Gray gritted his teeth as he stabbed an ice dagger repeatedly into a table, everyone giving the Ice-Make Mage a wide berth, knowing he wasn't to be messed with at the moment, but no one knew the reason for his anger.
Dammit Master! Gray mentally cursed Makarov for what felt like the thousandth time.
The reason for his anger was due to the fact Makarov had made Gray swear on both his family name and on the name of his master, Ur, that he could not tell anyone about Ruby being Rose or what Natsu truly was.
I can't believe he's letting that thing stay in the guild and just walk around freely! Even worse, he's having Mirajane help it get its power back! It's probably just putting on an act, waiting to kill us all. Gray thought darkly.
He lost his family and Ur to Deliora, probably that things best friend as they laughed together as they killed people, and now for years he's been interacting and associating with a damn Etherious!
While part of Gray's mind was telling him that it was still Natsu, the same flame-brained idiot that'd jump in headfirst to protect his friends. A bigger part of him, the part that despises demons for everything they took from him, couldn't get past the fact Natsu was an Etherious himself. The same type of demon that killed his parents and made Ur sacrifice herself, the latter of which was Gray's own fault.
And Makarov made him swear on their names not to tell everyone that they had an Etherious walking freely among them!
"Hey Gray! You gonna tell us what crawled up your ass and died?!" Questioned Cana, as she sat at the bar looking over at Gray when she noticed he was unconsciously lowering the temperature in the guild.
"Go drown in another damn barrel!" Gray retorted before standing up and leaving, wanting to go do some training.
He needed to get stronger, for when he knows that Etherious will turn on them and he has to kill it.
He might have Makarov, Erza, and Mirajane fooled, but not me. I know what he really is and what he'll do. Gray thought darkly.
He won't lose another family to an Etherious, not if he has the strength to stop it this time.
Ruby strapped her gauntlets onto her arms, mindful of the numerous bandages covering her body. Once she was fully dressed, Ruby exited the room and saw the two people that helped her, a short elderly man wearing a tribal chief outfit and a little girl with long dark blue hair, reaching down to her waist, and donned in a dress that has a bow on the front, as well as wavy blue and yellow stripes; along with having wing-like attachments on her arms and legs. There was also a flying white cat that looked at Ruby before turning away with a "Hmph".
"Thank you, Master Roubaul for helping me recuperate. And you as well Wendy." Ruby said with short bow.
"It's nothing child. We're just thankful you survived, I doubt many can say they faced against two members of Tartarus and survived." Roubaul said.
It wasn't a fight; it was a one-sided beating. Ruby thought bitterly, not liking to admit it, even to herself, that she had been severely outmatched.
It had been a few days after she destroyed Eisenwald, reunited with her sister, and interrogated Lullaby. She had been attacked by two Dark Mages wearing the mark of the Dark Guild Tartarus, a member of the Balam Alliance.
Ruby thought it would have been easy to kill them, maybe harder than the average Dark Guild slaughter, but she'd still be able to kill them.
Oh, how wrong she had been.
Ruby ducked behind a large block of purple ice, breathing heavily as her left arm hung loosely at her side.
"Come out, come out, little dragon, come out so I can show you the pleasure of pain again." Said a female voice close by, with Ruby gritting her teeth behind her mask.
Damn it all to fucking hell! Ruby thought, sensing the two close by and knowing they will find her if she doesn't think of something soon.
It had been a little over three hours ago when she had been attacked by some guy wearing armor with a scar on his face, whom Ruby idly noted looked similar to that shirtless guy she saw with Erza and the demon, and the words "Absolute Zero" on the left side of his chest plate. But what had Ruby's attention was the guild symbol on his pauldrons, the symbol of the Dark Guild, Tartarus.
The guy didn't say much other than that he had been ordered to kill Rose, given Ruby was wearing her mask and cloak at the time, and funnily enough, he apologized that he had to kill her. Ruby couldn't say the same though, but did say she'd give him a quick death, that actually made the guy laugh.
That's when the battle started and Ruby knew she was outmatched against this guy, especially when he showed he also used Slayer Magic, specifically Devil Slayer Magic; he was an Ice Devil Slayer.
This immediately put Ruby at a disadvantage given if he used any other magic, she'd simply eat it, but as a Dragon Slayer she couldn't eat a different Slayer's element unless she's completely emptied her magic reserves. So, she had to resort to using her Ethernano Dragon Slayer Magic, devouring the Ethernano in the air, to fight him.
The fight had been going evenly, neither really getting the upper hand over the other, that is until the guy's partner showed up. An Etherious, a powerful one at that.
Ruby was lucky to have noticed her before it was too late, given the Etherious' Curse allows her to absorb souls, nearly absorbing Ruby's own before she managed to escape.
After the Etherious showed up things went from being even to Ruby being completely outclassed. While the Devil Slayer was offensive, the Etherious was supplementary absorbing Ruby's attacks and using another Curse that enhanced the Devil Slayer's attacks along with enhancing Ruby's pain receptors to the point where just breathing felt like razor blades filling her lungs.
Ruby was never more grateful for Acnologia's torture filled training than she was now, as it allowed her to block out most of the pain. But even so, she had to admit this was a fight she couldn't win.
I'm injured, nearly out of magic, and currently every cell in my body feels like they're being dipped in lava. Yeah, I need to get away. Ruby thought angrily that she was being forced to retreat.
Looking up at the massive ice block, Ruby got an idea, she had just enough magic for one last spell.
I just need to make it count. Ruby thought, while sensing her opponents were getting close.
Gathering her remaining magic, Ruby reared her head back.
"Inferno Dragon's… ROAR!" Ruby roared, unleashing a torrent of flames.
When the fire hit the ice, a blast of steam appeared covering the area as she melted the ice and burned the surrounding area. Once a significant amount of smoke and steam was covering the area, Ruby immediately ran in the opposite direction of the Dark Mages, not looking back to see if they were following.
Ruby didn't stop running until she reached a river, panting in exhaustion and pain. Knowing she had to make sure they couldn't follow any trail she left, Ruby jumped into the river and let the current carry her away.
Panting, Ruby weakly returned her cloak and mask to her Requip space and had only a little magic left.
"Water… Dragon… Lungs…" Ruby said, allowing herself to go underwater knowing she's no longer at risk of drowning for a couple hours.
Just before passing out, Ruby swore if she ever met the sadistic, helmet wearing Etherious bitch again, she's going to take a special kind of pleasure in killing her.