Chapter 55 - The Chase in the forest.

(3rd person POV)

It was a normal day at Magnolia, Natsu and Lisanna were still trying to hatch the supposed "Dragon" egg while everyone was going about their day as normal.

The ice trio went out on a job together with Cana to Hargeon, Erza and Mira were having a "Sparring" session much to the guild's displeasure while Elfman was having fun with his parakeet and trying to ignore his elder sister's behavior. Gildarts and Ur also went out on an SS ranked job together since they were running low on funds.

Arthur on the other hand was in the forest doing his Arcane Domain training.

The control he had gained in the past months was finally beginning to show real results, as even the Ether Zone began expanding slowly but surely.

Today Arthur obtained a breakthrough! Pushing the limits of his Ether Zone to almost one hundred meters in all directions starting from his position.

"Sweet! At this rate I'll be able to use magic across an insanely wide area!" Arthur mumbled as he clenched his fist in triumph.

He was obviously pleased with the outcome, until now the control he had gained had only slowly outstretched his Zone to sixty five meters over the course of two months, but today when he reached a threshold of one hundred and fifty well-crafted swords before the eventual decline in quality…

The breakthrough in Ether Zone size happened!

It was a pleasurable moment, but it did not last long.

-"Wait… What…? At the edge of the zone… There's a presence?"- Arthur thought as he continued acting normally, crafting the next set of swords and controlling them in complex ways to further his magic control.

Indeed, at the very edge of the zone there was someone watching Arthur, someone who was quite well hidden at that! Were it not for the sudden size increase of the zone Arthur would have never noticed he was being watched.

The Ether Zone not only allows the user to control the magic in its area and to cast spells from any direction or point within it… But it also heightens the senses of the user, letting him find even a hidden enemy within its premise.

The presence was extremely weak, not just anyone would be able to find it for it was like finding an ant on the other side of a football field with just the help of binoculars.

Arthur however, did in fact sense the faint spark of magic being used.

-"For how long has this person been watching me for? And for me to not notice till now… Damn it! I've been careless, I need answers immediately…!"- Arthur thought, slightly grimacing as his mind thought of the possible information leaks.

He had been training in this area, creating spells and using his trump cards for practice over the months.

If he had been watched the entire time, there's a high chance the enemy knows exactly what Arthur is capable of…

Well, at least if the person had followed Arthur everywhere.

Arthur didn't leave a trace of where he was going when he trained in the Hakobe mountains for a month, he was clinging to the chance that his demonification would be unaccounted for were a fight to break out now.

"{Silence}…" Arthur said as quietly as he could, silencing his mouth so that he could prepare an attack.

He knew not the exact location of the enemy, just the general vicinity for there was 'something' there.

Thus he used Clairvoyance and looked at the area where his opponent was supposed to be at.

-"There's nothing…"- He thought, looking at the trees and the grass where this mysterious spy was supposedly at.

Was there an illusion at place? He did not know.

He only knew that there was definitely some sort of magic being used there.

"{Detection}" Arthur said while silenced, figuring out the exact location of his enemy.

-"A… A flower…?"- Arthur thought, surprise leaking out on his face as his eyes widened.

-"Why is a flower giving of such magic signatures… Is there a person hidden inside of the flower? A possession type of magic perhaps?"- Arthur thought, unsure of how to proceed with the new found information.

Luckily the spy did not move nor try to run. He had no idea that he had been discovered it would seem.

-"Good, I'll use that to my advantage! I simply need to plan out my attack now… I don't want to kill him, not yet anyway, I need to find out who he's spying on me for first!"- Arthur thought, readying himself to attack the enemy.

If he wanted to he could easily bombard the spy with a dozen True Suns and call it a day, surely destroying the entire forest in the process but it's nothing he couldn't fix.

Would still be a bit problematic though, like disrupting the peace and the like. But if the enemy is taken out swiftly it would probably be best for the sake of others not getting hurt during combat.

Still, Arthur needed answers and was willing to take the risk.

Was it a bad idea? Yes. Yes it was. But simply eradicating the enemy without obtaining any answers first would be far worse.

An enemy spy might not know all the answers, but just knowing a little would help tremendously in finding the true enemy.

The idea of it being Zeref's underling did pop up in Arthur's mind at first, however for one of Zeref's people do allow himself to be found with just an expansion of sensor abilities was unlikely…

And besides, Zeref had no real reason to monitor Arthur. There was no way for the word magic user to disobey him after all and if he did it would only spell his own demise.

-"I'll start off easy, see what he can do…"- Arthur thought, mumbling spells all the while.

"{Underground Spikes}, {Steel Wall}, {Teleport}!" Arthur mumbled, surrounding the enemy from all sides with walls and placing spikes underneath the ground in many places as sort of traps.

Arthur appeared right in the center of the walls surrounding the flower, he was about a meter above the ground when he shouted despite being silenced.

"{Spiral Flame}!" Arthur's voice rang and his hand was covered in fire! A small spiraling orb of fire appeared which Arthur took complete and utter control over.

For him now, enhancing this spell was child's play! A condensed, faster and more powerful version of the good ol' spiral flame spell was what he held now.

With a quick movement he aimed it towards the flower, shooting out a concentrated wave of fire that showered the entire encased in steel area in flames!

It even reached the top, burning like a wild fire up above towards the sky.

Once the attack was finished, all that had happened was that there was a tiny burned mark left on the ground where the flower was, the plant itself was still intact and merely burnt up! Nearly no damage had been done in the slightest yet the power used was very high.

However, the enemy had run off.

Arthur could still pick up on his location due to {Detection} and he knew that the spy was hopping from plant to plant.

First to a nearby tree, then instantly to a leaf on another and finally by the time Arthur reacted the enemy was inside of another flower about fifty meters away.

However, the majority of underground spikes were towards the direction he had escaped in! Once they launched from all directions and especially the direction the spy was running into, he was left with no choice but to change his course.

Arthur then teleported over the location the enemy was in, just in time for said enemy to hop to another.

"Don't think you can just up and run away! {Thunder Javelin}!" Arthur spoke, filling the nearly one hundred meter wide area of his Ether Zone with hundreds upon hundreds of thunder javelins!

The javelins flew towards the location of the spy as he moved from one place to another while Arthur did the same with teleportation!

A high speed chase ensued across the whole forest with Arthur raining down spells that made neither sound nor did damage to the area.

The spy was getting faster and faster at shifting between plants but so was Arthur at nearly hitting him!

The spy's presence then suddenly vanished from the Ether Zone's confines.

-"Wha-!? Where'd he go?!"- Arthur thought, looking all over but to no avail.

The enemy was outside of his Ether Zone, meaning outside of ITS detection.

"Don't think you're off the hook that easily…! {Clairvoyance}! {Search}! {Detection}!" Arthur said, expanding his now enormous clairvoyance's range across many kilometers of distance!

Using Search to look for that specific signature and Detection for higher accuracy, Arthur found that the enemy was nearly 200 meters underground while inhabiting a worm the size of a snake!

"The hell? So he can also integrate with animals…?" Arthur though before acting on the new found information.

"{Hole}!" Arthur spoke, creating a giant 300 meter deep one hundred meter wide hole that left the snake sized worm falling towards the bottom.

However, just as Arthur was about to try and trap the enemy in place the spy moved from the worm to an eagle up above in the sky!

"Such a distance! {Teleport}!" Arthur exclaimed before teleporting to his enemy's side, who once again vanished and moved across the plains towards the eastern side of the forest!

"Get back here! {Teleport}!" Arthur roared, chasing after the opponent once more.

After having moved a sizable distance from the original location, Arthur finally figured out how to stop the enemy in his tracks.

Arthur had to time this perfectly, else he might end up unintentionally killing his only source of information!

Once he had the timing right, Arthur teleported right over the grass blade that his enemy was inside of.

"{Wither}!" Once Arthur's voice rang, the entire forest shriveled up and died instantaneously.

It was a spell that reached to the horizon's edge, no plant in sight was alive and the animals had all ran off earlier due to the strong killing intent Arthur was intentionally giving off.

It was a spell he used, {Dreadful Aura} that enhanced his intent to the point of having all animals leave the vicinity.

He had also used {Truth Perception} prior to reaching the last piece of nature alive.

A single blade of grass.

"Are you done with running?" Arthur asked, standing above the single small grass blade across the wasteland of nothing but shriveled up trees, grass and flowers.

The blade of grass stood still, not making a sound or move. As if it were but a normal piece of grass.

However a person was most definitely inside of it and Arthur knew he had trapped his opponent successfully.

"I said… Are you done with running? {Cruel Sun}." Arthur asked as the area was filled with nearly one hundred cruel sun spells!

A moment of silence followed, before the eventual reply sounded.

-"Fine. You got me."- A voice ran inside of Arthur's head.

"Get out of the grass." Arthur replied.

-"No, I don't think I will..."- The voice replied with telepathy, to which Arthur silently nodded.

"I see… So you have chosen… Death?" Arthur asked.

After saying that, there was no more need for any other words, Arthur simply nearly instantaneously moved a few of the balls of flame within an inch of the grass' surface area, controlling the magic as to not burn it.

Not too much at least…

-"AHHH! CRAP THAT'S HOT! NO! Wait! I'll get out just don't burn me with those!"- The voice said via telepathy with a panic riddled tone.

"Good, don't try my patience too much. I have several questions for you and don't even try to lie! I'm sure after spying on me you've become more than familiar with what I'm capable of." Arthur said, having used Truth Perception earlier to see through any lies.

He knew that the grass was truly panicked, so he waited.

-"Fine, I'm getting ou-"- The voice started replying before suddenly stopping.

Arthur noticed this, he had been completely focused on his opponent as to evade any unpredicted moves were the spy capable of more than just moving across living organisms.

He even had his mask on, protecting himself in case of the possibility that his mind could be overpowered as well.

Because of this, Arthur had failed to notice the closing in presence of one person he knew all too well.

-"Well I'll be!"- The voice spoke and vanished from the grass blade!

"No!" Arthur yelled as he turned around to where the enemy moved to.

This was truly a blunder on his side, how could he have predicted that someone would walk towards an instantly disappearing piece of a forest?

How could anyone predict such an idiotic decision?

…

A couple of minutes earlier, Natsu and Lisanna were walking through the forest with the "Dragon" egg in tow. Natsu being the one to carry it around with both hands.

The two had encountered a forest Vulcan and Natsu was about to fight it off when a sudden chill was felt in the air.

The Vulcan picked up on the dreadful aura more so than the humans thanks to its animal instincts and ran off as quickly as it could.

"Huh… What was that about?" Natsu asked, putting down his two raised fists.

"I… I'm not sure? It seems like he got scared of something." Lisanna said before continuing, "Hey Natsu… Don't you think it got a little cold suddenly?" She asked while trying to warm herself with her hands.

"Hm?" Natsu looked back to her, "Well now that you mentioned it…" He said and looked towards a general direction of something.

Natsu was a Dragon Slayer, and thus his senses picked up on the Dreadful Aura that Arthur was emitting quite clearly.

However, despite that fact he didn't feel threatened by it. It was Natsu after all, Arthur would subconsciously be unable to show hostility at him through a wide range surge of killing intent.

That was where the problem had arisen from.

"I think there's something over there! I'll go take a look so you just stay with the egg." Natsu said and ran off through the woods.

"Ehhh!? Natsu wait! Don't go out alone, it's dangerous! ALSO! Don't just leave me hereee!" Lisanna protested to no avail, as Natsu chuckled and continued down on his path.

He ran quickly and soon found himself witnessing the disappearance of the whole forest in front of him as it all shriveled up and died.

"Whoa! What the hell is this?" He said out loud, looking back to see that the forest had died up until around three hundred meters behind him.

"This looks scary… Maybe I should head back to Lisanna…?" He thought to himself, before thinking.

-"Would Erza run away from this? Would Gray? Eh, probably. He's a coward. Arthur definitely wouldn't though!"- With those thoughts, Natsu marched forward to try and find out the source of the vanishing forest.

Little did he know it was Arthur himself who was the source, and his little curiosity was about to put that same Arthur into quite the pickle…

…