Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August 4, x791.

*Vroom~~~~~~~~!*

Around the time Alfonzo and Brandish left 8-Island to engage Kyôka, Jackal, Tempester, and Franmalth, Magnolia was about to welcome two guests, the loud engine sounds of a two-wheel magic vehicle letting everyone know they were approaching.

Atop the magic vehicle sat two, relatively, short women. The first, the taller of the two, standing at about 5'2" tall with fair skin wearing a black kimono with a white haori, her black hair bundled under her helmet, and the occasional flaps of her kimono's collar revealing a scar on her upper chest.

As for the second, she was an even shorter brown-skinned woman, standing at about 5'1", with long purple hair flowing out of the back of her helmet and wearing a tight, black body suit with an orange long-sleeved shirt over top, with her arms wrapped around the first woman's waist.

These two were the acting guild master of the Mermaid Heel guild, Retsu Unohana and the guild's ace, Yoruichi Shihouin. And they were currently on a personal trip to visit a certain man from Fairy Tail.

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Retsu asked, her voice carrying clearly over the sounds of the wind and her motorcycle's engine. "Even if you manage to get the other ladies to forgive you, there's no guarantee that he'll accept you."

"I know." Yoruichi replied. "But even if things don't work out, I can at least move on. Honestly, it's not even like me to hang on to something like this for this long. So, I just want to put an end to it, one way or another."

"I understand." Retsu replied in her usual gentle tone. A moment later, however, her tone changed completely as she continued. "Well, this might be a good chance to earn some brownie points."

"I should have known you already noticed." Yoruichi said, her tone sounding less vulnerable and more battle-ready than before. "I can practically feel the hostility from here. But who would be dumb enough to attack Magnolia? Or rather, Fairy Tail?"

"Creatures who see themselves as above wizards." Retsu replied, more than just a hint of bloodlust leaking into her tone. "Demons."

*Vroom~~~~~~~~!*

At that, Yoruichi fell silent. She had never faced a demon while out on a quest before. Even so, she had read about them from both her clan's and the guild's archives. So, she had an idea of what to expect. On top of that, as an S-Class wizard, she had to keep up to date about the most dangerous dark guilds. So, she knew a thing or two about Tartaros.

Meanwhile, Retsu, without another word, cranked the accelerator, speeding up towards Magnolia. However, instead of entering the town directly, she circled it, heading straight towards the five demonic presences she could feel near the Fairy Tail guild hall and Lake Sciliora.

"I'll take the guild hall." Retsu said. "You help those living at the mansion."

"With Alfonzo there, do they even need our help?" Yoruichi asked, though she had no intention of not going to lend a hand.

"And who's to say he's even here?" Retsu asked. "He's a wizard, too. He may be off on a quest."

And Retsu was right. At the moment, Alfonzo was off in Hargeon dealing with another batch of demons. So, he would not be around to help deal with the attack on Magnolia.

"Got it." Yoruichi said as she unwrapped her arms from around Retsu's waist and placed her hands on the former guild master's shoulders. She then hopped up, landing with both feet on the motorcycle's seat, before [Flash Stepping] away.

Retsu, on the other hand, continued driving her motorcycle towards the Fairy Tail guild hall. And when she arrived, she was just in time to see a flying energy slash slam into the side of the Fairy Tail guild hall.

"Foolish." Retsu muttered to herself while gently shaking her head. "Have they done no research about their targets? Then again, I suppose that makes sense, seeing as demons see themselves as superior to humans."

*Boom!*

And just as Retsu expected, especially after knowing some of the features of the Fairy Tail guild hall's defense, the energy slash was rebounded, flying back in the direction from which it came. Unfortunately, that meant that if it were not stopped, it would eventually cut through the town of magnolia.

"I guess I should do something about that." Retsu muttered as she hit the clutch, the emergency break, and spun the handle break on her motorcycle and sent it into a skid.

Then, just as the motorcycle skidded to a stop, Retsu put down the kick stand and vanished from a top the motorcycle with her sword, Minazuki, in hand. A moment later, she reappeared between the town and the energy slash with Minazuki drawn and a cold expression on her face.

*Swish!*

Then, with one swing of her sword, Retsu cleaved the energy slash in two, her delicate blade work completely dispersing the energy contained in the slash.

"Who goes there?" A male voice shouted from the distance.

Deciding that answering the question was unnecessary, Retsu looked in the direction from which it came. When she did, she was able to see two figures standing near the Fairy Tail guild hall, turning back to look at her, as well.

The first figure was a large, muscular male figure. Though, it could not be called humanoid, as it had two pairs of arms and no legs. Instead, its lower body was made from six, tentacle like, segmented limbs that grew thinner towards the tips. On top of that, it had pale blue skin, and where its hair and ears should be were replaced with spiky protrusions. But since she knew she would be facing a group of demons, its appearance did not really surprise her.

The second figure, however, surprised her completely. Though, it did not surprise her to the point she would be caught off guard. And the reason for that was simple. No matter how Retsu looked at it, the second figure was that of a human, a tall, well-built man with short, spiky black hair, black eyes, thin sideburns that ran down to connect with the stubble that covered his chin and jawline, light wrinkles around his eyes, and a scar running from his hairline to just below his left ear.

"How peculiar." Retsu said, completely ignoring the tall, muscular Etherious' question. "I never expected to see a human working with Tartaros so openly. No…"

Reaching that point, Retsu scrutinized the man more closely.

"I asked you a question, human." The four-armed demon said coldly, angry that it was being ignored.

"You're not a demon." Retsu said while continuing to ignore the demon. "I can feel demonic energy inside of you. But it's not yours… I see… It's just keeping your body animated... It's tethering your soul to the body, as well. Quite the nasty Curse."

"You're pretty perceptive, Ma'am." The man said while shrugging his shoulders. "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it. Because of another demon's curse, I have no choice but to work with them. The only upside is that I am free to roam the land and slay demons not associated with Tartaros in my free time."

"Silence, silver." The four-armed demon barked. "I will never understand why Keyes allowed a worthless human like you to retain his self-awareness. It would have been better to destroy your consciousness and use you as the weapon you are."

"You know, I kind of agree with that." The tall man, Silver, said while scratching his head. "I mean, do you really think I like going along with all the atrocities you and the others commit?"

"I would imagine the demon controlling you gains some sort of sick sense of satisfaction seeing humans kill each other against their will." Retsu suggested. "Quite the nasty hobby."

"Probably." Silver replied with another shrug. "But since there's nothing I can do about it, I stopped stressing about it a while ago. I already failed to protect the people who meant the most to me back when Deliora destroyed my village. So, it's not like he could break my spirit any worse than it already is."

"You fought Deliora?" A male voice asked from the entrance to the Fairy Tail guild hall.

Looking in that direction, Retsu, Silver, and the four-armed demon, Ezel saw a man and a woman stepping out of the guild hall. And when the man saw Silver turn around, he froze in surprise.

"Dad?" The young man, Gray asked, his voice shaking. "No… That's impossible. I saw you die with my own eyes."

"Gray, my love, what did you say?" Juvia asked, her eyes widening in surprise, as well.

Meanwhile, Silver, after hearing the way Gray referred to him, also widened his eyes in surprise.

"Dad? Did you just call me dad?" Silver asked, his tone filled with disbelief. "Then, does that mean you're Gray? You actually survived Deliora's attack?

As he asked his questions, happiness shined in Silvers eyes. However, before he could bask in that happiness for too long, Silver's expression turned into a scowl. Then, he roared in the direction of Lake Sciliora.

"Damn it!" Silver shouted angrily. "You can't do this to me! You can't make me fight my son!"

"Ahahahahaha!" Ezel immediately started to laugh upon hearing Silver's roar. "Okay, now I get it. If I were Keeys, I would have let you keep your awareness for just such an occasion, too."

*Swish!*

*Splatter!*

As Ezel laughed so hardily, he was interrupted when Retsu appeared in front of him, her back facing him with Minazuki drawn and blood running down the length of its blade. On top of that, Ezel was missing one of his arms, while said arm spun through the air spraying blood.

"Ahh~~~~~~~~~~~!" Ezel bellowed in pain and anger. "How dare you!"

"Laughing at a time like this is rather unbecoming." Retsu said, completely unbothered by Ezel's shouting. "And for that, you needed to be put in your place."

As she spoke the last sentence, Retsu looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Ezel. However, when she did, the usual, gentle light in her eyes was completely replaced by a light of ruthless bloodthirst.

After holding eye contact with Ezel for a moment, Retsu turned her head and looked up towards the roof of the Fairy Tail guild hall. There, she saw a woman with long red hair styled into four braids wearing a modified witch's outfit with a fur-brimmed pointy hat, sitting with her legs dangling off the edge of the building while sipping from a glass of wine.

"Scarlet Despair, would you mind sending us to a more fitting battlefield?" Retsu asked, her usual gentle tone nowhere to be heard. "I'd rather not end up damaging your guild hall while I teach this demon proper manners."

Despite not speaking particularly loudly, the woman on the roof of the guild hall, Irene, heard her perfectly.

"I won't even ask how you know I can do that." Irene replied, speaking at the same volume while shrugging her shoulders. "But sure, I don't' mind sending you somewhere else. Not that it would matter… At least for the guild hall. You're not strong enough to damage it, anyway. Alfonzo's upgraded the barrier by quite a bit since the last time you were here."

*Thud!*

A moment later, Irene materialized Belserion in her free hand before tapping its butt end against the roof. Then, from the point of contact, a magic circle spread, climbing down the sides of the Fairy Tail guild hall before encircling the entire building and the five people standing on the ground outside the front entrance.

"[Universe One]." Irene chanted once the magic circle was finished expanding.

*Flash!*

A moment later, Gray, Juvia, Retsu, Silver, and Ezel all vanished from where they stood.

"Hmm… This is the first time I've actually used that spell since I unsealed you, Belserion." Irene said while looking down at the ground. "With your help, I can control it much better now. Before now, everything in the circle, whether people or buildings, would be teleported to random places. But this time, I was able to split them up and send them to where I wanted to with no issue."

["Actually, I think that's more due to your increase in strength than my unsealing, Your Majesty."] Belserion replied respectfully from Irene's inner world.

"Perhaps." Irne replied before taking another sip from her glass. "Well, now that everything is taken care of over here, I guess I should go see how the girls are doing at the mansion. Not that I'm actually all that worried. They're all strong enough to handle this threat… Oh, never mind, Rika is coming back with her team. I'll bring her up here, instead."

With that, Irene took a last sip from her glass, set the glass down on the roof, and once again tapped her staff on the rooftop.

*Flash!*

A moment later, Rika, who was walking back to the guild hall from the train station with Alzack and Kohta, found herself standing next to Irene on the edge of the roof. Meanwhile, Alzack and Kohta froze in confusion when their teammate just vanished in a flash of light.

"What the hell, Irene?" Rika asked as she reached into her bag to pull out her lPhone. "You could have called first. Just teleporting me like that is kinda rude."

"*Sigh* Those lPhones have really made you kids…" Irene began to say. Yet, before she finished, she shook her head with an amused smile on her face. "I still have no idea what a boomer is, but I hate hearing Alfonzo and Elicia call me that."

Meanwhile, Rika called Alzack and Kohta to tell them that she had been abducted by Irene and not to worry. She then hung up the call and looked back to Irene.

"So, why did you bring me up here?" Rika asked, her tone serious as she knew that Irene would not do something like this without a good reason… or a prank…

"Assemble your rifle and look towards the mansion." Irene replied. "You'll understand everything once you do."

And with that, Rika wasted no time assembling her sniper rifle and looking through the scope towards the Mansion on the Lake.