing me. He wasn't afraid, not in the same way as Lucy. He was simply… stating a fact. Acknowledging the nature of the power he had felt. And somehow, that, that calm and terrible validation, was infinitely worse than if he had shouted, if he had attacked me, if he had feared me. It was the recognition of a monster by someone who knew monsters very well.
[Deliora. The demon who destroyed his hometown. Who, indirectly, caused the death of his master. Who defined the entire painful trajectory of his life,] Eos reminded me, with an unnecessary precision.
(I know very well who Deliora is, Eos. You don't need to remind me.)
[And he has just stated that the feeling of your uncontrolled power was worse than that of the demon that has haunted him his entire life. Just so it is on record.]
(I know.)
"Lucy-san… was very brave," Juvia said suddenly, her voice strangely soft, breaking the tension. She was looking at Lucy, no longer with jealousy, but with a new respect. "Juvia felt that pressure even from far away, coming here. Juvia… Juvia doesn't know if she would have been able to stand and still… speak."
Lucy looked at her, genuinely surprised. It was, probably, the kindest thing Juvia had ever said to her.
"…But that doesn't change the fact that Lucy-san is still Juvia's main love rival," she added quickly, clinging to Gray's arm again with a renewed and possessive strength. "Juvia is still watching. Always. Like a love eagle."
(And… there goes the moment of sorority.)
[Her consistency in maintaining her priorities is, in an almost mathematical way, admirable,] Eos pointed out.
(Almost. And deeply irritating.)
"Right, hang on a minute," Natsu said, finally rejoining the conversation completely, the shock giving way to his usual fury. His jaw was clenched, his fists were balled. "You said they took Erza. WHO? TO WHERE? And why the hell are we all still standing here talking about feelings and ancient demons instead of going after her?!"
"Because you need to understand, Natsu, who exactly we are dealing with this time," I replied, crossing my arms, the calm returning to me like a cold cloak. "This is not an ordinary kidnapping by some dark guild wanting a ransom. It's… personal. It's complicated."
"Then un-complicate it," Gray said, direct as always. "Just tell us, Azra'il. We need to know."
I sighed. The kind of long, heavy, and pained sigh of someone who is about to open a very, very old wound, one that has never properly healed, not just mine, but hers as well. "You know that Erza and I knew each other long before I joined Fairy Tail," I began, and everyone nodded. "What you don't know is how. Or where."
"Where did you meet, then?" Lucy asked, her writer's curiosity overcoming her residual fear, her eyes fixed on me, ready to absorb the story.
I looked at them, one by one. These loud, destructive, emotionally complicated, and irritatingly loyal idiots who, for some unfathomable reason of the universe, had become important to me, almost like… a family. They deserved to know the truth. Erza would probably kill me for telling her story, for exposing her greatest vulnerability. But, considering she had been kidnapped and taken back to hell on earth, I thought I could run that risk. And that they needed to know.
"In the Tower of Heaven," I said, and the words left my mouth tasting of ash, chains, and old blood. "A gigantic and profane construction in the middle of the ocean, erected to serve as a gigantic and blasphemous magic circle. The insane project of a cult of fanatics who, in their madness, believed they could use the tower's power to resurrect the most powerful and infamous dark mage in history: Zeref."
"ZEREF?!" Gray exclaimed, genuinely shocked. "But… but that's…"
"Madness? Insanity? A terrible idea?" I completed for him. "Yes. All of the above. And then some. But madmen with resources, power, and a blind faith tend to do terrible things on a grand scale. And, to build something of that magnitude, they needed labour. A lot of disposable labour."
"Labour…" Lucy repeated, and I saw the horrific understanding begin to form in her brown eyes, the colour draining from her face. "You mean…"
"Slaves," I said, and the word came out flat, cold, without emotion. I had learned, over many and painful experiences, to talk about this subject without letting the pain show. It was a defence mechanism. "Men, women, the elderly, and especially children. Children from destroyed villages, orphans, those no one would look for, whom no one would miss. Children who could disappear from the map without the world noticing or even caring."
The silence that followed my revelation was the kind that suffocates, that steals the air. Even Juvia's breathing seemed to have stopped. Her blue eyes, previously focused on Gray, were now wide with pure and absolute horror.
Gray was very, very quiet. His eyes had taken on a distant glint, as if he were seeing another place, another time. I knew that look. It was the same one I sometimes saw in my own reflection in the mirror on sleepless nights. The look of one who knows loss very closely.
"Erza… she was one of those children," I continued, my voice harder, colder. "And, by a twist of fate, or by sheer bad luck, so was I."
"You…?" Natsu stared at me, the fury in his eyes giving way to a shock that left him speechless. "You were… a slave? You… and Erza… together?"
"For a few years, yes. Long and tedious years," I replied, looking away, fixing my gaze on the ruins of the casino that I myself had created. It was easier than facing the pity in their eyes. I hated, with every fibre of my being, pity. "That's where we met. Just two girls in a cold, dark, and damp cell, sharing heavy chains and the few, paltry pieces of mouldy bread they threw at us." An image came to my mind, Erza, small and thin, her large eyes full of a stubborn fear, sharing her bread with me. "You need to eat more. You're younger and smaller." Her kindness, even in that hell, had always been her greatest strength. And, perhaps, her greatest weakness.
I saw the horror and compassion on Lucy's face. She, with her life of privilege, probably couldn't even begin to imagine such a reality. She was too empathetic for her own good.
"But… you managed to escape," Gray said, his voice hoarse, not as a question, but as a statement, as if he were forcing himself to believe it. "You're both here now."
"Yes. We escaped. Because there was a rebellion," my voice grew harder, the memories returning with a clarity I did not want. "The slaves, the children, rose up against the guards. A lot of people died. Children I knew by name. Adults who had protected them. People with whom I had shared that filthy cell."
I closed my eyes for a moment. "And in the middle of that chaos, in the middle of that rebellion, something happened. One of the boys… a boy named Jellal. He was… very close to Erza. The first real friend she had in that place. Perhaps more than a friend, at least in her confused and lonely mind."
"Jellal?" The name hung in the air, as heavy as a tombstone.
No one said anything for a moment. The wind coming through the broken windows of the casino was the only sound, a ghostly whistle. Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but stopped, as if the name itself had a weight, a darkness she did not dare to interrupt.
"He was… corrupted. Or possessed. Something happened to him during the confusion. Something very, very dark," I continued, and my eyes, when I opened them, were as cold as eternal ice. "He stayed behind, after we escaped. He said he was going to finish building the Tower, on his own. That he was going to complete the cultists' work and resurrect Zeref. And, in his madness, he probably convinced the others who stayed, Shô, Millianna, Wally, Simon, the children who were our friends, that the blame for everything, for the failure of the rebellion, for their suffering, was Erza's. That she had betrayed them. That she had fled to save her own skin and abandoned them all behind."
"But that's a bare-faced lie! It's cruel!" Lucy protested, indignant. "Erza would never, ever do something like that! She would sacrifice herself for any of us without a second thought!"
"I know. You know. Anyone with two functioning neurons and a shred of decency knows that," I shrugged, with a weariness that was older than time itself. "But they were just scared children, desperate for a culprit, for a leader, for a hope, however twisted it might be. And he, Jellal, gave them all of that. And, it seems, they believed him. For all these years. And now," my gaze turned dangerously cold, "after all this time, they have come to get her. To take her back to that cursed tower. Back to Jellal."
The name came from my lips like poison, like a curse. "And they didn't take her alone," I added, looking directly at Natsu, who was staring at me with an intensity I rarely saw in him. "The girl with the cat ears that Lucy mentioned, Millianna. I remember her. Since she was a child, she always had an… obsession with cats, with everything feline. She probably took Happy along."
And I saw the change happen in Natsu in real-time. It was like watching a dormant volcano erupt.
First, his jaw locked with an audible snap. Then, his hands closed into fists so tight that the knuckles turned white, and the air around them began to shimmer with heat. And finally, the flames. They exploded from his body, not the bright, cheerful fire he usually used, but unstable, erratic flames, dark at the edges, fuelled not by his usual confidence, but by something darker, deeper. Pure and absolute fury. The fury of a dragon who has just discovered that someone has dared to touch his most precious treasure. He hated having felt afraid of me. He hated having been on his knees, powerless. And now, finally, he had a clear target, a tangible enemy for all that accumulated hatred.
"HAPPY!" he exploded, the flames roaring around him, making what was left of the carpet catch fire. "THOSE FILTHY BASTARDS… THEY TOOK HAPPY?!"
"Natsu, calm down, you're going to set everything on fire—" Lucy tried, taking a step back.
"CALM THE HELL DOWN!"
(Ah, here we go again.)
I watched that familiar chaos unfold, Natsu wreathed in flames, Gray, at some point during the last thirty seconds, having taken off his shirt without anyone noticing (how did he do that?), Juvia alternating between lovesick glances at a semi-naked Gray and death glares at a terrified Lucy, and Lucy herself trying, in vain, to calm everyone down. And, for an instant, beneath my irritation and the urgency of the situation, I felt a strange tightness in my chest. Something that could, dangerously, be mistaken for… affection. Or perhaps just an appreciation for the consistency of the chaos.
(These noisy idiots…)
"I'm going alone," I said, and my low, cold voice cut through the noise and the fire like a blade of ice, making everyone stop and look at me. "It's faster. More efficient. You'll only slow me down."
"NO WAY! NOT A CHANCE!" Natsu roared, taking a step towards me, the ground beneath his feet beginning to melt. "I'm getting Happy back, and you are not, in any way, going to stop me!"
"We're not just sitting here waiting, Azra'il!" Gray protested, the cold beginning to emanate from his body.
"Erza is our friend! We're a family!" Lucy added, and there was a steel in her voice now, a strength that surprised me. "And she's important to all of us! Not just to you!"
"Juvia wants to help too!" she declared, with a fierce determination on her face. "Juvia wants to prove that she is worthy of one day being a part of the glorious Fairy Tail!" She paused, looking sideways at Lucy. "And… and Juvia will not, under any circumstances, leave Gray-sama alone with the love rival on such a… potentially romantic rescue mission!"
"THIS IS NOT A ROMANTIC RESCUE MISSION, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" Lucy shouted, exasperated.
"EVERY rescue in which Gray-sama is involved is inherently romantic! Juvia knows this!"
(I officially give up on this plane of existence.)
[They have a point, you know, Azra'il,] Eos's voice commented, soft and unexpectedly understanding, in my mind. [As illogical, noisy, and inefficient as they are. They are as much Erza's family as you have become. They care for her as much as you do. To diminish them, to try and push them away, to leave them behind… it's not just something Erza wouldn't want you to do. It's an insult to everything this guild represents. An insult to their bonds.]
(I know, damn it. I know.)
[So? What are you going to do?]
I sighed. The kind of long, pained, and deeply resigned sigh of someone who knows they've lost a battle before it has even begun, not through weakness, but through a sudden and inconvenient injection of… sentimentalism.
"You are impossible," I said, shaking my head, but the ice in my voice had melted a little. "All of you. Completely, absolutely, impossible."
"Is… is that a yes?" Lucy asked, hopeful, almost afraid of the answer.
"That," I said, looking at each of them, at each stubborn, loyal, and fight-ready face, "was a 'if any of you die in the process, don't blame me, I warned you'. But yes, it was a yes." I ran a hand through my hair, feeling the frustration give way to a new and strange resolve. "Alright. You're coming with me. All of you. But," and here my voice became cold again, a veiled promise, "if any of you get in my way, if any of you hesitate, if any of you do anything stupid that puts Erza in even greater danger, I swear by the old and forgotten gods, by the demons I have slain myself, that I will personally make sure you regret ever being born. And I will do it in very, very creative ways. Are we understood?"
"Understood!" Natsu slammed his fists together, a fierce, hungry smile on his face. "Let's rescue Erza and Happy! And then we'll smash that Jellal bloke's face in!"
"And give those other four a beating for good measure," Gray added, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"Gray-sama is so brave and vengeful…" Juvia sighed, her eyes heart-shaped, already imagining the scene. "Juvia will fight by Gray-sama's side until the end! And, if there's time, will keep an eye on the love rival so she doesn't take advantage of the situation!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Juvia," Lucy muttered, with a sarcasm I appreciated.
(Frankly, why do I even care about these noisy people?)
[Because, as much as you deny it, Azra'il, they are your family too. Your noisy idiots,] Eos's voice replied. And, for the first time, I didn't tell her to shut up.
"Right. First, we need a boat," I said, returning to practical mode, taking command naturally. "A fast boat. The Tower is in the middle of the ocean."
"Ah… a boat…" Natsu's face, which had been radiant with fury and anticipation, suddenly paled and returned to its familiar greenish hue of motion sickness. "Can't… can't we, like… fly? I can try to breathe fire really hard backwards and…"
"Do you have wings hidden somewhere on that body of yours that I don't know about, Dragneel?"
"Well… no, but…"
"Then it's a boat. Deal with it."
He groaned, already looking like he was going to be sick just at the thought.
(Eos. Monitor Erza. Keep me informed of any fluctuation in her magical signature. Anything.)
[I have already been doing so since you learned she was taken. One moment. Updating data.]
I waited, my arms crossed, as the others began to chaotically discuss the logistics of the mission, where to get a boat at this hour, how to get to the nearest port, who was going to carry Natsu when he inevitably passed out from motion sickness.
"Juvia can help with the boat!" Juvia suddenly offered, excited. "Juvia controls water! With my power, Juvia can make the boat go much faster! Like a giant fish!"
"That… that is genuinely useful, Juvia," I admitted, genuinely surprised.
"Juvia is very, very useful!" she agreed, beaming. "Much more useful than certain love rivals who only know how to summon spirits who wear maid outfits!"
"OI! VIRGO IS EXTREMELY USEFUL! AND POWERFUL!" Lucy protested, offended.
"Juvia did not mention any names. If the cap fits…"
[Tracking complete, Azra'il,] Eos's voice interrupted my thoughts, to my relief. [I have found Erza Scarlet's Ethernano signature. She is in constant motion, approximately 97 kilometres from the coast, in a north-westerly direction. The speed is consistent with that of a medium-sized ship. They are at sea.]
(So they're already moving away. And fast.)
[Affirmative. At their current pace, they will reach the location of the Tower of Heaven in approximately four hours.]
Four hours. Four hours on a ship, heading towards her greatest nightmare, surrounded by people who had betrayed her, whom she had once considered her friends, her family.
And the last thing she had said to me… the last interaction we'd had… was a stupid argument. Because I was an idiot. "You are an idiot. I don't want to look at your face anymore." Her words echoed in my mind, sharper than any blade, colder than any ice. And the worst part was that she was right. I had, indeed, been a complete idiot.
(Hold on, Erza,) I thought, clenching my fists with a force that made my nails dig into my palm.
(I will bring you back, my stubborn little red. Even if I have to sink that cursed tower to the bottom of the ocean with my own hands. Even if I have to face hell itself and tear you from there by force.)
(And when you are safe… when all this is over… I swear I will make things right.)
"Let's go," I said aloud, and my voice, now, was no longer that of a cynical observer. It was that of a predator. I turned to the others. "Enough talk. We have a boat to steal and an incredibly stubborn redhead to rescue."
"Steal?!" Lucy shrieked, horrified. "We can't just STEAL a boat! What if we asked to borrow one?"
"Do you prefer the term 'temporary misappropriation of a movable asset for emergency and loved-one-rescue purposes without explicit permission'?" I asked, with a patience I did not feel.
"That… that's still stealing, isn't it?"
"Details, Lucy. They are just details. We are on a life-or-death mission."
"Juvia doesn't mind stealing, if it's to help Gray-sama save his friend!" Juvia declared solemnly, with a flexible morality I appreciated. "Juvia would steal a thousand boats for Gray-sama's sake!"
"That's… strangely specific and a little worrying, Juvia," Gray muttered, taking a step to the side.
"Juvia has a list," she replied, with all the seriousness in the world.
"…A list?"
"Of things Juvia would be willing to steal for the love of Gray-sama. Currently, the list is at item 847. Boats. Item 846 was a particularly appetising tuna sandwich that Natsu-san was eating."
"What?! So it was you—" Natsu began, but I cut him off.
"Let's go!" I said, starting to walk towards the exit, towards the port. "Every second we waste here, arguing about stolen sandwiches and the morality of vessel theft, is a second that Erza is further from us and closer to that hell."
And with that, we set off. A motley crew of noisy, destructive, emotionally complicated, and completely dysfunctional mages, including an obsessed water mage with a list of 847 items (and counting) to steal for love, marching to the rescue of the strongest, bravest, and most stubborn woman I had ever met in any of my many, long lives.
(Hold on, my little red. I'm on my way.)
A dark smile, which had nothing amusing about it, crossed my lips. (And may the old and new gods have mercy on the soul of anyone who dares to stand in my way.)
(The White Wolf is going hunting.)
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💬 Author's Note
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This chapter is important not only because it marks the beginning of the Tower of Heaven saga, but mainly because of what it reveals about Azra'il.
At first glance, it may seem like just another scene of her losing control because of Erza, and yes, that's part of it. But the core of this moment isn't the fury. It's the moment she stops.
Azra'il has lived too long, lost too many people, and in more than one life, her lack of control ended in tragedy. This isn't the first time her anger has crossed the line and started affecting not just her enemies, but everyone around her. And she knows exactly where that leads. Whether through memories of past lives or lingering echoes that follow her, the pattern repeats itself: when she loses control, someone pays the price. And it's not always the one who should.
That's why this moment matters.
Because this time… they weren't strangers.
It was the guild.
And more than that, they were people who, in a chaotic, loud, and completely dysfunctional way, became her family. A family she never planned to have, and perhaps because of that, one that is so difficult to protect.
And this is where Lucy truly steps in.
Lucy isn't the strongest in the group. She isn't the most resilient. And she definitely wasn't the most prepared person to face someone in that state.
And yet… she faced her head-on.
Even afraid. Even trembling. Even knowing, deep down, that it could go very wrong.
It wasn't strength.
It wasn't power.
It was connection.
Lucy didn't try to stop a monster.
She called a friend back.
And Azra'il answered.
Because in the end, her control doesn't return through logic or strategy alone. It returns because she recognizes what she is about to lose. Because she has lost it before. And because she refuses to make that mistake again.
She may call them irritating, loud, and useless sometimes… but she chose this family.