[Other Fanfic] Fairy Tail: Devil Soul Rises

At the peak of Sacred Mount Zonia, a hooded man sat in silence. Around him, intense wind battered the mountain, but he wasn't one bit afraid of it. Sitting in his face-up palms was a wooden staff with a dragon head talisman on the top.

Around a month ago, the land around the sacred mountain became cold and dark. People in surrounding towns and cities steered clear of the mountain, because of the man living there. He had quite the reputation for disaster.

"That idiot," the man mumbled to himself. "I don't have all day to wait around here. He'd better show up soon, or else..." He paused and clenched his fists. The ground around him turned ash-gray and began corroding.

In front of him, another man landed on his feet and immediately bowed respectfully. "Sorry I'm late." He paused for a moment, then laughed softly under his breath. "You never were very social, I suppose."

"Sit," the hooded man demanded, "we will discuss the present issue immediately. There's been a change of plan."

The other man stepped forward and sat next to his comrade, a look of curiosity in his eyes. "What is there to discuss? I destroyed almost all of the magic guilds in Northern Fiore, isn't that what you wanted?"

The hooded man's lips curled up in a cruel smile as he stood and looked out over the vast Fiore landscape. "Yes, yes that's true. However, I remembered something while you were gone."

"And what might that be?"

"I don't need you." With blinding speed, the hooded man turned and shot a pitch black magic beam from his staff at his sitting comrade.

The other man barely managed to block it, his body almost empty of magic energy due to the massive power of the blast. "Salem, what is the meaning of this?! I thought you wanted me to carry out missions so we didn't attract too much attention. If you were to destroy surrounding magic guilds yourself, everyone in the world would certainly feel the aftershock."

"You're right, Helman, but I have no need to be subtle anymore. I know what I'm after. Unfortunately, the future I envision doesn't include you in it!"

Suddenly, a deadly amount of pressure built up in the air and Helman let out a roar of pain as his body turned to glass and shattered into millions of pieces. Salem kicked the shards aside as he walked slowly down the side of Sacred Mount Zonia.

"So it begins. You'd better watch out, Akira. My brother, Death will soon be upon you and your precious guild!"

-END-

The streets of Midnight Harbor were quite busy around the summertime months. During this time, a boy named Akira Tanaka hunted for odd jobs around town. He didn't have anywhere to call home, so he often wandered the streets looking for adventure. In his free time, he had awakened his magic abilities, light magic specifically. Today, he would finally fulfill his dream of joining the town's own magic guild, Angel Heart.

_________

"Whew, what a crazy day," Akira laughed to himself. "I worked so hard today, I could drop dead!" He walked around a street corner to the spot he usually slept in and sat against a wall. "If only I could take jobs from Angel Heart instead of all this boring street crap." He sighed, looking down at his palms. "Someday-"

Suddenly, a tall man stomped his foot in front of Akira, startling him. He had a group of ten more behind him. "Hey kid, get up!"

"Leave me alone, man, I'm trying to get some rest."

The man bent down and picked up Akira by his shirt collar, staring daggers at him. "That wasn't a suggestion, punk." The man released Akira and formed a circle around him with his friends. "Alright, I'll only say this once. Give me all of your money this instant and I won't hurt you."

"U-um I don't have any money," Akira replied desperately, holding his hands up in surrender. "Please don't hurt me."

"That's a bunch of crap!" The man yelled. He punched Akira in the chest, sending him into the wall behind him. He crumpled into a ball on the ground in front of the gang. "I know you just came back from a job of some sort, we heard you talking about it. Give it up, kid!"

Akira struggled to his feet and held out his right hand. "I told you, I don't have any money!" He shot a weak beam of light from his palm, but the man in front of him dodged the blast easily and brought his fist back to Akira's stomach, knocking him against the wall once more.

"Fine then. If you wanna play hard-to-get, you'll just have to pay with your life!" Apparently this man knew magic as well, because hot flames began building up in both of his hands.

Right as he was about to strike, the air pressure suddenly became extremely intense and the sky darkened with rain clouds. In between Akira and the gang, a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground. When the smoke cleared, a man stood in the crater gazing coldly at the group of thieves. He was wearing black pants and a partially-unbuttoned gray shirt. His hair blew around loosely in a mess of blond locks. On his chest was the Angel Heart logo.

"Alright you crooks, you can either go home or fight me and get pummeled," the lightning wizard yelled, his face contorted in rage. "Robbing some innocent kid on the streets is unforgivable in my books."

The gang leader stepped forward and let out a massive belly-shaking laugh. "You can't scare me with just a little lightning, macho man. I'm a wizard too, so I recommend you back down before-"

The man's sentence was cut short as the lightning wizard blasted him across the street with a light blast. The other gang members watched in disbelief as their leader was knocked unconscious. They decided not to take any chances and ran the opposite direction, looks of pure terror in their eyes.

Akira slowly stood up again and managed a laugh. "Thank you so much. I don't know how much longer I would've held out against them."

The man slowly turned and offered a halfhearted smile. "Well, it is my job. Either way, you kind of helped me find that gang by causing such a raucous. It was my job to track them down and make them stop harming the locals."

Akira's eyes widened suddenly and looked up at the man in front of him. "Wait, that reminds me, you're a member of Angel Heart, aren't you?"

At the mention of the guild, the man's face lit up, as if he had very fond memories of the place. "Yeah, it's an amazing guild. Why do you ask?"

"I've always wanted to be a member of Angel Heart. It's been my goal all my life, and I just started to learn magic. Also, what's your name? You never introduced myself."

"Oh I'm sorry, I guess that was a bit rude of me. I'm Soren Jensen, S-Class lightning wizard. I'm also called the Sky Terror." He seemed to consider the situation for a moment, then he motioned for Akira to follow him. "I saw your magic earlier and I think you have both the skill and the heart to join Angel Heart. First, before we go to the guild, I need to know your name."

Akira could barely hold back tears as he jumped up and down in place. "Thank you so much, I promise to do my best always! Oh, and I'm Akira Tanaka, beginner light wizard."

Soren laughed and began walking down the street. "Come on, Akira. Let's go see the master and make this official."

To Akira, it seemed like a happier moment had never existed in his life. Henceforth, his journey as an Angel Heart wizard had just begun.

-END-

Approaching the Angel Heart guild hall, Akira began to feel his heart beating faster and faster by the second. His dream was just behind those front doors. The guild hall itself was a simple wooden structure with three floor.

Soren, the Angel Heart wizard who saved Akira from the street gang, turned and spread his arms wide, a wide smile popping onto his face. "Here it is, kid. Welcome to Angel Heart!"

Akira ran towards the front doors and pushed them open without hesitation. "Come on, Soren, I wanna meet your friends!"

Upon the arrival of a new face in the guild hall, a hush spread across a crowd of dozens of wizards sitting at the dining tables. One of them, a blond-haired girl wearing a flowing blue dress, stood up and cheerfully greeted Soren at the door.

"Hey Soren, who's this friend you found?" She hugged Akira's friend, then gently kissed his cheek. It was obvious they had some sort of relationship.

"Oh, hey there, Bella. He's just a kid I found while on a job, who wants to join the guild. His name's Akira."

"Well in that case, I'll go get the master," she replied, giving Akira a friendly wink for good measures. She disappeared into a dark room at the end of the guild hall, presumably the master's office.

Five minutes later, Bella came back with an embarrassed look on her face. "Sorry, but the master asked for you to come to him. He's in one of his weird moods again." Hearing that, all of the other guild members began groaning and complaining about the master's moods.

Soren looked over at Akira's nervous face and let out a soft laugh. "Don't worry, kid, I'll go with you. It's not as bad as you think, they're just trying to get you all worked up. The master's a nice guy, just kinda...unique, that's all."

As they peeked in the doorway, Akira spotted a man sitting in the middle of the floor. Around him were only bookshelves packed with books, but no desks or tables anywhere. The man wore a dark cloak, but he didn't really need it to hide himself. He radiated a dark fog that had turned the room completely black. Under his breath, he was whispering in an ancient language Akira couldn't recognize. Suddenly, when the man realized there were visitors, he stopped chanting and slowly got to his feet, but still faced away from the group.

Soren uncomfortably stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Um, hey there, master. I want to introduce you to a boy who wants to join the guild, his name's Akira-"

Without warning, the man spun around and took off his cloak. Underneath, he was wearing simple gray pants and a black long coat. His dark eyes twinkled with curiosity, and suddenly with one grin, the room turned blindingly bright. The room turned a pure white color and rays of light beamed out from every inch of wall. The dark fog immediately disappeared and light harp music began echoing around the small office room.

"Hey there, Akira, welcome to Angel Heart! I'm Ken Tenchi, the master of this guild. If you wish to join, I must first have you battle me so I get a feeling for your power level."

Akira looked like he wanted to pass out from anxiety, but he simply nodded. "Okay, Master."

"Here, go wait out in the guild hall while I talk to Soren for a few minutes."

"Y-yes, sir!" Akira quickly bolted out of the room.

When Soren and Ken were sure they were alone, Ken's facial expression turned grim.

"I'm assuming you felt it too, Soren?"

"Yes, Master, his magical power. It's something I've never felt before."

Ken sighed and suddenly the room turned pitch black again. "Do you think he's the one?"

"The boy of prophecy? I don't know if I'd go that far-"

"Yes, I'm certain of it, Soren. I heard some rumors drifting around that Salem has returned from his genocidal parade through the Netherworld. I heard he completely destroyed it and he's planning on doing the same to our world. If we train Akira to his full potential, there might actually be some hope of stopping Salem."

Soren nodded hesitantly. "I can see why you'd think that, but we can't ask some young man to sacrifice himself to fulfill some incomplete prophecy."

Ken looked back at Soren, his eyes blood-red. "He'll have no hesitations once he meets Salem, I'm sure of it."

"In that case, I'd like to be his teacher. I'll help him unlock his true potential."

"Fine, do as you please, Soren. Anyways, we've kept him waiting long enough. Let's get this over with."

______________

Every wizard present in the Angel Heart guild formed a circle around Akira and the master, waiting for them to fight. Everyone was joking and placing bets on Akira, laughing and saying he could easily beat the master in a fight.

"Alright, Akira, are you ready?!" Ken stood with a book in his hand, smiling at the boy.

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I've never been readier, let's go!"

Soren waved his hand above his head as a signal for the beginning of the fight. "Let the battle begin!"

-END-