It wasn't long after we had returned to the guild when Jett and Droy rushed into the guild hall to deliver the grim news: all the council members were dead. According to them, there was an explosion.
I knew without a doubt that Tartaros was making their move, and there was only one person in Tartaros with the ability to do that, Jackal. Jackal could create explosions.
They also attacked Yajima's restaurant. Laxus and the Thunder Legion were working there for a job when someone came in and blew it up. Laxus was out helping with a delivery when it happened. This mysterious man defeated the Thunder Legion before Laxus finally showed up. Laxus was able to defeat him before he blew himself up as well, releasing bane particles into the air and poisoning the lungs of everyone around him. Laxus was able to breathe in most of the bane particles to save everyone before the bane particles did their job. By the time that was over, Freed was the only one still conscious, so he brought everyone else back to the guild. I suspected Tempester, one of Zeref's demons, was the perpetrator.
That's when we realised they were after former magic council members as well as current ones. I didn't think they were going to go after me for obvious reasons. After that, Makarov asked us to go to the former council members houses to try and protect them from Tartaros. Lucy, Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Carla and I went to Michello's house.
The guy was as grumpy as ever. We hadn't been there for long when Natsu suddenly yelled, "Get down!" causing even me to instinctively crouch down with my hands covering my head. Seconds later, there was an explosion. Thanks to Natsus warning shot, no one was hurt.
When the dust cleared, Jackal was standing on top of the rubble. "Jackal, explain yourself!" I yelled at him.
"Hello princess," he replied, giving a dramatic bow. "I wish I could explain, but I have to destroy that council member first".
"Do I wanna know how you know him as well?" Lucy asked.
"He's a demon of the Book of Zeref," I replied, my eyes not leaving Jackal.
"But he's in Tartaros," she pointed out.
"Exactly". I wasn't able to explain before Natsu came recklessly charging at him, as usual. "Wait, Natsu, dont touch him!" But it was too late, for Natsu had already punched Jackal square in the face and a strange, glowing marking had appeared on his hand.
"(Y/N), what is it?" Lucy asked me.
"Anyone that touches Jackal becomes a bomb," I explained as the markings seemed to be getting brighter. "We need to get out of here".
"But Natsu..."
"Natsu will be fine," I assured her as I tried to drag everyone away from the house. Before we were even able to get away, Natsu exploded. When the dust cleared, he was lying unconscious on the ground. "Natsu?" I whimpered as I crawled over to his body. Hesitantly, I put my head to his chest. I could hear a faint beat signifying that he was alive and a smile grew on my face.
I turned around to find everyone's attention on Michello. Frightened, Michello ran away into the town. Jackal went to follow him but Lucy and Wendy stepped into his path and I placed up a wall of pure black magic separating Michello from the rest of us. "Everyone get away from the wall!" I yelled as the girls stepped away from the wall. "If you touch it, you'll die!"
Wendy did her breath attack, but Jackal turned it into an explosion. Lucy summoned Scorpio but Jackal just turned his sand into an explosion as well. It seemed no matter what the girls did, Jackal just found a way to counter their attacks. It wasn't long before I felt my magic growing weak and before I knew it, the wall had disappeared completely.
Wendy admired Jackal's 'magic' and Jackal laughed. "We don"t use magic at Tartaros. We use curses," he explained, making everyone's eyes go wide with shock.
Everyone turned to me. "It's an efficient way to defeat magic users," I explained, still trying to catch my breath. "Plus it helps that they cant die".
"You mean there's no way to defeat them?" Wendy asked, worried.
"I never said that. Get to their book and you should be able to defeat them using that". If only they had the chance to test that theory.
As I collapsed from exhaustion, I saw Jackal defeat Lucy and Wendy and run off to chase after Michello.
While I was catching my breath, Natsu suddenly got up. My eyes widened. "Natsu..."
I didn't even manage to finish my sentence before he grabbed my shoulders and asked, "Where are they?"
I couldn't even manage to form words, so I just pointed towards the town behind me. Without another word, he ran off towards the town leaving me behind.
After a few seconds, I ran off to follow him. I knew that if anyone was able to find our friends, it was a dragon slayer such as him.
We found Lucy standing on one of Jackal's landmines. Without thinking, I pushed Lucy out of the way to take her place on the landmine. I was hoping to buy everyone enough time to get away before I stepped off the landmine myself, but my plan was ruined when Natsu came charging at him from the roofs, breaking Jackal's concentration and making the landmine disappear.
He made the reckless mistake of punching Jackal again and once again, his hand starting glowing. He claimed he had it figured out, before putting his entire hand in his mouth. All we could do was watch in shock as his hand exploded in his mouth, leaving him and everyone around him unharmed.
When Jackal knew he was outmatched, he transformed into his true Etherious form. It wasn't long before Natsu defeated him, not that I was surprised. He was Zeref's strongest demon, after all. When all my friends surrounded Jackal, he activated his fail-safe; Tempester transformed into Bane Particles, Jackal transformed into a bomb. Knowing there was no way we could get him away from the town in time, Happy grabbed him and flew up before anyone had a chance to stop him. A few seconds later, there was an explosion in the sky. We waited another few seconds, but there was still no sign of Happy. Just as we were starting to fear the worst, Happy shot out of the sky.
After that whole fiasco, I knew that I could stall no longer. The time was now. I had to make a choice out of my two older brothers, and I knew what my choice was. I also knew what I had to do. While everyone was focusing on Happy, I managed to slip into the shadows and teleport away, until I landed on top of the library of Tartaros.
A/N: Don't you just love cliff-hangers? No? Me neither... I will try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible.