Chapter 51 - A job concerning a certain demon possesed girl.

The more time passed the more Arthur was able to relax his nerves. The talk about the "White Harbinger of End Times" had mostly died down in the following weeks of the story being made public, and Zeref had also not contacted him in the slightest.

Was he getting an actual break finally? Arthur would think.

It sure didn't feel like it, after all he never knew when something else would happen so he needed to at least prepare for it. Basically he was paranoid.

His magical storage spell had been filled with four hundred True Sun spells, enough to use during battle and potentially as a toned down Supernova attack. He had not put in five hundred like before because then he would not be able to use the storage for other essential things like items and food, and he had no plans of using the same attack potency any time soon. His True Sun rings had also grown in number inside the storage, entering the four digits which would mean he has most likely gained a big enough supply for any fight he might find himself in.

Other than the obvious, Arthur had also learned to control his newly acquired demonic power a lot better!

In the weeks after his initial gain of the ability until his battle with Madara, he had managed to learn how to control the black mass of markings surrounding his entire body and to form weapons with it. Now, more than a month later, he had learned of ways to concentrate it into actual magical based attacks by creating a dark red flame with many uses which was capable of burning the Ether in the air as a source of fuel, he could throw it as a ranged attack or mold it into physical objects such as a hand or a blade and better yet the flame could even coat his body.

With that he could create a black weapon out of his hands with the markings and then further more ignite them with the dark red flames!

Arthur could also use the markings and fire without going into his demon form, he now had access to an array of instant weapons for close combat that he used to train against Erza.

It was similar to having a second magic entirely, as he was now able to transform back and forth between human and demon without using Word Soul magic. This was similar to Take Over magic yet it was closer to say as if his entire body had been changed to something more than just human.

Erza wasn't at all surprised at the black weapons coming out from his hands and didn't even ask as Arthur was seemingly able to use any kind of ability.

Albeit they were training, hanging out with friends and doing jobs. Arthur and Erza had not forgotten about their current main objective together, The Tower of Heaven.

It was frustrating, sure, but they weren't going to give up that easily.

Looking at the bright side, now there was more time to prepare for whatever battle may ensue at the tower itself.

And so, the days passed until they took a particular demon related request from the job board…

…

March 24th X778 in Oleander Town.

Reports of a demon had been sent together with a job request for its extermination to Fairy Tail. The demon had been located inside of the town's small church and was keeping out any visitors from entering.

Arthur thought it seemed familiar and decided it was worth checking out, so he called Erza over and they took the job.

He and Erza quickly arrived at the location, Arthur only needed to teleport to a close point of that town and get there by following the roads in one of his many magically enhanced luxury cars.

Once they arrived, they saw a mob of people surrounding a house with pitch forks, torches and all! Some were even throwing stones through the house windows.

'Ahhh… I'm pretty sure this is what I think it is…' I thought, putting a hand over my forehead

"Come on Arthur, let's see what's going on over there." Erza said, pointing towards the direction as she walked.

"Alrighty, perhaps the demon moved bases?" I said jokingly, glancing to the church not far from us.

"It's a possibility." She replied.

Before we could reach the mob of people, what seemed to be the little head of a child with white short hair popped out of the window. At the appearance of the small girl the mob suddenly halted their outraged screaming.

"Mira-nee got rid of the evil demon at the church!" The yell filled with sobbing sounded from the girl's mouth "She defeated the demon for the sake of the village… Yet you treat her like this?!" She yelled outraged.

Yup… That's Lisanna.

So this was indeed the Strauss sibling's home town and origin story…

Sweet…

"That girl is obviously possessed by the demon! Come outside child, it's dangerous inside of there!" One of the elderly people shouted to the girl with a pleading voice.

"No! She's probably already been possessed by the demon as well! We should burn the house down with them in it!" Another man suggested.

"Yeahhh!" The mob shouted in unison.

"Why… Why is this happening…" Lisanna sobbed "It's not Mira-nee's fault! It's not her fault!" She yelled again before seemingly falling to her knees and continuing her crying.

I could see the silhouette of a hooded figure move near the window, patting the now hidden by walls Lisanna.

"This seems to be more complicated than just some demon extermination…" Erza said as she furrowed her brows, seemingly a little angry.

"Yeah, let's go talk with the town's people. We should figure out the situation before we act." I replied.

"Right." Erza nodded.

Upon arriving near the mob of blood thirsty villagers, I spoke up. "Hey there everyone, Fairy Tail has arrived as per requested!" I said, revealing my marking on my shoulder as Erza did the same for her arm.

"Ah! Fairy tail!" An elderly man said as he walked up to us "Finally, and if it isn't the famous duo of S rank child prodigies! Thank you for coming in our time of need! I am the mayor of this here town you see…" He continued.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Erza asked.

"Ahhhh! Something terrible has happened!" The old man exclaimed. "The demon from the church has taken over the body of a young girl from our town… I fear that we can only purge her and end the misery and suffering she must be feeling right now..." He said, glancing to the house surrounded by the people.

The mob had mostly calmed down at our arrival, simply murmuring things about me and Erza's arrival as they listened to the mayor speak with us.

"That's horrible!" Erza exclaimed. "We'll see what we can do about it, so please could everyone leave the area immediately!" She said, glaring at the murmuring people and the mayor.

"Ahhh! Yes, yes…! Please, do your thing!" The mayor said, backing up from Erza together with the rest of his people.

"Finish off the demon for us! We're counting on you mages, okay!" Someone with more courage than intellect yelled from inside the receding mob

"Huh…?" Erza turned to look at the man with a glare, obviously angered.

The man started sweating bullets as he looked towards her, before quickly running away in fear.

"Haaaa…" Erza sighed. "Some people are seriously stupid! Were they really planning on killing a member of their own town? A child no less and even her sibling who is obviously completely unharmed by this supposed demon possessed girl!" She commented.

"People can be cruel when they're afraid of the unknown, that and a mob follows what it believes to be right. Once someone points a sword at you, the whole mob will follow and do the same." I said, trying to give some reasoning.

"Still, this is just stupid! They should be trying to help not write her off as dead! Anyway… Let's just go see this so called possessed girl and see what we can do about it…" Erza commented as we both walked to the front door.

It was locked, obviously, so I simply used the words {Open} to get in.

Inside stood the figures of three children, one was a boy whom wore a blue suit. He had white hair and an innocent look about him, no doubt it was Elfman Strauss. Another, smaller child as well as a girl was next to him, she also had white short hair and wore a pinkish white dress. The girl was seemingly concerned about us having entered their home, she was Lisanna Strauss, the girl who had yelled at the mob previously.

The final was the tallest and most weirdly dressed kid, a bit taller than Erza actually but also a bit shorter than me, the child was cloaked and hidden behind a hood. It looked to be a girl with long white hair as said hair was poking out from under her hood.

Obviously, this was Mirajane Strauss, the to be Demon of Fairy Tail.

"Hello there, we're mages from Fairy Tail that have come to help." Erza said.

"R-Really…? Lisanna asked, perhaps hoping for it to be true.

"Don't trust them Lisanna! They were talking with the Mayor just now and I even heard someone yell about finishing off the demon! Get away from us and our big sis!" Elfman yelled, trembling as he moved in front of his two sisters in effort to protect them.

"Don't worry, we won't attack you based on other's accusations before we make things clear." I spoke, "First off, I'm Arthur and this is Erza, Nice to meet you! And you are?" I continued as I introduced us, trying to me nice to the trio.

They did seemed hesitant, looking to us warily for a bit before the eldest sibling, Mira, took action and spoke up for the trio.

"… M-Mirajane. I'm Mirajane and these are my younger siblings... Elfman and Lisanna" Mira said with a quivering voice as she moved in front of Elfman.

"Nee-chan!" He shouted in concern.

"It's okay. Leave this to me." She replied to him in a hushed voice.

"I am… The Demon… So leave my siblings out of this…" Mira said, revealing her right hand which had a monstrous, demonic look to it with many gem like stones embedded within it.

Me and Erza looked at her for a moment, analyzing her arm, before Erza spoke.

"According to Lazarus… That's… Take over magic?" Erza said in a questioning tone.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is." I replied, knowing it to be the truth already.

"Take… Over…?" Mira asked.

"Yes, it's a type of magic that lets a person take over another being's soul and use its power as their own. It would seem that you beat us to defeating that demon, ey Mira?" I replied with a grin.

"Y-Yes! Mira-nee beat the demon! She's not possessed…!" Lisanna said through her tears, obviously clinging to the hope that we would be understanding of their situation.

"That's does seem to be the case, so you don't have to worry about us hurting you. We're on your side." Erza said with a smile, "Can you tell us what happened exactly?"

"Well…" Mira spoke in a low tone, hesitating to talk about it.

It was understandable that she felt self-conscious about this event, she does after all blame herself for the village's attitude towards her and her siblings.

"A D-Demon…" Elfman spoke up. "A Demon appeared in town about a week ago… It killed… Our parents… And then made the church its home… Nee-Chan ended up confronting and defeating it with some kind of magic but the town's people think she's been possessed because of her hand! They don't want us here anymore…" He explained.

"That's… How it is…" Mira spoke again, looking to her hand with concern.

"I see… So then, now since you obviously can't stay here now... What will you do?" Erza asked in an expectant tone.

"We… We don't know…" Mira replied up, after which the trio of siblings looked to the ground in thought, honestly they were looking pretty desperate.

A silence enveloped the small room we were in, Erza turned to face me with a serious look.

I nodded, before we both looked back to the siblings.

"Well, if you don't have a place to be now… Why don't you come with us back to Fairy tail?" I asked.

"Fairy tail…? The wizard's guild…? But we're not mages though…" Elfman said, gazing back towards his younger sister.

"You can always learn magic later, I'm sure you'd get good pointers from just about anyone at Fairy tail! And well, Mirajane right? You can learn how to control your new found power there as well." Erza explained with a smile.

The three siblings looked to one another, whispering as they discussed what to do now.

"I can promise you that you'll be safe with us, I can't do the same if you stay out here or try your luck at traveling alone." I spoke, "Fairy tail has a good reputation when it comes to treating its members well, we're like one big overly lively family over there you see, Hahaha!" I said with a laugh, getting their attention.

"… If we go with you… Can you fix…" Mira spoke, glancing to her hand once more as she did so.

"Of course, you only need to learn how to control it! Like so." I said, raising my own hand and covering it in a black mass until a demonic claw formed.

"That…" Mira's eyes locked onto my own demonic arm.

"This is kind of similar to your case, albeit also very different. The principle behind it is the same however, so yes. You can fix your arm."

"…" The three siblings stood silent, looking back to one another before murmuring something again.

After a few moments, Mira walked up to us and spoke.

"If you can help us cast away this curse on my arm… Then please… Take us with you!" She said meekly with a light bow.

The response made me and Erza both smile.

"Alright then!" I spoke up. "Since that's settled, let me go talk with the townspeople real quick! You four can head back to the guild." Having said that, I opened up a portal back to the front of the Guild and made my way to walk outside of the house.

"I'll introduce them to the Master then, see you in a bit Arthur. Come on you three!" Erza signaled the siblings to follow.

"Ah! Y-Yes!" Mira stuttered.

"C-coming…" Elfman replied.

"…" Lisanna merely followed silently behind her brother and sister.

After everyone walk through the gate it was promptly closed. The townspeople soon saw that I had left the house and the mayor made his way towards me together with his mob of people.

"S-Sir mage… What happened? Where is your companion?" The mayor asked.

"I sent her back home, we've taken custody of the three siblings so you needn't worry about that anymore." I replied.

"Huh… But, what about the demon?" The mayor asked in confusion.

"Taken care of." I replied confidently.

"Just like that?" A person among the crowd asked, looking all surprised.

"Really?" Another exclaimed in amazement

"Amazing!" A third pitched in, his mouth agape

"I didn't even hear anything happen from inside! Those two really do deserve their reputation!" A woman said as she moved her hands up and down in excitement.

Such comments flew about but I mostly ignored them.

When a few more moments of such flattery passed, I simply raised a hand to indicate them to stop the talking which they soon did.

After doing so, I extended my raised hand towards the mayor with an open palm and asked with a smirk.

"So, can I have the payment now? One million jewels in all!"