The day after they came back to the guild were Zeldaris and Aversia helping with the construction off the new guild hall.

“Zeldaris, Aversia, there is someone from the council that wants to speak with you over the lacrima.” Mirajane informed the two half dragons.

The two half dragons had already an idea who it was, mostly because of the dept that they still had with Siegrain.

And to no one’s surprise, it was Siegrain that wanted to talk with them.

“It is time that you fulfill your promise. Scout out the tower of heaven and report back anything that you find. The location of the tower is south-east of Hargeon in the ocean. But be careful.” Siegrain said before ending the call.

“I hate that guy.” Aversia said angrily.

Zeldaris didn´t answered and simply nodded, he was thinking about the location of the tower, because it sounded similar to a place that he only heard yesterday.

“Ave?” asked Zeldaris, after he realized what was close to the tower.

“Yeah?” answered a confused Aversia.

“Don´t we know a place that is close to the tower?”

“Do you mean Galuna Island? I mean, it is quite the coincidence, but not really something special.” Aversia said, still not knowing what Zeldaris meant.

Zeldaris thought for a moment, thinking about the island of the demons, and had to agree that it was not too far away from the tower.

“We really should visit the island again. But that aside, isn´t there a certain hotel resort that is not to far away from the tower?”

Aversia finally realized on what Zeldaris was playing at and covered her face with her hand.

“They are going to get involved aren´t they?”

“Knowing Natsu and how things usually play out. They will probably get involved into it.”

Aversia sighed and begun to walk toward Ophiuchus.

“Ophiuchus, return to the spirit world. The next time that we summon you, appear in your normal form.” Aversia instructed the spirit that was currently helping the others in the construction.

Ophiuchus noticing the seriousness in Aversia´s voice quickly laid the tools in her hand on the ground, while answering, “Ok, I will be ready.”

Aversia didn´t even wait for Ophiuchus to return to the spirit world before she walked toward Levi, who was one of the people that were coordinating the work.

“Levi, can you use your solid script magic to make some fire, so that I can refill my magic power.” Aversia asked.

Surprised by the sudden request, Levi needed a second before answering.

“Sure, no problem Aversia. Looks like it is important. [Solid Script: Fire]’”

Levi wrote the word fire in midair.

The word then materialized as flames and shot right toward Aversia, who in turn ate them and refilled her magic power.

After Aversia ate the spell completely she transformed into her true form and said toward Levi, “Thank you, Levi. Please take a few steps back, so that you don´t fall onto the ground.”

Levi quickly got a few meters away, before Aversia flew into the sky with all her might.

Zeldaris was also flew into the sky, he had informed Mirajane and asked her to tell Makarov and Vulcan.

Both of them flew south-east, hoping that they would be fast enough and would arrive before Natsu and the others would get involved into the situation, not knowing that Natsu and especially Erza were already involved.

 

Era, the headquarter of the council.

The council were currently being briefed about the Tower of Heaven, by Siegrain and Ultear.

All of the members, except Siegrain and Ultear because they have not been members for a long time, remembered the towers and thought that they would never hear about them again.

More than a decade ago, tried a cult of Zeref to build multiple towers.

These towers were called the Resurrection System, or R-System for short.

The cult tried to build eight of these towers and plundered through the country to enslave the people of small towns and villages.

But they would only take young people, including children, adults and elderly would be brutally killed.

Only ashes would be left behind of the killed people and the destroyed buildings.

And to male matters worse, even the corpses would not be left alone, as they would be taken along and turned into magic puppets.

Both the kingdom and the council were naturally furious about this and put all of their strengths into stopping the cult and freeing the enslaved people.

The army and the Rune Knights were successful in stooping almost all of the raids and Rune Knights, with the help of the navy of the kingdom, were able to latter on storm and destroy seven of these towers, also saving the people that were enslaved inside them.

As for the last tower, the Tower of Heaven, it was not destroyed by the forces of the council but by the slaves themselves, or so the council believed.

The slaves rose up in rebellion and killed the members of the cult.

The council thought that the slaves had returned to the kingdom, who helped the slaves of the towers to acquire a new life and helped them to recover from that nightmare.

However, Siegrain told them that the slaves did not return to the mainland but kept living in the tower and continued to build it and that the tower had now been completed.

“Why… Why would they continue building the tower?” asked Org in confusion, he had seen some of the people that had been rescued from the towers and the pictures still haunted his dreams.

“Because my twin Jellal persuaded them.” Siegrain answered.

“Jellal, there is practically nothing known about him. He is an enigma, but I can imagine how he persuaded them.” Yajima said.

“Are we sure that the tower is completed?” Org asked into the round.

“Our outriders say that it should be. But they were not able to get close to it to make sure of it.” said a tall elderly woman called Belno.

“I have hired two mages that should be able to give us more information about the tower and its status.” Siegrain said to the other members of the council.

“Then we will wait on their report before we make our final decision.” Org said and stood up from the table.

 

It took almost two hours for Zeldaris and Aversia to find the tower.

“Next time, we will make sure to get precise coordination´s.” Aversia said in annoyance.

She and Zeldaris had searched had max speed and had burned through the majority of their magic reserves, because they had used their flames as boosters to increase their speed.

And yet it still took them almost two hours.

“We finally found it, so let´s get this behind us.” Zeldaris said, just as annoyed as Aversia if not even more.

Zeldaris and Aversia took a long and look at the tower, their eyesight was even without their special eyes beyond any humans and their special eyes increased that even more.

The two could see multiple patrols, the soldiers were flying on variant of blood beasts that looked like a combination of snake and wyvern.

There were no signs of construction and the tower looked like it had been finished only recently.

Zeldaris looked down toward the water and saw the corpses of fish, birds, and remnants of ships swimming on the surface.

“Death magic.” Zeldaris said slowly and started to grin, this was exactly what they needed now.

But before they could do anything else, they needed to report back to the council and finish their job.

Zeldaris took out a communication lacrima and used it to call Siegrain.

 

Inside the room, in which the council usually discussed, Siegrain noticed that he was getting a call on his lacrima.

Knowing who it was, he picked it up and told the other members, “It seems that they are already finished with their inspection.”

The other members looked toward the lacrima and waited for the news.

Siegrain accepted the call, and the picture of the tower came into view.

“This is Zeldaris and Aversia of Fairy Tail. As ordered, we have inspected the tower and it seems that the construction on it had only recently been finished, not more than a few months. There are multiple patrols flying around the tower. They also have a weapon that can use death magic that kills anything that comes to close to it. Multiple ships of the navy from Fiore had already been destroyed, no survivors.” reported Zeldaris back.

“ALSO, THE NEXT TIME YOU SENT US ON SUCH A MISSION, MAKE SURE THAT YOU GIVE US SOME GOD DAMM ACURATE INSFORMATION. JUST TELLING US THAT IS SOUTH-EAST OF HARGEON IS BY FAR NOT ENOUGH!!!” yelled Aversia into the lacrima.

Siegrain and Ultear were holding back their laughter, there not many people that were brave enough that would yell at the council.

The sound of something breaking could clearly being heard in the room, Org had crushed a pencil in his hand.

From the lacrima, the sighs of Zeldaris were also clearly to hear.

“Any other things that we should investigate about the tower?”

“No, you have done your task and can now withdraw.” Siegrain said, before the connection was lost.

 

Zeldaris had broken the lacrima into pieces with his bare hand.

“Do you have to yell at the council like that, gramps is going to get into trouble because of it.” Zeldaris scolded Aversia.

Aversia on the other hand had a smug smile on her face.

Zeldaris sighed once again and clenched his fist again, destroying the pieces of the lacrima into a fine powder, before throwing it into the wind.

The two half dragons flew with full speed toward the tower.

 

On the surface of the ocean, not even a kilometer away from the tower.

Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Juvia were on a boat and heading toward the tower.

They had enjoyed their day in the resort and wanted to enjoy the casino of the resort in the evening.

Gray had meet Juvia there.

But they had been attacked by a group of four people that claimed to be old friends of Erza, kidnapped her and Happy, and tried to kill Lucy, Natsu and Gray.

Now they were trying to rescue Erza and Happy.

Juvia had been a major help up too this point, she had saved Gray and was now camouflaging them so that the people inside the tower and the ones patrolling around it could not find them.

“We need to find a way inside. The front gate is a no go, to many patrols and just a stupid idea in general.”

“Juvia can look around, maybe I can find some cave entrances beneath the surface.” Juvia suggested.

“That may be the only hope that we have.” Gray said and agreed to Juvia´s suggestion.

Lucy also agreed with this suggestion, as for Natsu, he was unable to speak because of his motion sickness.

But before Juvia was able to jump into the water, two fast flying objects flew toward the tower and crashed into it, creating a giant hole into it.

“What the hell!” exclaimed Gray.

Juvia and Lucy could only stare with open mouths.

That was until the gray flames came out of the hole in the building, telling Gray and Lucy who it was that just crashed into the building.

“What are Zeldaris and Aversia doing here?” exclaimed Lucy in surprise.

“I don´t know but our chances of rescuing Erza and Happy have just improved drastically.” Gray said with a smile.

“Juvia, bring us to the front door, they will have enough trouble with Zeldaris and Aversia than to care about the front gate.” told Gray toward Juvia.

“As you wish darling.”

 

Inside the tower, moments before Aversia and Zeldaris crashed into it.

Erza would have never expected that she would return to this place.

This place that haunted her dreams almost every night and which she feared more than anything.

Worse was that she was not wearing her armor, she was still wearing the purple dress that she wore for the casino, and she was not able to use her magic because of the rope that tied her arms together.

Right before her walked a young man with blond hair in a wavy style with fringes hanging from his forehead.

He had tanned skin, a small tattoo beneath his lower lip that looked like a five.

He also had an earring with diamond ornament on his left ear.

His clothes were a dark red waistcoat, with a pink shirt beneath, white pants and fitting shoes.

His name was Shô, and he used to be one of Erza´s friends in the tower.

Shô, Miliana, Wally, Simon, Jellal and herself had been placed in the same cell, together with an old man called Rob, who once was a member of Fairy Tail.

They were able to survive the hell that they had to go through by working together.

That was a long time ago and now she had returned to this place.

Shô brought her into one of the cells and fixed the ropes to a ring at the wall.

“That should hold until tomorrow. Big sis, you have been selected as the sacrifice for the ceremony tomorrow, you should feel honored.” Shô told Erza with a smile.

‘Does that mean that they are going to activate the R-System?’ thought Erza.

The R-System had one function and that was to revive a dead person, by sacrificing a life.

“No hard feelings, right? After all, you are the traitor, you dug your own grave, big sis. You know… Jellal is pretty pissed at you… Who could blame him?” Shô shrugged with his shoulders while saying this.

“It is a shame that we won´t be able to see you again after words, but this is all for paradise.”

Shô noticed that Erza´s hands were trembling from fright.

“Does it frighting you that you are going to be the sacrifice or is it because this place brings back some memories?” asked Shô.

There were some memories that came back up, the day that the leaders of the tower had found out about the escape tunnel that Shô had been digging for a long time.

Jellal wanted to sacrifice himself by taking all of the blame, but the two leaders had decided that it would be Erza that would take the blame for it and took her with them and tortured her for a long time, almost killing her and destroying her right eye.

Her new right eye was a magic eye that she had received by a semi active member of the guild that specialized in healing, and medicine and was the go-to healer of the guild.

“You don´t know how sorry I am for that day; the thing was my plan and yet you had to take all of the blame. I… I was too much of a coward to say anything and all I could think about, was saving my own skin.” Shô looked at the ground, he truly regretted his actions back then.

“I no longer care about that anymore. But more importantly, tell me, do you really understand the risks that are involved with activating the R-System and reviving the dead?” said Erza, although the first part was a lie, she would never forget that day, no matter how hard she tried.

“I am surprised that you know so much about it?” Shô was quite surprised about that, he thought that Erza had tried to stay as much as possible away from the tower and the system.

“The Reviving System, magic allows to revive one dead person by sacrificing one living one. A forbidden magic that is completely divorced of humanity.” Erza said while becoming increasingly angry.

“Oh, please. Magic had never anything to do with humanity, instead it wears away at humanity.”

“Spoken just like a member of that black cult. You have become just like them.”

“Those fools didn´t know what the system was capable of. They were ignorant and lacked Jellal´s foresight. Jellal… He is going to lead us toward paradise.”

“Paradise?” asked Erza in confusion, not believing what she was hearing.

Shô brought his face close to Erza´s and said, “When Jellal revives that person, then the world will be born again. AND WE WILL BECOME IT`S RULLERS!!!”

Erza could see the insanity in Shô´s eyes, frightened by it and angry at Jellal for changing her friend like that.

Shô took a step back and yelled, “THE REMNANTS OF THOSE THAT STOLE OUR FREEDOM… THE FRIENDS OF BIG SIS WHO BETRAYED US… THE IGNORANT PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING WITHOUT A NY CARE IN THE WORLD… THE MORONS OF THE COUNCIL… WE WILL INFLICT FEAR AND SADNESS ON ALL OF THEM!!! AND THEN WE WILL ROB EVERYONE OF THEIR FREEDOM!!! WE WILL BE THE RULERS OF THE WORLD!!!” yelled Shô, completely letting out his pent-up feelings out which had turned into insanity.

Now fully and completely enraged, Erza tried to knock Shô out by kicking him in the shin with her knee, but the tower begun to tremble and both Erza and Shô fell onto the ground.

The roar of two beasts, no of two monsters rang threw the tower, challenging all of the people living inside off it.

Erza could feel two familiar magic powers and knew who it was and instantly became pale.

“So, the first people, of whom I am going to steel their freedom have arrived, wonderful.” Shô said as he stood up and walked out of the cell.

“SHÔ, I BEG OFF YOU. DO NOT FIGHT THEM, THEY ARE GOING TO KILL YOU AND THE REST, YOU GUYS ARE NO MATCH AGAINST THEM!!!” yelled Erza franticly in desperation.

“Are they friends of yours? Good, then it will make even more fun. And don´t worry about me or the others, no one can stop us.”

Erza could only watch helplessly as Shô walked away.

After making sure that he was far away, she got rid off the robes that bound her with a bit off effort and used her magic to equip her armor again.

“I need to stop them, before Zeldaris and Aversia kill Shô and the others. They don´t stand any chance against those two. Hopefully, they will not use their full strength against them.”

 

Somewhere in the middle of the tower, where Zeldaris and Aversia crashed into the tower.

Zeldaris and Aversia let out a loud roar, which had nothing remotely human about it and was close to the roar of a dragon, well they are half dragons but that was beside the point.

This was a challenge against the people that lived in this tower.

Zeldaris and Aversia were challenging all of them to fight against them, something that Challot and Emrissen did often before they fought.

And to not let them down, a large group of people came running into the room, while the flying patrols flew through the giant hole that Aversia and Zeldaris created.

“What a fine greeting.” Aversia aid, her bloodlust had been fully unleashed.

“Then let us return it in kind!” yelled Zeldaris, just as battle hungry as Aversia.