Chapter 47 - The Demon of Fairy Tail isn't who you'd think it is.

…

January 26th of X778, in Fiore Kingdom, beneath the Hakobe mountains.

Arthur Wulf, became a Demon.

…

Five days had passed since Arthur began the process of his demonification, the glass tank where the demons were kept had been drained empty from both demonic materials as well as liquid Ethernano.

Once the last drop was gone, a long and painful process of mutation began.

In time, the tank where Arthur had put himself in began to crack, liquid ether began to pour out of it slowly until the cracks gained more numerous and the leaks turned into a flood out.

The tank finally broke, setting Arthur and his new appearance free.

Barely conscious, Arthur fell on his knees and hands looking at his face in the reflection coming from the liquid ether on the ground.

"…" He stood silent, still holding on to consciousness as he looked at his new features.

"A success, it seems…" He mumbled.

The demonification had indeed been successful, Arthur now bore two pure black demonic horns on the top of his head. He had dark patterns going all around his whole body, his hands and feet were completely drenched in abyssal black color with his fingers and toes seeming like claws. Arthur now also had natural black wings, similar to the one wing Asta had in his Black form.

As for his facial features…

Arthur's teeth had become sharp, similar to a shark's. His eyes were crimson red, similar to Erza's hair color, and also held a black line striking through his right eye and above his brow, similar to a spike and equally uneven. Finally on his forehead, right next to the edge of the spike like line, Arthur had a small black pattern in the form of a spiral surrounded by two half circles.

The boy in question looked himself over, he had in fact grown by a good ten centimeters and was now about 165 cm in height.

He stood up, now looking at his abyssal hands with curiosity.

'Hopefully I didn't make a mistake… Well, if I manage to pull out the winning requirements I guess it'd be more than worth it…' Arthur thought.

He had not expected such a drastic change in appearance, perhaps demonic features and what not like markings, horns and claws but never did he think his whole body would be covered in changes.

Or that he'd have wings.

"I'd better test this out." Arthur said, putting his clothes on via magic.

He wore the white combat suit he had previously made, it had been enchanted with size adjusting functions as well as self-repair in case something ever did happen to it. There was also a tracking marker, resistance enhancements for all elements, resistance against blunt, slash and stab attacks. And even automatic {Cleanse} spell activations for whenever he was caught in a status affecting spell such as illusions, poisons and curses.

Arthur walked out of the underground cave he had created, looking at the vast Hakobe mountain range.

"It's quite beautiful…" He murmured, before walking up to a huge boulder on the side of the mountain.

Arthur simply knocked on it, as he would a door, and a huge crack instantly appeared over the entire rock. It didn't take long for the huge boulder to plummet down into small pebbles of what was once a proud stone.

"… This is without even strength enhancements…" He muttered to himself.

'I think this demonization project has proven to be more than just successful. Not only is my physical strength at a whole new level in this form, my overall magic power capacity has been increased by nearly three times!' Arthur thought, excited about the prospect of such a boost.

"{Humanification}" Arthur said, reverting to his normal human appearance.

In this form he still held the boost in magic power and height, but he'd have to demonize himself to gain the strength boosts again.

'How do I explain my growth spurt…?' He thought.

"I guess this should work… {Shorten}" Arthur said, obtaining his original appearance from a week ago.

'Sweet! Now then, it's about time I returned to the guild, at least for today. I don't believe I can do anything else to ready myself other than finish the real trump card I had planned, all things considered I have the time…

If I do think of something else though, it'd certainly be great…' Arthur thought before teleporting himself to Magnolia.

'I'd better speed up my pace…' He thought, walking a bit faster while still enjoying the town's scenery.

Arthur wanted to stretch his legs a bit after having spent so long inside a tank full of liquid ether, it was a relaxing activity for him.

It almost felt like he wouldn't enter into quite possibly deadly combat with one of the most known and feared villains in anime history within the next thirteen days.

…

Arthur entered the guildhall, seeing people laughing with wide grins and eating lunch at the tables while being rowdy as ever.

"Nothing like home I guess?" He shrugged, walking in.

"Huh? Oh! Arthur's back! Yo, how you doin?" Wakaba said as he took a smoke from his pipe.

"You been gone for a while, how's the job going?" Macao asked.

"Oh, it's going fine. I should be done within the next two weeks in fact! Also, I'm great thanks for asking Wakaba." Arthur replied with a smile, walking further into the guild hall.

Arthur no longer discriminated between side and main characters, seeing everyone as his friend and part of the big family known as fairy tail.

The author however did, and so none of them will ever be named or mention.

"Hooyyy! Arthurrrr! Where've you been, kid?" Gildarts yelled from the second floor.

"Around, y'all doing good?" Arthur asked.

"We're good as long as you're good." Ur replied, smiling to the now basically half demon in question.

"Arthur-nii! You've been gone for too long, come sit with us!" Cana called Arthur over, so he obviously obliged and sat with his now longtime friends.

At the table stood Cana, Lyon and Ultear eating their lunch while Natsu and Gray were too busy head buŧŧing each other on the side to notice Arthur's arrival.

"Hey, I miss anything?" Arthur asked as he sat at the table.

"Nah, just us getting our ȧsses handed to us by those two monsters over there" Lyon replied, supporting his head with a hand while pointing with the other to the second floor.

"Hahaha…" Arthur could only laugh wryly at the comment.

"How about you? Having been gone for so long, surely you gained something, no?" Ultear asked.

"Yeah! Did you get me a souvenir? Hehe!" Cana asked with a giggle.

"I've been all around really. Hunted some demons on the other side of Fiore and did some training at the Hakobe mountains while working on the job I received three weeks ago." Arthur replied.

"No souvenir…?" Cana asked with a sad voice.

"I'll get you something later, alright?" Arthur said with a smile.

"Fine~…" Cana replied, which prompted both Lyon and Ultear to giggle at her antics.

"Yo, Arthur!" Natsu said, waltzing over to the table, finally having noticed his return.

"Hey there Natsu, how's training?" Arthur asked.

"Going great! I can confidently say that the ice brain over here stands no chance in hell at beating me now!" Natsu proclaimed, looking all smug about it as he puffed his ċhėst out.

"Ha! Never have I heard such crap in my life! You think you've got what it takes to beat me flame breath?!" Gray asked, glaring at Natsu with crossed arms.

"Of course I do! It's the truth ain'it?" Natsu said, glaring at Gray in turn.

"Why don't you go ahead and prove it then? Or you just talking the talk?" Gray said, bumping foreheads with Natsu.

"I'll do more than just talk, you pervy flasher!" Natsu replied, also bumping into Gray's forehead, initiating a sort of reverse tug of war as the two pushed at each other's foreheads.

"Let's get to it then, you fire clown!" Gray exclaimed.

"Right on you loud mouth streaker! I'm all fired u-" Natsu also began near yelling, but they were both interrupted by the usual knock on their heads.

Both fell to the ground, ŀȧpsing between consciousness and unconsciousness.

"Seriously, you two idiots need to give it a rest already! This happens every hour of the day for heaven's sake!" Erza said, heaving as sigh all the while face palming.

"Hey Arthur, glad to see you're okay. Has the job been going well?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I think it's going well. You been well on training?" Arthur replied.

"Well, it's mostly magical and precision based. I do test out my limits at times but it's hard to get any real progress without a sparring partner. That said, when do you think we could resume that?" Erza asked.

"Mmm… Probably in two more weeks, I'll be done by then." Arthur said.

"Great! Keep up the good work then, I'll do my best in the meantime." Erza replied.

"You too Erza, I hope to see good results in two weeks! Hehe." Arthur said with a laugh.

The scene continued on in the day with Arthur purchasing food for himself and everyone else in the guild.

That included not only the food but the drinks as well, he did have nearly twenty four million extra jewels to spend now after all!

Needless to say the day was spent in cheering and partying, helping Arthur relieve some of the stress that he had only been able to work around until now with training and planning his future fight against Madara.

The day passed, entering night time but even then it was obvious that the guild hall would not quiet down.

That was only natural after all.

A few noise complaints and way too many drinks later, everyone finally fell asleep or went home.

Natsu and Gray had fallen asleep over one another, even Cana was sleeping while leaning on one of the table legs. Ultear was sleeping at the table in question, sitting on the seat next to it.

Erza and Arthur were awake of course, with her not wanting to fall asleep there and him waiting for the party to end so he can clean up real quick before heading home.

He would force them to do it themselves, but looking at them now it wouldn't really work out that well in the morning…

Mostly it was pity.

"These fools… Don't know the meaning of restraint do they?" Erza said with a smile, obviously having enjoyed the daily party.

"Hope it always stays like that." Arthur bȧrėly whispered.

"You say something?" Erza asked, turning to Arthur as she couldn't hear his words at all.

"Nothing, you should head back to your place. I'll clean up and do the same, since I have some plans for tomorrow and the days after." Arthur replied.

"Alright then, you gonna pop up at the guild at all?" She asked once more.

"Perhaps once I'm done with the current project I'm up to, unless something else comes to mind I'll probably stick around. Hey, we may even get to train together early on again" Arthur replied, looking to Erza with a smile.

"That would certainly be nice." She replied, nodding to herself before turning to leave.

"I'll see you later then, good night Arthur." Erza said as she waved him goodbye.

"Night Erza…" Arthur did the same, turning back to the mess of a guildhall after doing so.

'Now to clean this booze hole up…' He thought before casting his few spells needed to fix everything up.

In reality by the time Erza left the hall he was done, even conjuring blankets for each of the sleepy heads on the floor or tables.

That night Arthur had a good night's sleep, he thought himself blessed despite the current odds having been stacked against him.

He wanted to protect what was dear to him, he had prepared and would only continue to prepare from tomorrow onwards.

…

The next day Arthur resumed his preparation, spending three days with getting familiar with his new transformation and also finishing the last touches of his 'Real Trump Card'.

He kept training in his demonified state afterwards until February 6th, when he decided he couldn't progress any further in a short period like two days.

So instead he spent the sixth and seventh days of the month while training with Erza, it was calming for him and reminded him that he couldn't fail in this 'job' that Ulquiorra and Zeref had given him.

'Impress Madara, huh…? Sure thing, I can do that…' Arthur thought, having donned his white combat suit as the clock ticked, he flew past the lands of Bosco and into the lands of Iceberg.

The name sure did it justice, it was a desolate land of ice and snow where blizzards were a plenty.

Arthur never did spot a town, he knew they were rather scarce so he didn't ponder over it much.

In fact even the capital was more comparable to a town than a city, which spoke volumes about the country.

The only reason it hadn't been conquered even to this day was the harsh climate, the resilient wills of its people and the powerful ice wizards who lived there.

Its history was full of invasion attempts by the Pergrande Kingdom, yet it was never once even close to being conquered.

On this day however, an event akin to a shockwave would fly though Iceberg with enough power and ferocity to make its people cower in fear for generations to come.

Those who witnessed the event passed it down by mouth, until a myth sailed the winds far and wide across the whole of Ishgar.

It was a tale that spoke of…

A White Harbinger of the End Times.

…