Fairy Tail Space Mage

It was only then that Lucy remembered that Natsu was actually a monster.

"Squeak!" Seemingly hit by sparks from the exploding fireball, a huge, strangely dressed (wearing women's clothes and a decorative hair clip) rat darted out of the forest ahead. It glared at Natsu with hatred!

"Something really came out!" This startled everyone.

"Great!" Only Natsu was burning with excitement!

Then, the giant rat opened its mouth and exhaled a large cloud of yellow gas. Natsu smelled the gas, his face instantly turned blue, and he collapsed to the ground.

Despite being full of fighting spirit, Natsu was actually knocked out by his opponent in one move!

"Natsu!" Gray shouted, then quickly covered his mouth and nose with ice, picked up the fallen Natsu, and ran away.

"It stinks!" Lucy and Happy had nothing to cover their mouths and noses. So, they could only cover their mouths and noses with their hands, and then, like Gray, they turned and ran away for their lives.

"Squeak!" Behind them, the giant rat immediately caught up.

And so began a great chase through the forest involving three people, a cat, and a mouse. However, the ones being chased weren't the mouse, but the three people and the cat. This absurd pursuit only came to an end when the terrain gradually flattened out, and even some abandoned buildings began to appear.

"Ice-themed Giant Ice Bed!"

Gray had found the perfect moment to use his magic. As soon as he activated it, the slope behind the three of them was instantly covered in ice. Then, the running rat naturally slipped, lost its balance, and fell to the ground!

"There's an entrance ahead, let's hurry in while we can!"

Lucy pointed to the entrance to the ruins ahead and suggested that everyone hide inside to avoid the giant rats. But...

"Take advantage of this moment and teach it a lesson!"

Natsu and Gray turned around and rushed towards the giant rat, punching and kicking it repeatedly!

A few seconds later, the large rat was bruised and swollen, and collapsed to the ground, unable to get up.

Lucy looked helpless, then remembered that all of her companions, except for the cat, were incredibly powerful.

The reason why the group turned and ran was mainly because they saw that Natsu, the strongest among them, was knocked out in one hit, so they had the illusion that this big rat was very powerful.

But actually, this rat was just a little strangely dressed, a little big, and it could exhale a stinky gas.

Natsu was knocked out in one hit simply because his nose was too sensitive. And now, he's back to normal. He was already full of energy when he beat up the giant rat.

The giant rat was defeated, and the group overcame the only crisis during their island adventure. More importantly, the three of them found the ruins!

Ruins, in any story, are always the starting point of miracles, the bizarre, and the incredible, and at the same time, the end of everything.

Therefore, without a doubt, the three people and the cat were convinced that the problems on the island were related to the ruins. They decided to enter the ruins and begin their investigation.

“There are moon patterns here… It seems we’ve found the right place.” When Lucy discovered moon patterns everywhere in the ruins, she felt they were very close to uncovering the island’s secret.

“Yes, I remember, this island used to be called ‘Moon Island’.” Gray nodded as well.

"Lucy, look! There are bones here!" While Lucy and Gray were investigating, Happy was playing.

"You're not a dog, why are you so excited about a bone?" Lucy ignored it until she saw the bone in its hand...

"You stinky cat, throw that bone away right now!" Lucy's face turned pale as she ordered Happy to throw away the bone immediately. Because the bone in its hand was actually a human shinbone.

"Oh……"

Seeing Lucy's intense reaction, Happy had no choice but to throw away the treasure he had found. What he didn't understand was that afterwards, Lucy still looked very unwell, suspicious, and anxious.

"It seems like there's nothing underneath."

Like Happy, Natsu also couldn't properly investigate any ruins. So, he idly stomped his foot on the ground and then spoke.

"Idiot! Don't step on things like that. These buildings are very old. If you keep stepping on them like this..." Gray quickly stopped him.

“It’s okay! This ground is pretty sturdy, look…” Natsu said, stomping even harder on the ground. Then, to Gray and Lucy’s horrified eyes, the stone ground shattered, centered on Natsu’s foot.

Then, unsurprisingly, the three people and the cat fell down!

The space beneath the stone floor was surprisingly vast. It was a huge cavern!

So, it took the three of them quite a while to land on the ground. Of course, Natsu and Gray managed to escape unharmed thanks to their magical abilities. Lucy, on the other hand, was saved by Happy's "Wings" magic.

Just as Gray and Lucy were terrified by Natsu and were about to scold him.

"Ah!" Natsu suddenly shouted!

"Can you just shut up for a minute, Natsu!" Gray finally snapped.

"No, Gray."

Gray noticed that Lucy was also staring in a certain direction with a horrified look. Happy, who was beside her, was doing the same.

Gray finally turned around, and then...

“Dale…Ora!!” Gray’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped open. His face was completely drained of color, and he was covered in sweat, as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world!

“What is that…?” Lucy turned her head, saw Gray’s expression, and then froze.

"You recognize...this thing?" Natsu asked. He had also noticed Gray's reaction, so he asked a little cautiously.

"Impossible!! It can't be here!! It should be on the Northern Continent, it can't possibly be here!!" Gray couldn't hear their words at all. His heart was completely filled with horror, fear, and a deep pain he had always wanted to forget!

The pain seemed to finally overwhelm Gray, and just as he could no longer bear it, his breathing became increasingly labored, and he was about to faint, Natsu rushed over, grabbed him and Lucy, and hid behind a pile of rocks.

Happy seemed to have been working with Natsu for a long time, and without Natsu reminding him, he quickly followed suit and hid.

Then, a young man with spiky purple hair and wearing a green oriental training uniform appeared with a silly guy with brown hair, animal ears, a bare upper body, and who looked remarkably like a dog.

"It sounded like someone was talking here just now," the person in the training uniform said first.

"Awooo!" the dog-eared dog barked twice.

"It's daytime outside... I feel so sleepy," the student in the training clothes said listlessly.

"Awooo!" the dog-eared dog barked twice more. Couldn't it talk?

Chapter 161 The Trio and Zero Emperor

"Were your ears affected by the Moon Drops?" the training uniform finally couldn't help but ask.

"No way!" Dog Ears finally snapped. He seemed to mind people talking about his ears.

In fact, his appearance was quite common in the demi-human settlements on the eastern side of the continent. But Dog Ears, who had lost his family at a young age and raised himself in the Kingdom of Fiore, was unaware of this. He thought he was the only one with such a strange appearance.

"I was just joking," the training uniform quickly said when he saw the dog ears flaring up. He wasn't afraid of him, of course; he just found it troublesome.

"No joking!" Dog Ears was still unwilling, seemingly ready to have a big fight with the practice clothes.

“Yuka, Toby, I have something sad to tell you.” At that moment, a young woman’s voice rang out from afar.

Lucy and the others shifted their gaze and saw a beautiful woman with flowing, purplish-red pigtails and incredibly fair skin. She wore a black and white gothic-style miniskirt paired with black knee-high leather shoes. Though beautiful and captivating, she was clearly the kind of rose with thorns that were deadly.

"Shirley."

"Aww!" The two greeted the newcomers together.

“Angelica was beaten by someone, I don’t know.” Shirley looked a little sad.

"That big rat!" Dog Ears exclaimed.

“Angelica isn’t a mouse, she’s a hunter lurking in the darkness… That’s love!” Shirley replied in words no one could understand.

"So, there are intruders here?"

The man in the training clothes seemed to be the smartest of the three, so he immediately understood what Sherry meant. This made Lucy and the others, who were hiding behind a rock not far away, nervous.

"We're about to collect enough moonlight. It's such a sad thing." Sherry nodded, then looked up at the huge, frozen monster in front of her and murmured softly.

"Let's go, expel them before Lord Zero finds out," Sherry announced at the end.

"really."

"Ow!"

The practice clothes and the dog ears both nodded in agreement after hearing her words.

Then, the three of them left the place together.

……

"Gray, what exactly is this Daley thing you were talking about?" Natsu turned to Gray, whose face was still pale but had improved a lot.

Thanks to the three people's distraction, Gray was finally able to stop wallowing in his pain and being consumed by it. He was now a little calmer.

"Deliora, a demon representing destruction and calamity. In the northern continent of Isban, it is almost invincible! It has destroyed countless cities and villages... My magic teacher, Uru, sacrificed her life to seal it away. It should be in the icebergs of the northern continent, so why is it here?"

Gray wasn't sure if he was answering Natsu's question or just talking to himself. He didn't seem to have completely calmed down yet.

"Damn it, what's going on! Those three people just now? And what about 'Zero Emperor'... Deliora appearing here, what does this have to do with the curse on this island?"

Too many problems were pushing Gray to the brink of collapse. The little bit of sanity he had just regained seemed to be slipping away again.

"Amazing! Gray's master was actually able to seal such a powerful demon!" Natsu, however, was more concerned about something else.

“Uru is certainly very powerful…” Gray’s mood calmed down a bit when he heard Natsu praise his master.

"It's a pity that the ice sealing this demon looks extraordinary. Otherwise, I really wanted to fight the demon inside. This guy looks incredibly strong!"

Natsu was still eager to find a formidable opponent to fight. Those three from earlier seemed decent enough, but they didn't quite meet his expectations. Natsu wondered what they meant by "Zero Emperor."

"Shut up! You have no idea how dangerous Deliora is! It's practically immortal!"

For some reason, Natsu's words enraged Gray. He grabbed Natsu by the collar, pulled him close, and his expression became extremely ferocious!

"Grey, are you afraid of it? What happened between you and that monster?"

Natsu seemed to understand Gray's feelings a little, because he too had a monster he feared and hated. It was that giant spider, sealed away by Sora, that frequently appeared in Natsu's nightmares and had taken Lisanna's life.

(Sora never mentioned Pinky's origins to anyone. He didn't want them to know that Pinky was connected to the giant spider that had caused them so much pain. Even though Mira tried everything to find out, Sora didn't tell her.)

“No, how could I…” Gray’s answer was clearly very reluctant.

But Natsu didn't press him for answers. The atmosphere on the field suddenly turned cold and even somewhat oppressive.

"Anyway, we've found a crucial clue to the curse on the island. That's a significant step forward, isn't it?" Lucy thought for a long time before finally managing to squeeze out this sentence. She hoped that this would help everyone break free from the current atmosphere.

“The other party must have a reason for transporting Deliora all the way to this island.” Happy understood Lucy’s thoughts and wanted to do his part as well.

"It's simple. Just grab those three people and ask them, and we'll know everything!" Natsu suggested without hesitation. And indeed, it was a very feasible plan.

“No! We’ll wait here. What they mentioned about ‘collecting moonlight’ and ‘drops of the moon’ really intrigued me. We’ll wait here and see what happens when the moon appears!” Gray objected.

"Huh? Are you kidding me, Gray? It's not even noon yet. If we wait here until evening, won't we be bored to death? No way! I object!" Natsu protested vehemently.

But in the end, the minority had to submit to the majority, and Natsu had no choice but to compromise.