Demon Island

That night, the village chief of Galuna Island held a banquet for Ye and the others. Natsu truly had a Dragon Slayer's constitution—after taking a beating at noon, he was already fine by evening.

"Chief, thank you for your hospitality. We've eaten enough, so it's time to talk about the request."

The chief sighed. "A few years ago, for reasons unknown to us, we were all cursed. Whenever the moon appeared at night, we turned into demons. It has caused us tremendous suffering."

At that moment, purple moonlight spilled down from the sky. The villagers wailed in agony as demonic features emerged on their bodies.

Lucy cried out, "Why has the moonlight turned purple?!"

"You see? This is exactly what happens. Once the moonlight appears, the curse affects us and turns us into this. I even... I even killed my own child with my own hands."

When Natsu and Lucy saw the person in the photograph,

they asked in confusion, "Isn't that the uncle who brought us here?"

"Could the one who brought us here have been a ghost?!"

"Eek! Eek! Eek!" Lucy was so frightened she nearly collapsed.

"So our request is to destroy the moon!"

"What?! Destroy the moon?!" Natsu and the others were utterly shocked by the chief's words.

Ye snarked, "How big is your heart? Do you know how far away the moon is?"

Ye then looked at the towering structure in the distance and asked, "What's that over there? A temple?"

The chief explained, "Those are the ruins of the Moon Temple. We villagers cannot go near that place."

Gray said, "So the curse might be connected to the Moon Temple. Let's head there first!"

"Chief, we'll go over there first. Maybe we can find something related to the curse."

"We're counting on you!"

"Oh! We finally get to do an S-Class request!"

Ye and the others headed toward the temple.

Lucy suddenly asked, "Ye, have you ever taken a request to lift a curse before?"

"No. That request had been sitting there for ages. The reward was too low, so I couldn't even be bothered to look at it."

Lucy said enviously, "And you call that low? What kind of requests do you usually take?"

"I may not know how to lift curses, but I know how to get rid of the person who cast them."

Everyone twitched. "That really is your way of handling things."

Ye slowly said, "Everyone, be careful. Something's coming!"

Everyone immediately entered combat mode. A gigantic rat burst out of the bushes.

Lucy stared in shock and complained, "Was this rat cursed too? Why is it so huge?!"

"Happy, you're a cat. Hurry up and catch the rat!"

Happy panicked. "Not all cats eat rats! Besides, that rat is huge!"

Ye lightly unleashed his Conqueror's Haki. "Get lost!!"

The rat's fur stood on end, and it ran off in a flash!

"That's amazing! Coach, I want to learn that!"

"Idiot, that's killing intent. How many would you have to kill to get an effect like Ye's?"

Lucy hurriedly asked, "Did you develop it in the Monster Forest?"

Ye looked at the three clowns. "That isn't killing intent. It's Conqueror's Haki, an ability unique to me."

"Since you all asked, I'll tell you about my abilities. I actually can't use magic, because I don't have any Magic Source in my body."

"What?! No magic?!" the three of them and one cat exclaimed in unison. Hati already knew Ye had no magic.

"My abilities are divided into three types: Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Conqueror's Haki."

"Armament Haki looks like this." Ye's arm turned pitch-black. He lightly struck a tree, and it shattered apart.

"As you can see, it enhances my attack and defense. At a more advanced level, Armament Haki can be applied to objects." Ye picked up a branch, coated it with Armament Haki, and gave it a light swing. A tree was immediately sliced into two sections.

"The next stage is emission." Ye swung the branch he had just used toward the distance, and a black force snapped an entire stretch of trees in half. "Powerful enough Armament Haki can directly destroy an enemy from the inside. I haven't learned that yet, but I'm already on the verge of a breakthrough."

Everyone stared at Ye blankly. "This is way too powerful!"

"Then there's Observation Haki. Remember playing hide-and-seek as children? No matter where you hide, I can find you quickly."

"It can sense attacks, predict an enemy's next move, gauge the strength of living beings, sense their emotions and thoughts, and detect the location and number of things in the wild."

After hearing the explanation of Observation Haki, the three of them frantically complained, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Isn't that way too unfair?!"

"More powerful Observation Haki can briefly foresee the future and hear the Voice of All Things."

The three of them cried out, "That's cheating! That is absolutely cheating!"

"And then there's Conqueror's Haki. It can intimidate enemies, just like that rat earlier. Once it becomes powerful enough, it can be coated onto your fists or weapons. At an even higher level, it can directly affect the outside world."

"Those are my three abilities."

Lucy complained, "Any one of those would be outrageously unfair on its own! And you have all three?!"

"Alright, enough chatting. We've reached the entrance." Looking at the enormous ruins before them, the group could not help but sigh. "That's incredible!"

"Alright, stop gawking and get moving."

The group entered the temple and found it in a dreadful state of disrepair. It looked like it had been abandoned for a very long time. Moon patterns covered the entire temple.

Happy spotted something. "Lucy, look! There's a bone here."

Lucy complained, "Are you a dog?!"

Gray recalled, "Wasn't this place once called Moon Island? I think Demon Island only became a name in recent years."

Lucy's imagination ran wild. "The moon's curse, the Moon Temple, Moon Island... I get it! There's only one truth! The villagers must have accidentally damaged the Moon Temple, causing it to place a curse on them and turn them into demons!"

Ye looked at Lucy speechlessly and flicked her forehead. What are you even thinking?

"Ow!"

"Judging by this place, it's been abandoned for more than fifty years. Demon Island only appeared a few years ago."

Natsu refused to believe this place was as dilapidated as it looked and stomped hard on the ground.

Duang! Duang!

Lucy hurriedly said, "Natsu, stop stomping! This place doesn't look very sturdy!"

Natsu said carelessly, "It's fine, it's fine. It looks pretty solid."

The moment he finished speaking, the ground instantly crumbled, and the entire group fell straight down.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Awoo! This is kind of fun!"

"What part of this is fun?!"

The bone Happy had been holding got stuck in his throat. As he fell, Happy desperately tried to pull it out, while Lucy fell beside Natsu and punched him on the head.

"Didn't I tell you not to stomp?!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Fortunately, the group fell into water and slowly swam ashore.

Ye helped Happy remove the bone.

"I thought I was going to die! Thank you so much, Ye. How about I become your cat?"

Gray looked at Natsu. "You really never think about the consequences of what you do, do you?"

When Gray stood up, Deliora's frozen form entered his sight. It was the nightmare of his life!

"Impossible! Why is Deliora here? That can't be!"

Natsu asked, "Gray, do you know this huge frozen guy?"

Gray said emotionally, "It... it is..."

Ye said seriously, "Calm down, Gray. Your state of mind is in turmoil!"

Gray took a deep breath, his tone heavy. "Deliora, the demon that brings calamity."

"The demon that brings calamity!"

"Yes. It was sealed by my master at the cost of her life on the Northern Continent. But why is it here?!"

Ye sensed someone approaching. "Keep your voices down. Someone's coming. Find a rock and hide!"

They quickly hid behind a rock as sounds came from the cave entrance.

"Ooh~ Ooh~ I'm really sleepy during the day."

"Yuka, Toby, I have something sad to tell you. My Angelica was frightened somehow, and now she doesn't dare come out."

Toby loudly complained, "It's obviously a rat! Why does it have such a fancy name?!"

"Angelica isn't a rat. She is a hunter who prowls in the darkness."

Natsu looked at the newcomers. "They aren't island residents. They don't smell like the villagers."

"Are you a dog?!"

"And they haven't been affected by the curse at all," Happy added.

Yuka considered Sherry's words. "Could there be intruders?"

"We're almost done collecting the moonlight. Nothing can go wrong at such a critical moment. Before Zero Emperor finds out, let's drive them out first."

"Let the intruders sleep here forever. That is love~!"

As the three people's voices gradually faded away, Ye and the others returned to Deliora.

Natsu said unhappily, "Ye, why didn't we just take them down, capture them, and torture them?"

Ye shook his head. "They seemed to mention the moon just now. I think it may be connected to the villagers' curse. They also said they were almost finished collecting it. Let's see what they're trying to do first. To catch a thief, you need the stolen goods; to catch an adulterer, you need to catch them in bed."

Lucy asked Gray, "Gray, you seem to know this Deliora quite well."

Gray began recounting the story. "It was originally sealed in an iceberg on the Northern Continent by my master. Ten years ago, it committed every evil imaginable in Isban. My hometown and my parents all died by its hands. Many mages came afterward to defeat it, but they were all killed. It also has an immortal body. In the end, my master Ur sealed it away with her life."

"Your master?"

"Yes! There's no mistake. I'd recognize that face even if it turned to ashes!"

Lucy thought aloud, "Could the villagers' curse be related to it?"

"Very likely. This thing has an immortal body. It's still alive!"

Natsu said excitedly, "Then if we beat it, we can lift the curse, right? Let me handle it!"

"Stop it, you bastard! You're no match for it at all!"

"How would you know if I don't fight it?!"

"If I say you can't, then you can't!"

"Are you looking for a beating?!"

"Bring it on! Like I'm scared of you!"

Ye looked at the two arguing. "Alright, you two, pause for a moment. And Gray, your state of mind is completely unsettled. It hasn't calmed down since the moment you saw it!"

"If you can't calm down, I can help you quiet down for a while."

Lucy complained, "Do those even mean the same thing?!"

Ye looked at Gray and said earnestly, "I know you must have had a terrible childhood, and it was connected to this thing. It's hard to escape that shadow so quickly. But I still have to say this: you're no longer who you were ten years ago. Ten years ago, a small mound looked like a mountain to you. Ten years later, a mountain looks like a small mound. Do you understand what I mean?"

Hearing Ye's words, Gray finally calmed down completely. "You're right!"

Ye smiled in satisfaction. "Molding magic is magic of freedom. I haven't seen you make a breakthrough in all these years. Since you've encountered this now, break through that obstacle in one go!"

"And don't be afraid. Deliora's strength is only passable according to my senses. There's no need to fear it."

As Gray listened to Ye, he imagined Ye fighting Deliora and realized that Ye seemed to have won every time. Thinking about it now, Ye was a complete monster too!