Chapter 8

Inside the guildhall of Fairy Tail one could see two completely different scenes.

On one side was Makarov, emotionally together with Rob who was, for a long time, a close companion of his during their youth and a close friend that saved Makarov's life more times that either old man can count.

On the other side of the hall was where one could see Law sitting in seiza, on his knees was a heavy weight pressing down with the words 'reflect on your mistakes' on them. The weight was far from enough to cause any serious damage and it was more a punishment for him to understand that he is NOT to go on such dangerous missions like that without telling anyone. That was a mission that could easily have escalated to A Rank or even S Rank, how could Makarov not punish Law for deciding to take such unnecessary risk like that? Had he simply called some back-up then there wouldn't be any issue, but Law never even told anyone about what he was about to do even with him having a communication Lacrima on him.

Some of the kids that were saved from the whole incident and that showed magic potential were all taken to Fairy Tail. Makarov decided to at least help take care of them and teach them enough so that they could get by even if they were to leave for other guilds. To make things more fair and let these kids not feel pressured in staying at Fairy Tail he would talk with the other guild masters about them in the meeting that would be had of the guild masters one week from then, let those who would be interested in the kids and would treat them well at least try something of an experience period with the other guilds.

Makarov could understand that these kids had all gone through quite a lot and needed help, he could offer that help but did not wish to make the kids feel pressured to enter his guild by any means. This was the solution he thought of, not that he would allow the kids to be taken by any guilds either as he only truly trusted some guilds like Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, and Quatro Cerberos to do so as, otherwise, he would not be confident these kids would be properly looked after. The kids were content with this proposition and agreed to the idea, liking that they were given the freedom of choice instead of being pressured to take any specific action. Makarov even said that, for those who decided not to enter a guild, he would still provide the basics and magic knowledge so they could reach whatever objective they set out to do.

These kids suffered enough and Makarov would do what he can to help them.

However, right now almost all the kids who went through that whole ordeal were looking at Law's figure being punished feeling a bit strange.

On one side they didn't want their savior to be punished for helping them, but on the other they could see from where Makarov was coming from when he did what he did.

"Heh, he really went too far now." Laxus said with a smirk as he sat on a chair looking on as Law was under punishment. He was finding his rival and best friend's punishment hilarious to watch, especially as Law had a hat that reads 'I am an idiot' in it.

On the side Minerva gave a quick jab at his ribs, making him wince.

"What was that for?" He asks as he rubs his ribs he could swear would have bruised if his body wasn't so tough.

"Because you were being an idiot." Minerva said as she took a glass of milkshake and started drinking it nonchalantly.

Laxus looked at this until he noticed something.

"HEY, THAT IS MY MILKSHAKE!" He shouted as he tried taking it back only for Minerva to teleport away still with his cup in one hand and her own in the other.

She could see Laxus glaring at her so she gave a playful smile and spoke.

"What of it? A slowpoke can only blame himself for being too slow to guard his own drink." She said and Laxus' forehead was quickly covered in pulsing veins as he glared at her.

This little situation quickly started escalating and before long the entire guild hall was a brawl with everyone against everyone. An utter and complete mess.

Or, in other words, a typical day of the Fairy Tail guild.

///---///

A month has passed since then and Law was finally out of his punishment. He was quite glad of it, knowing that now he could be sure that things would work out well enough.

With a grin, he went to see the guild's request wall to see if any new interesting quest was available.

"Uhm, Law, can I talk with you right now?" A shy voice said from behind him and Law turned to see who was speaking.

The one talking was one of the ones he had saved and chose to stay regardless of the other guilds offering to take her. Since they came back she was one of the ones who more closely glued to him, as if she feared what might happen should he not be close. She could say mentally that she was in no danger, but her unconsciousness would still scream 'danger' at her every once in a while regardless.

Looking at the girl Law smiled openly and spoke.

"Sure, what do you need Sorano?" He questioned the little white haired girl. She fidgeted a bit as she tried to piece together what she wanted to say before taking a deep breath and speaking.

"I, could I go with you in your next quest?"

As soon as she said that she flushed bright red, not believing that she actually asked and almost instantly regretted doing so. In her mind, she berated herself for speaking up like this and wanted to run away then and there.

She was quite a shy girl, having grown in the Tower of Joy for so long she had her spirit almost broken more times than she care to count and was not anything like Erza or Jellal who continued to rebel despite it all.

In all honesty, she hated herself inside, she wanted to change and create a new 'her' for the future. Make herself her ideal version, one who was confident, one who could make a difference and never cower like that again.

As such, she moved to do just that. She searched for a magic compatible with herself in the archives of Fairy Tail and spent many hours doing so, but she had yet to find anything that worked well. She just couldn't use any magic spell properly, instead only having her reserves.

She could just try and learn a more simple magic, one that anyone could learn, but she didn't want that. She wanted to be special, to be able to become unique. As such she arrived at an idea, become a Holder Type magician, using magic weapons and items to fight.

She would make up for her deficiencies like this, become a strong fighter that would never be abused again and be able to soar freely through the skies. As such she needed money to buy the items, and for that she had to complete Quests.

However, her alone could never go, and if she was with Law she would also feel safer than if she was with anyone else.

A win-win situation for her.

"... Sure, why not?" Law said after a moment. He didn't mind others going with him anyway to an adventure and if Sorano was happy to come then she can come.

Of course, this put some heavy restrictions on what quest he could take so his request to go on a golden crocodile extermination was denied. Shame, his brother told Law that those beasts are quite tasty and they serve as good training dummies for him to test himself against.

Unfortunately, Makarov wouldn't let Law take an novice mage like Sorano to fight 8 meters tall crocodiles that had near magic immunity and were known for having a taste for human flesh. Law still thought that Makarov overreacted when he gave him another quest instead.

Where would there be any fun in going to investigate some old ruins that were already explored so many times anyway? I mean, yeah there are some herbs there that are hard to find elsewhere but the area had no magic beast nor any true danger? It was just some dumb ruins called Eclipse Ruins, but they had no real important things in it.

///---///

Getting to the place of the quest Law led the way as Sorano followed. She was very nervous, being close to Law for protection even if there wasn't anything there that could actually do anything to either of them.

It was another half an hour before Sorano calmed down and began walking side by side with Law instead of simply following him. Now that she was calmer she began to analyze everything in hopes of finding things of interest.

"Hey, I think that is it." Sorano said as she pointed to some herb in the crevice of one of the walls.

Law, very much bored, just nodded and went to take the herb.

It took a small amount of time but he got the herb correctly collected. It was very sensitive to many things but nothing truly hard to deal with if you had the proper equipment.

Taking the herb out the two began moving away from this place, in another half an hour they had left this place and were back in the nearby town. It was not that big a place, being quite rustic and simple, but it gave off a good feeling of a simple but comfy town.

"This place is nice." Sorano said as the two got in a restaurant. The two were going to eat something before they would go on their way and this was just a quick stop. "Hey, have you heard that today is the day when there will be an eclipse?"

"Huh?" Law asked in slight interest.

"Yeah, I heard that today should be an Eclipse happening." Sorano said and Law mused to himself.

Normally an Eclipse is nothing actually that special overall, but they are quite close to a ruin that clearly is called Eclipse Ruins.

That was a great sign if there ever was one. A sign that, perhaps, things would not end up as boring as this was shaping up to be.

"Okay, we will eat and go back to those ruins. I want to see if anything will happen if an eclipse does happen." Law said, actually hoping for there to be something happening.

"Okay." Sorano said quietly, as if a whisper. She was not too well yet, but she would slowly but surely get better.

After a quick lunch the two started moving back, looking to go back to those ruins. However, when they got close to it they noticed that now there were some people there.

"Are you sure, Miss Layla? This could be dangerous." A male asked a blond woman with an impressive body. He has a somewhat ghastly appearance. He has puffy hair kept back by a headband adorning cross designs by the sides and which has a blue trim. He has scars on both sides of his cheeks, and dark bags under his eyes.

"I am, Zoldeo" The blond woman said. She was a beautiful young woman. She had soft brown eyes along with long blonde hair, which she wore in a bun along with a lacy baby pink band with ruffles on its edges which rests on her hair with her flicks and strands of hair framing her face. She was wearing a beautiful and well made pink dress that gave her a lovable air as well as made her stand out even more. "You must understand, this is something I must do. This eclipse is the first chance my family has ever had in many centuries to fulfill our side of the deal. I must do this."

"But mistress, we only have 11 of the 12 keys. If you try this then who knows if it will work or not?" Zoldeo said and Layla gave him a gentle smile.

"Zoldeo, you are my most loyal servant. I will always cherish this fact, so I ask that, should anything happen to me, please take care of Lucy. I trust you." Layla said and Zoldeo clenched his hands in repressed anger and frustration.

"Misstress, at least try and take these other keys with you then. Maybe they could be useful as replacement." Zoldeo said as he showed four keys, they all looked like they were also made of gold, but a darker gold and the design and drawings on them were completely differe.

Layla shook her head, this was a complicated magic as it was, she could not risk using those keys as they could negate this chance. She could not risk it even if Zoldeo wanted her to try, after all these keys also summoned spirits only that they were not the same spirits as the normal Golden Zodiac Keys. But the spirits these summon are stronger, that is for sure.

He was desperate, thinking over and over if there was any way for him to ensure that this plan would not go through. That Granny would arrive in time. That ANYTHING could be different.

Nothing worked. Layla was extremely stuborn on this and nothing he says would make her change her mind. This was a mission passed through many generations of her family and she would not be the one to fail right at the last moment.

As Layla approached a closed door inside the ruins there were two more people observing it. Law and Sorano were looking at everything that was happening and wondering what exactly they were seeing. Trying to understand what was going on.

The woman slowly reached out to a steel gate. It was quite big but Law and Sorano had seen what was on the other side before and it was just another regular room. It was just a steel gate, nothing special or unique about it besides the fact it would not open.

Law and Sorano were confused about it and observed as the woman got close to it. As she got close they could see a tear rolling down her cheek as she spoke.

"At least, with this my daughter won't have to carry this burden." She spoke in resignation as she started to chant.

As she chanted the gates started glowing as the eclipse started. Eleven Golden Keys flew out of a purse she carried and started gyrating around her as an extremely large energy began to manifest. Around her eleven spirits appeared, all showing sad expressions as she started to scream in pain. From her body blood, magic energy, and more was being drained as the spirits started to act as fast as they could.

They hoped to end this ritual as soon as they could so as to guaranty that Layla would survive. Amongst them some knew her for just a short while but for others, those who knew her better, this was a terrible situation they hated to see to the very core.

Seeing this scene as the gates started to open Law felt a strange energy around that place. It was highly strange but also seemed to be able to resonate slightly with what was inside him.

Excitement bubbled up as he remembered his brother saying that, sometimes, when there was a specially rare source of energy around he might end up being able to pull that energy inside himself, make it unite with some of his Lacrimas to turn them into a corresponding element. His brother did so for his Purgatory Dragon Slayer Lacrima and this is big part of how a Dragon Slayer or such magics can be made.

Seeing this Law did not hesitate, knowing how rare a chance this is he ran towards that place.

"Hey, you are not going any further!" Zoldeo shouted as he tried to stop Law but the kid was too agile, dodging quickly he went forward, almost reaching the gate but being stopped as if there was a barrier stopping him.

He could only go until around the place where Layla was at.

Frowning he decided to just try something, he began to use his Sun God Slayer power to release his own energy, emptying his personal reserves while directing the energy in the air to himself. As he saw that Layla was suffering he decided to help out. As he would have to expel his energy to help attract more of the unique energy in the air he directed the energy he was expelling it in the form of life energy into Layla's direction.

As soon as he did this Zoldeo was shocked as he saw how Layla's expression got better and she quickly started to become healthier again. Her screams of pain lessened to mere grunts and Zoldeo was absurdly glad to see this.

This was proof that Layla just might survive this whole ordeal.

And this was more than Zoldeo could have asked for.

///---///

AN:

So, there you have it. Layla will survive this whole thing and, even more interesting, Sorano will be getting some spirit keys soon enough.

However, they will be those unique ones of a different 'set' that Zoldeo showed. They are not evil, far from it, but they certainly are not as 'cartoonish' as the ones used by Lucy. They will be truly useful in a fight, and very interesting overall.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this and keep reading.

Up next, talking with Layla, getting some rewards for their work, and hearing some interesting things about a silver haired demon in a nearby town.