Shattering the Moon

The scene shifted.

Lyon and his group, along with Ye Yang and the others, headed toward the village.

Lucy asked, "I never thought the S-Class Mission would end just like that."

Natsu said, "Exactly! Even though we didn't get to fight much this time, we still completed it. Now Grandpa Master will acknowledge me, and then I'll be able to take on S-Class Missions!"

Ye Yang immediately crushed his hopes. "What are you thinking? Who said the mission was complete? Don't forget what our commission was."

Natsu and the others immediately fell silent and began recalling the commission.

"Destroy the moon?!"

Lucy said, "How could that possibly be done? And hasn't the Curse already been lifted? Doesn't that count as completing the mission?"

Ye Yang looked at Lucy as if she were an idiot. "Who told you the Curse had been lifted?"

"Didn't we defeat Deliora?"

"Then look at Lyon and the others. Have they turned into Demons? According to you, the Curse came from Deliora. So why haven't they, the ones who were closest to Deliora and stayed here for years, turned into Demons?"

Only then did Natsu and the others realize it. They stared intently at Lyon and his group.

"Yeah! Why haven't you turned into Demons?!"

Lyon and the others looked at Natsu's group in confusion.

"What are you talking about? What Demons?"

Gray then explained to Lyon why they had come here.

Lyon said, "We haven't had any contact with the villagers below during all these years. As for turning into Demons, nothing like that has ever happened."

Lucy said, "So that means... we never lifted the Curse at all!!"

Ye Yang shook his head as he looked at the dejected group.

"With skills like yours, you want to become S-Class? You still have a long way to go!"

Gray seemed to catch something in his words.

"Ye Yang, do you know how to lift the Curse?"

Ye Yang nodded. Seeing him admit it, everyone stared at him in shock.

Natsu hurriedly asked, "How do we solve it?!"

"No rush. Let's return to the village first."

Before long, everyone arrived at the village. When the villagers saw Ye Yang and the others return, they immediately surrounded them.

The Village Chief anxiously asked, "Have you found a way to lift our Curse, sir?"

Ye Yang looked into the Village Chief's hopeful eyes and nodded.

The moment the villagers learned that the Curse on them could be resolved, they all wept with joy.

Lucy and the others were still puzzled. They had no idea what method could lift the Curse.

"Ye Yang, hurry up and tell us what the method is."

"The method? Didn't the Village Chief say it from the beginning? Destroy the moon."

"Huh?!"

Natsu immediately grew excited. "Ye Yang, have you finally lost control of your urge to destroy things?"

Happy said, "Boss, want me to fly you up to the highest place?"

Gray asked, "Do you need me to make an even bigger telescope?"

Lucy was utterly speechless. "Do you guys really believe he can destroy the moon?"

"Aye~ Boss is the strongest."

Yuka looked at Ye Yang, feeling as though he had seen him somewhere before.

"It's you!"

Lyon had spent all these years focused on figuring out how to defeat Deliora. He paid little attention to matters in the magic world, so he had no idea who Ye Yang was. Nor did he believe this man could destroy the moon.

"What is it, Yuka? You know him?"

Yuka nodded.

"I heard Granny mention him before. In the Fairy Tail guild, there is a mage known as the strongest mage of this era, as well as the only Top Mage of Ishgar recognized by the Kingdom."

"We've never met him either. They say he is detached from worldly affairs and has not been active in the magic world since the Great Purge Incident."

"So nowadays, his name only circulates among the major guilds."

Lyon was also startled by Ye Yang's reputation. A mage hailed as the strongest—he wanted to see what this man was truly capable of.

Ye Yang raised his right index finger and pointed it at the sky.

Natsu and the others all knew what Techniques Ye Yang was about to use. The energy ripples radiating from his fingertip washed over everyone around him in wave after wave.

Natsu and the others watched Ye Yang with excited expressions. Ye Yang was usually too lazy and rarely used much of his power. Even the energy fluctuations from the blow he used against Curse Song had not been as strong as they were now.

"Cero!"

"Whoosh—!!"

A powerful energy shockwave shot rapidly into the sky. Upon reaching a certain height, the energy wave struck something directly.

Looking up from below, everyone saw cracks appear in the sky. They stared at the sight before them in shock.

Lucy said, "The moon really shattered!!"

Before long, the cracks grew larger and larger, spreading far beyond the moon's visible outline.

Gray shouted, "It's not the moon that shattered—the sky shattered!"

Soon, the shockwave broke through the barrier in the sky, and the energy slowly dispersed into the air.

The purple moon returned to the familiar white moonlight everyone knew.

Lucy said, "The moon returned to normal?!"

Ye Yang explained, "The moon has always been the same moon. Outside, the moon we see is white, but on this island, it appears purple."

"Then the problem could not have been the moon. It had to be this island."

Natsu and the others looked toward the villagers and found that the Demon traces on their bodies had not disappeared.

Lucy asked in confusion, "But the Curse hasn't been lifted. They still look like Demons."

"No, the Curse has already been lifted. The reason they haven't returned to human form is because they were never human to begin with. They are Demons."

"What?! They were Demons from the start!!"

"Honestly, can't you think things through properly? I already said that if this really were some kind of Curse, then Lyon and the others should have been the first to turn into Demons."

"Since Lyon and the others are fine, there is only one truth: they were Demons from the beginning."

Without the purple moonlight shining on them, the villagers seemed to remember something.

The Village Chief said, "It seems this sir is right. We ourselves are Demons."

Ye Yang said, "I believe that when Lyon and the others were gathering Moon Drop, a barrier formed above the island."

"Moon Drop has the power to dispel magic. Thus, the villagers, who lived in human form during the day, had their memories distorted under Moon Drop's influence."

"At night, moonlight passed through the barrier formed by Moon Drop and gained the power to break the magic, causing them to revert to their Demon forms."

Although the Village Chief accepted his identity as a Demon, there was still something he did not understand.

"But I killed my own son with my own hands. That memory cannot be wrong."

Suddenly, a voice rang out from the sky.

"Father! Father!"

The Village Chief looked up, and his face immediately lit up with excitement.

"It's Bopo, my son! You're alright—thank goodness!"

"But I remember stabbing you back then. Are you alright?"

"Don't worry, Father. For us Demons, an injury like that heals in no time."

Bopo then told everyone how he had left the island after being injured and why he had departed.