Chapter 30 : Dog problems

General Pov

The three bandaged mages were in the village mayor's office to have a talk with all the explosions which were happening in the phoenix mountain. Juiva was the most bandaged followed by Salem than Laxus. Apparently, all the shockwaves caused some freighting in the village, though nothing was damaged. The battle did really leave a good mark on a section of the mountain though.

"So, you're saying that a mutated wyvern was terraforming the phoenix mountain to make its territory that's why it as killing everyone which went too close to its cave." The mayor summarised everything he heard.

"Yes, that's right sir but rest assured it's taken care of now." She told him.

"That's a little hard to believe but not impossible." The mayor nodded as he heard of wyverns before and the world was full of monsters like that. "Thank you for your help. I know it wasn't in your mission description to fight the monster but I again I thank all three of you." The mayor thanked them.

"It was our pleasure sir." Juvia bowed.

"Yeah, no problem." Laxus nodded.

"You're going to pay us or what?" Salem asked, looking for a chance to capitalise, earning a harsh elbow from Laxus. "Ow bitch." He whispered, rubbing his shoulder.

"HAHA! Don't worry even though it was not an official mission I can hand all three of you something as thank you for your services." The mayor laughed.

The three mages got out of the mayor's building and were sitting on the outside tables of a restaurant. Salem counting his paper glad he was going to get his finances in order, Laxus just drinking some beer and Juvia looked disappointed in herself.

"Why did you have to get Juvia to lie to the nice mayor Salem-san?" She asked, looking down.

"Would you believe it if someone told you that they were fighting a dragon?" Salem asked with a deadpan expression.

"Well, I-I um no." She scratched the back of her head and chuckled.

"Speaking of which was your end goal to take over the dragon?" Laxus gave Salem an intense stare.

"Well yeah." Salem answered. "And relax my guy it's not like I manipulated you two or played some 3d chess to get into a fight with that dragon or something~." Salem put his money away.

"Hm." Laxus hummed and he was worried about leaving that kind of power to a kid no less. "Hey you know maybe you should join fairy tail." Laxus said to him.

"Huh well that's sure came out of nowhere." Salem stared at him questionably. "Should you even have a say what goes on there?"

"Just up you little punk." Laxus grumbled.

"Seriously though you're basically a fire dragon slayer now and there's an actual experienced one who can help you out a little there." Laxus thought that Natsu might help him out. Even though Natsu was an idiot he to the highest degree he was a very skilled and powerful mage even not that Laxus would say it out loud though.

"That's a great idea Laxus-san!" Juvia gave a nod to the idea. "Our guild has three dragon slayers now and take-over mages so Juvia thinks you would be a perfect fit."

"Wait three dragon slayers." Laxus asked. He was sure she wasn't counting him in that mix.

"Oh, the guild acquired a new dragon slayer recently named Wendy Marvel. She's a sky dragon slayer." She then paused. "Now that I think about it you two are in the same age range so maybe you could become good friends!"

"As nice as that is, I think I have to pass on it. I don't do guilds." Salem shrugged. 'Plus I am technically older than Wendy.'

"Are you sure?" Juvia asked, a little disappointed. She thought that maybe Salem could also help their resident dragon slayers with their missing dragon parents.

"A sky dragon slayer huh? Seems like the guild really got more interesting while I was away." Laxus finished his beer. "So, since you said no to joining fairy tail, where are you heading from here?"

"Meh wherever the wind takes me I guess." Salem said purposely being corny as he got up from his seat. "Well, I'll see you too later than."

"I don't think your injuries are fully healed yet." Juvia said a little worried.

"Am fine but can I ask a favour from the both of you." Getting the two mages' attention. "Can I get a picture with the both of you!" He asked with a cat face.

"Huh." The two asked.

Sometime later

Salem pov

I went my separate ways from Juvia and Laxus and began planning my next destination here in Fiore. I gotta say it was quite the little adventure fighting alongside two of the major characters.

"Beast arm: Teostra!" My left arm turned into that of the Teostra's and I grinned madly as I got it back to normal loving the idea of becoming a dragon. "Okay like Laxus said I am basically a dragon slayer now but what generation am I?" I thought to myself. "Meh whatever but getting the hang of this magic will be a hell lot more complex than the basic magic most of my other forms provide." I laid on the grass thinking on ways to improve my skills.

"Speaking of which I have like three fire users in counting and maybe that's a bit too much." I thought of my Rathalos, Quetzalcoatl and Teostra forms. "I at least have to make them unique to one another." I hummed. "I got it. I can just mix the poison properties of Rathalos and the fire making poison fire. The Teostra basically already had fire dragon slayer magic and the Quetzalcoatl guess has divine flames. But doing all this to a point of mastery is really going to take a lot of work." I scratched my head in frustration and the workload I will have to put in.

Though I guess since I've been using fire tor the longest time it will be easier.

I looked at my phone and began skimming through all the pictures I took over the two years I've been here. I was thinking about doing a little biography of all the adventures I am having.

I heard a familiar sound of a car and I saw Morrigan's car coming towards me fast. I panicked and jumped out of the way.

"Hey Junior~." She playfully greeted me. I noticed that her hair was back to her normal style and smoking but I didn't care about that now.

"YOU CRAZY OLD FUCK!! WHO THE HELL TAUGHT YOU HOW TO DRIVE!" I yelled in frustration. "WAIT HOW DO YOU EVEN TRACK ME SO FAST!!"

"Like I told you even…"

"Yeah, even if I am continents away you would still find me." I rolled my eyes.

"Glad you get it~." She smiled. I then noticed a beautiful red-haired woman in the passenger seat of the car. Wearing some sort of sea themed armour "Oh, right Salem this the friend I told you about."

"The one who's now a wizard saint?" I asked.

"Yep, meet Marella Aquino, she's the master of mermaid heel." She introduced her and I didn't really see that coming as my eyes widened.

"Hello Salem-san it's very nice to meet you and you can just call me Marella. Morrigan-senpai has told me a lot about you and heard some good things of you from Kagura-chan and Millianna-chan." She said politely.

"Oh cool. Wait senpai?" I asked.

"Never mind that, just get in." Morrigan said.

"Well, that's not suspicious at all." I said as I entered the back seat and Morrigan began driving.

"So, Salem-san Morrigan-senpai told me you're well versed in creatures of the unknown." Marella looked back at me.

'Oh, I know where this is going.' I thought. "Yeah, I know a thing or two. So, which one of them is causing problems?" I asked, leaning on the back seat.

"Oh, my, does this happen a lot?" She asked.

"Yes." Morrigan and I answered at the same time.

"Hm, do you know about a three headed demon dog which is similar to a Cerberus?"

"Looks like this right?" I took out my phone and gave it to her, showing her the picture.

"Yes, that's the one but what is this? I have never seen technology like this before?"

"It's a lacrima that lets me call, take pictures, take videos, play games, listen to music and so on." I answered and she continued to critically analyse the phone.

"Hmm, maybe my people could use this." She mumbled. "Anyway, the demon had killed a lot of innocent people and power mages s I was called to deal with it. I fought it and won thanks to a fellow wizard saint. But after it was defeated, it disappeared in a purple glow and after a few months it returned but stronger. But when we fought again it just disappeared not even in its purple glow but it looked like a form of spatial magic." She finished.

"Huh, well for one that thing really is a Cerberus. Second with these sorts of creatures once you kill them, they respawn unless I'm around to send them off. And third, there's a little complication with it." I sighed.

"What might that be Salem-san?"

"Let me show you." I gestured to her to give me my phone back which she did and saw I displayed the map of Earthland. "As you can see on this map of Earthland, those dots are the locations of creatures similar to the Cerberus."

"There's so many of them."

"I know but moving on. Once they are defeated their dot represented on screen disappears, but for Cerberus it's been acting strange. I've been seeing it disappear and reappear over and over and sometimes I find it placed in other countries."

"From your explanations doesn't that mean it's being defeated."

"Normally yeah but reappearing constantly like this did add up to me especially with it being a SS-class threat. But thanks to you I think I have a brief idea of what's happening" I put my hand on my chin

"Well what is it Junior don't keep us in suspense."

"Well like I said this map shows the whole of Earthland and where these creatures are but since you told me that it seemed to use a form of spatial magic then it must be teleporting somewhere at the side of Earthland." I theorised.

"Like another world. You think it's teleporting to another world?" Marella asked with a really serious expression and I nodded.

"Salem do you know about the other realms?" This time Morrigan asked.

"Well, I know about the celestial spirit realm, the underworld, Edolos." I stated.

"Good there are others but at least you know about the underworld."

"Wait, you think Cerberus is teleporting to the underworld?"

"Well like Marella said it had demonic energy from what she could make out so the underworld could be the most likely answer." She blew out a smoke.

"It's somehow ignoring the seal then." Marella sighed. "Salem-san, where's the demon now?"

"Well, it started appearing in Sin mostly." I saw Morrigan flinch at the mention of the name.

"Now switched to the country of Taiyo."

"I see Morrigan-senpai, please take me to the council headquarters." She got out a communication lacrima.

"Okay but don't expect me to get involved in your politics." Morrigan speed up as we went to the headquarters

Sometime later

Magic Council office in Era

We arrived at the magic council headquarters for Marella's council meeting. Morrigan and I were just waiting outside while she was refilling her lacrima grumbling why they had to still rebuild their building on a 'mini mountain' in her words. I was just lying on the top in my cat form.

"So why are we outside again?" I asked my mentor.

"Trust me, kid people like you and I aren't shouldn't go in there, especially you. So here is some mentor advice. Stay away from politics." She pointed at me.

"Hmm." I hummed as and laid back down. I know that politics could get really complicated and I knew jack shit about it.

"Hey junior, it's been years since we met, right?"

"Yeah why."

"Well besides your little monster hunting job why do you wish to travel around so much? I see you lit up just by the thought of visiting a new country and you're always taking pictures and videos of the places you visit." She asked me and I thought about it.

"Well to be honest , no deep reason, I just wanted to travel and live a little, that's all." I scratched my ears.

"Aww~. No tragic backstory or anything~?"

"Nope~."

To be honest I wasn't lying. My family moved to a rural area far away from friends in town so I barely went out to hang out with my friends. Every time I tried to make some in the area, we lived, my mom would always do everything in her power to stop me from yelling, begging and crying. She was really just afraid I would get mixed up in the wrong crowd like my sister once did, though my dad wanted me to be more social so he often gave me transport money to go to town.

Most of my teen years have me being stuck at home as I never went to any special outings planned by my friends, parties and so on. I was always a little introverted but I did wish I made more memories so I could say that was the reason. When I die again, I can at least say I lived a more exciting life.

"Finally." Morrigan said as we saw Marella walking out of the council building. "Got to say that was longer than I thought."

"Well, this new council is a lot stricter than the last one." She sighed.

"Wait for the new council, what happened to the old one?"

"Well, a few months ago they fired the Etherion at a tower called the tower of heaven but it ended backfiring, destroying their previous building and killing a lot of council members. After that two of the council members were revealed to be traitors bringing added shame to the council. Then the magic council doors her in Fiore closed till the king himself made a request for them to reform." Marella finished the story.

'Oh, right, the whole Jellal and Ultear situation.' I thought.

"So how did the discussion go?" Morrigan asked her.

"Well, I told them all about the dangerous threat of the Cerberus and how much damage it can bring, especially if it can be a catalyst of the underworld being fully able to interact with the human world again. So I managed to convince them to reach out to other branches to require assistance from one of the four Hell keys."

"Wait, are you really?" Morrigan raised her eyebrow.

"Yes, it's that serious Senpai." Marella nodded. "We will hold another meeting in a few days with other branches of the magic council and the Hell keys to further discuss the matter."

"So, who are those guys?" I asked.

"In simplest terms they are four devil slayers which guard the seals which keep the demon world closed off." Morrigan answered. "So, a few days looks like you're going to be busy and slaying demons isn't even in your magic job description~." She teased the guild master.

"I know but if this thing keeps running loose and maybe opening gates to the underworld, who knows what 'OTHER' gate it might open." She put some emphasis there and Morrigan paused and her hair covered her eyes.

"Let's not talk about that." She said in a serious tone I never heard before but Marella wasn't affected.

I didn't know what was going on but I know it wasn't my place to ask.

In the Pergrende

At a random dark guild

The leader of Ouroboros trap was currently walking over bloody and dead dark guild members and the rest of the guild was being destroyed. She stopped over the leader who was a lean-muscular built man in an iron mask. She had a sadist smirk and kicked him hard making the mask come off and so did his teeth and a lot of blood. She then used the heel of her boot to pin him by the neck and slowly sink it in.

"W-w-w-hy w-w-e h-h-had a d-deal." HE struggled to say as the heel kept diving into him.

"Yes, we did have a deal. Until I found out your dumbasses have been secretly selling emerald miracles to dark guilds abroad and keeping the profits." She said as her heel penetrated the man's neck and choked on his blood. "Hm pathetic." She said as she used her heel and somehow removed his head from his body.

"Mistress Eris." Her second in command came into the room. She was a very beautiful woman around her late twenties with dark skin, long dark hair, red eyes and wearing a long black dress with a tree design.

"Blakesley. How's the news of your potential son~?" Eris smirked at her second in command.

"Please mistress my son had passed away a long time ago. I don't know who that boy is." She strongly denied it.

"Well, whatever the resemblance is really high though maybe he's your sister's." She chuckled in amusement.

"Do not ever bring that woman up please." She calmly said but there was my venom in her voice

Over the years interesting developments have happened. First her operation to capture the princess to check if she had a lacrima was a success in a way. They did find out that the second princess didn't have a lacrima like her siblings but the developments of the mission are what got her. It said a boy the same age as the princess managed to defeat the team she sent with particular Take-over magic.

Even though they weren't her strongest they weren't no slouches either. She had thought projection magic was used on them and she saw an image of the boy she looked like the woman in front of her, so she hired a bounty specialised in iron make magic to capture him out of pure curiosity. The reason she hired a bounty hunter was because they were unrestricted to the boundaries by the boundary policies by the dark guilds. But it turns out the boy defeated him, increasing her interest even more.

Then there was the god of the blood feather forest and she heard a rumour that it was a giant flying snake with immense power. Just mentioning that it immediately wanted it as it gave her flashes of her master the god of chaos himself. But till today there are still no sightings.

"Mistress it's about the head the top dark guild in Sin Abyss Eye wanted to form an alliance with us to speak about a demon which seemed to have the potential to travel to the underworld and the human world." She told her.

"My~ My~ doesn't sound interesting. If it can travel to the demon world I wonder where else it can go." She smirked deviously. "Okay tell them I'll hear them out." She said as the two left the dark guildhall building. "Okay everyone, it's time to leave!" She told her subordinates.

"YES MA'AM!" They saluted and finished lotting the place for valuables and left.

"Oh, Blakesely be a dear and take care of that for me please and thanks~." She said as the two walked away from the dark guildhall.

"Yes Mistress." The woman nodded and turned around.

Then a giant plant with shared teeth came out of the ground and literally swallowed the entire guildhall hole and chewed it and retreated to the ground.