Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August 4, x791.

"Oh, this is a good place for a duel to the death, is it not?" Retsu asked while looking around at her new surroundings after being teleported by Irene's [Universe One] spell. "I won't have to worry about collateral damage if I were to go all out."

As Retsu said, she and her opponent, Ezel, had been teleported several miles outside of Magnolia. In fact, they were teleported far enough that Mount Hakobe could be seen in the distance. Though, having been teleported so far away would make getting back a bit of a hike, it was not too much for Retsu to handle with her [Flash Step].

"Where are we?" Ezel asked while cradling the stump of the arm Retsu cut off not too long ago. "How did we get here?"

"Were you not paying attention?" Retsu asked, tilting her head in mock innocence. "The red-haired woman teleported us here."

Hearing Retsu's seemingly innocent, yet subtly mocking, tone, Ezel snapped his head in her direction, ready to lash out in anger. However, when he saw the amount of bloodlust swirling in the depths of her eyes, he was brought up short.

"Oh, you must be a higher level of demon than all the ones I've slayed in my long life." Retsu said, after noticing the way Ezel balked. "You can actually feel fear, can you? How very interesting."

"Fear? Me?" Ezel asked, letting go of his missing arm while puffing out his chest in both pride and anger. "I am one of the Nine Demon Gates! One of the most powerful demons ever created by Lord Zeref, an Etherious! And you think that I would ever fear you?"

*Swish!*

As soon as Ezel's words ended, Retsu's figure seemed to flicker for a moment. At the same time, one of the spikes jutting out from the top of Ezel's head slid off and fell to the ground.

*Thump!*

The sound of the spike imbedding itself into the ground thanks to gravity stopped Ezel's tirade, causing him to look down at what caused the sound. However, when he saw the something that look suspiciously similar to the spikes that grew from his head and neck, he was dumbfounded. He then subconsciously raised one of his hands and touched all over his head to make sure that all his spikes were still there, just to make sure.

"There's no need to look." Retsu said calmly, the unsheathed Minazuki still gripped in her right hand. "I cut it off. It's quite disappointing that you did not notice until it fell to the ground, though. Perhaps only your leader, Mard Geer Tartaros would be a suitable challenge. *Sigh* I should have just left you to one of the youngsters at Fairy Tail. But when I saw your ability, I allowed my expectations to rise. But now, it seems I will be disappointed."

Hearing that, Ezel's eyes started to shake in both bewilderment and fear. At the same time, he subconsciously took a step back. However, when he realized what he just did, his expression turned into one filled with rage.

"You damned human!" Ezel roared angrily. "Know your place!"

Immediately, Retsu's eyes narrowed, the bloodlust swirling in their depths surging wildly.

"I see." Retsu said, her voice eerily calm. She then raised her sword and placed the blade in her left palm. Then, she pulled the blade back, letting it cut into her hand. "I suppose I'll make this quick, then. [Bankai... Minazuki]."

A moment later, the blood from Retsu's palm slid down the blade of her sword and down to the ground. However, no matter how Ezel looked at it, there was entirely too much blood. In fact, there was so much blood that it covered a large part of the surroundings, and that include the spot where he was standing.

"What is this?" Ezel asked while swiveling his head left and right to see what was going on.

"There's no need for you to worry about that." Retsu replied with cold calmness. "Just know, this is where you will meet your end."

With that, the blood surrounding the area formed a dome that obscured the sights and sounds coming from its interior. However, just before it enclosed Retsu and Ezel completely, the sound of a demon's horrified screams could be heard from miles around.

Meanwhile, in a field on the opposite side of Magnolia, Gray and Juvia were facing off against Silver, Gray's father. And while Gray was thoroughly confused by what was going on, Silver, who did not want to even take on this fight, was attacking with relentless persistence. At the same time, however, he was trying to give his son advice on how to defeat him while telling him about what he had been through since the day Deliora destroyed their village.

However, things did not go the way he expected. In fact, things were the complete opposite of what he expected.

When the fight started, Silver was surprised by how quickly Gray cast his first [Ice-Make] spell. But as an [Ice Devil Slayer], like any other Slayer-type wizard, he was immune to the element he commanded. It even helped him regain his spent magic power.

"You won't be able to beat me that way." Silver said, hoping to guide the son he had been separated from for more than fifteen years. "You'll have to--- Ugh!"

Yet, as soon as Gray saw the way Silver began devouring his [Ice-Make Magic], his tactics switched immediately.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Punches were thrown with power, precision, and speed. And despite the fact that Silver was a powerful wizard, even before he was killed and resurrected, he could not keep up with Gray's onslaught. Luckily, as a reanimated corpse, he did not feel much pain. Otherwise, he would have probably thrown in the towel pretty early in the fight.

And although it was mentioned that both Gray and Juvia were supposed to be fighting Silver, that was a bit of an overstatement.

"Go, Gray, my love!" Juvia, standing off to the side, cheered excitedly as she watched Gray pummel his father, a nearly 8' long banner with the words, "Gray Is the Best," printed on it having appeared in her hands at some point. "You have to help your father find eternal rest. That's the proper thing for you to do as a child."

"You know, if I wasn't already dead, I'd think she wanted you to kill me to get my inheritance, or something." Silver muttered in disbelief.

"Don't pay attention to her." Gray replied while continuing to rain blows on Silver. "She's a little off in the head, but she's a good girl. We're gonna get married at some point, too."

"Really?" Silver asked, much more excited than a man having his face beat in should be, with a wide smile on his face. "Does that mean you've already popped the question? Tell me, how did you do it? Where was it? I can't believe it, my son is gonna--- Urgh!"

*Bang!*

"Keep it down!" Gray hissed as he landed an uppercut on Silver's jaw, forcing his mouth shut and his words to a stop. "I have a plan, but I still need to put that plan in motion."

As he spoke, Gray shot a glance in Juvia's direction. When he saw she was still smiling and waving the banner, he exhaled a sigh of relief. At the same time, he threw a punch into Silver's jaw as Silver tried his best to clap a hand over his mouth. But with Gray's punch, he ended up slapping himself in the face when his head snapped to the side.

Unfortunately for Gray, because he was so used to seeing Juvia smile so brightly in his presence, he did not know that Juvia was smiling for a reason other than seeing him have the advantage in his battle with Silver.

'Oh, Gray, my love!' Juvia thought to herself excitedly. 'We're finally going to be one. But Gray wants to keep it a secret from Juvia. Juvia needs to pretend like she heard nothing. But can Juvia really do that? Juvia is so happy! Juvia might accidentally tell everyone as soon as she gets back to the guild hall.'

However, the fight did not last much longer after that point. That's not to say that there was a decisive victor. Rather, it was because the one keeping Silver's corpse animated, Keyes, had his head blown off by Rika's sniper fire. And the instant that happened, Silver, along with all the corpses of the dark wizards stopped moving, immediately.

"Huh? What happened?" Gray asked as he was about to throw another punch.

"Looks like that bastard, Keyes, was defeated." Silver said with a relieved smile on his face. "And that means his control over all the corpses has been disrupted. *Sigh* Too bad he won't stay dead for long."

"Huh?" Gray intoned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Tartaros has a magic item in their stronghold that allows the souls of the Nine Demon Gates, the strongest members of Tartaros, well, the strongest demons in Tartaros, to be resurrected." Silver explained. "So, just killing them once won't get rid of them. If you want them to stay dead, you have to destroy that magic item, too. Otherwise, they'll keep coming back."

Hearing that, Gray could not help but frown.

"But at least my body is no longer under his control." Silver said happily. "Plus, I finally got to see you again after all these years. I really thought I had lost you when I lost to Deliora back then. But I'm glad to see that you've grown up."

"Dad..." Gray said, emotions of loss starting to leak into his tone.

"Don't look at me like that." Silver said, trying, and failing, to raise his hand to pat Gray on the shoulder. "*Sigh* I guess my time is almost up."

When Silver failed to raise his hand, he looked down at it. And he knew it was his time to go when he saw it starting to crumble into dust.

"Wel, let me give you one last gift before I go." Silver said in a solemn tone. "With this, you'll be much safer and stronger."

"What are you..." Gray began to say. However, his words trailed off when he saw his father was engulfed in dark purple light that gave off an extremely chilling aura.

"Like I told you, I'm an Ice Devil Slayer." Silver said with a smile. "And I'm leaving that power to you. But you have to be careful. If you overuse it, your demeanor will change as you inch closer to becoming a demon yourself."

As Silver's words came to an end, the purple light leapt from his body and headed straight towards Gray. Meanwhile, Gray, caught off guard by what he was seeing, was too late to avoid it. Yet, something neither man expected happened just before the light came in contact with Gray's body.

Instead of entering Gray's body and turning him into an Ice Devil Slayer, the light was pulled towards a short sword hanging on Gray's waist.

"What?" Silver asked.

"Oh, did you want that, Ymir?" Gray asked curiously after snapping back to his senses.

["Not really."] Ymir, Gray's [Armament Spirit], a giant seemingly made of ice with a pair of horns that made him look like a minotaur, replied from Gray's inner world. ["But it's kind of like how things were when those Dragon Slayers got [Soul Armaments]. In fact, I just noticed an egg that appeared in here. You should still be able to use the Devil Slayer Magic, though."]

"Oh, that makes sense." Gray replied with an understanding nod.

"What makes sense?" Silver asked in a confused tone. "And who are you talking to?"

"If we had more time, I'd tell you." Gray replied with a shrug. "Well, if we had more time and you joined Fairy Tail, that is. But since we don't, I'll just say this."

Reaching that point, Gray rested his left hand on the hilt of the short sword hanging on his left hip. "You won't have to worry about me turning into a demon if I use your magic, Dad. Not with this. Oh and by the way, what was the name of demon you either defeated or learned Devil Slayer Magic from?"

"Aurgelmir." Silver replied, though it was clear to see that he was still confused.

Unfortunately, Silver did not have the time to ask anymore questions, as his body finished disintegrating, leaving Gray standing there with a feeling of melancholy washing over him.

"Gray, my love." Juvia said as she approached, having put the banner away somewhere in the meantime. "Is it over?"

"Yeah." Gray replied while looking down at the pile of dust that used to be his father's body. "It's all over."

Gray then turned away from the dust pile and took Juvia's hand as he started walking towards Magnolia.

"Let's go back." Gray said in a solemn tone. "I'll have to start training extra hard to master this power that he left me."

"Of course, my love." Juvia replied as she wrapped her free arm around Gray's arm while tightening her grip on his hand. "And Juvia will be there to help as much as Juvia can."

With that, the two started walking back towards Magnolia in comfortable silence.

"Thanks, Juvia." Gray whispered quietly as a single tear slid down his face as thoughts of his father ran through his head. "I'm glad you're here with me."