"Move out! Follow me to that village!"
With a grand sweep of his arm, the Cold Emperor led his subordinates in a fierce march down toward the settlement. He absolutely refused to believe that any magic could truly destroy the moon; he was convinced it had simply been hidden. He suspected the villagers had hired a high-level mage to shroud the sky in an illusion, disrupting the ritual and halting the unsealing of Deliora.
'Strange... why do I feel like the moon actually vanished?'
After Lyon and his group departed, a short man wearing a mask lingered, staring at the empty sky for a long time with a puzzled expression. Given his magical expertise, if the moon were merely obscured by an illusion, there was no way he wouldn't see through it. As it stood, it felt as though the moon had physically been erased from this world.
He had been guarding the demon Deliora beneath the temple and hadn't witnessed the exact moment of disappearance. Even so, the thought was inconceivable. Not even the great Master Hades of Grimoire Heart—the guild he belonged to—could achieve such a feat.
If any mage were capable of this, it would be the legendary Black Wizard, Zeref. Had Zeref appeared on Galuna Island? Deliora was a creation of Zeref, so his presence wasn't entirely impossible. But if it were Zeref, why would he destroy the moon to stop the unsealing?
"I need to see what's really happening."
Unable to find a logical explanation, the masked man concealed his presence and trailed behind Lyon's group, creeping toward the village. He had to see exactly what kind of entity was capable of destroying the moon.
...
"Huh?"
Back in the village, Goku, who was currently busy devouring a massive piece of demon-style roast meat, suddenly looked up toward the main gate.
"A lot of people are coming this way."
He sensed over a hundred distinct ki signatures rapidly closing in on the village.
"Chief, does anyone else live on Galuna Island besides your tribe?" Gray asked, his instincts kicking in.
Moka shook his head. "Everyone knows Galuna is the Island of Demons. Even pirates stay away. Only our tribe lives here."
"Heads up. Trouble is knocking," Gray said, standing up and shedding his coat.
Natsu blinked, confused. "How do you know they're trouble?"
"The purple mist barrier wasn't always here; it appeared three years ago. That means it's likely man-made, not natural," Lucy explained, already reaching for her keys. "Now that Goku broke the barrier and the moon is gone, a huge group of outsiders suddenly shows up. Isn't it obvious?"
"So the people coming are the ones who made the purple fog!" Happy the cat added, catching on instantly.
Goku swallowed the last bite of a roast leg from some unknown creature and hopped off the table, looking delighted. "I'm full! Just in time to work off the meal."
He had been worried there would be no fight, but it seemed fate was being kind to him.
*BOOM!*
The village's massive wooden gate—one meter thick and five meters high—was suddenly blasted into splinters by a flock of ice birds.
"Who used magic to hide the moon?! Undo the spell immediately, or I'll turn every one of you into ice sculptures!"
The horned Cold Emperor strode into the village. However, the moment he saw Gray standing in the center of the square, he froze in his tracks.
Similarly, when Gray saw the Emperor and heard that voice, his eyes widened in shock. "Lyon!"
"So it's you, Gray," Lyon said, removing his helmet. His expression shifted from rage to a cold, mocking smirk. "It's been a long time. Are you the one trying to stop me from unsealing Deliora?"
"What?! You're trying to unseal Deliora?!" Gray's face paled.
Lyon looked genuinely surprised. "You didn't even know what I was doing? Then why did you hide the moon to stop the collection of Moon Drip?"
"You idiot! Do you have any idea what you're doing?! Deliora was sealed by Ur at the cost of her life!" Gray roared, his voice trembling with anger.
Lyon's gaze turned icy. "Don't rewrite history, Gray. You were the one who killed Ur. It was your fault. Now, I'm going to unseal Deliora and kill it myself to prove that I have finally surpassed her!"
"Deliora? The demon that ravaged the North?" Lucy gasped. Having read countless magic magazines, she knew the history. Deliora was a calamity that had wiped out entire northern cities and slaughtered every mage guild that tried to oppose it before mysteriously vanishing.
"My parents died to Deliora," Gray murmured, his mind flashing back to the charred ruins of his childhood. "I became Ur's apprentice to learn magic for revenge. When I heard Deliora was in Brago, I ignored her warnings and went to fight it. It was too strong... I was helpless. In the end, Ur arrived and used a Forbidden Magic to turn her own body into 'Iced Shell'—an absolute, unmeltable ice—to seal the demon forever."
Gray looked at Lyon with a mix of pity and fury. "The moon has been destroyed, Lyon. You can never unseal it now. Leave this place!"
Makarov had once told Gray that only one type of magic could melt Iced Shell, but using it would effectively kill Ur, who was the ice. Gray realized now that Lyon was using Moon Drip to do exactly that.
"Is that Deliora guy really that strong? I'd love to fight him," Goku said, his interest piqued. Natsu hadn't lied; this island really did have some legendary monsters.
"The moon destroyed? Hmph, what a joke." Lyon didn't believe a word of it. He waved his hand to his subordinates. "Seize them!"
In Lyon's mind, once he captured Gray's team, he could force them to dispel the illusion hiding the moon and resume his ritual.