The Soul Curse

[X779, A week later]

— Gildarts Clive —

"So you're a summoner now?" Gildarts questioned as he eyed the inky black creatures standing in the backyard of Dannis' home. There were no more than twelve of them, their bodies pure black with white dots for eyes. They were all human-shaped, some clearly male and others female, most likely taking the form of their previous bodies. "Just what are they exactly?"

"I call them Wraiths," Dannis said. "And they're not summons, exactly. These are the souls of the villagers that died in Grilthos' attack. They helped me out a bit during the fight, with most finally going to the afterlife after we were done. These are the ones that chose to stay, I guess."

[Wraith images]

Gildarts whistled, impressed. "It's one hell of a spell. You're basically a walking, talking one-man army, eh?"

Dannis shrugged. "I'm not there yet, and I definitely won't start looking for wandering spirits and force them to join up. While they aren't all that powerful individually, they're virtually unkillable as long as I'm constantly keeping them up with my curse power."

"So is this all you can do with your curse power? What is it called anyway? Like a soul curse?" Mirajane piped from her position, sitting on the steps to the patio.

"Well, not exactly. It's a form of black magic, similar to Bickslow's Seith Magic. The difference is that Bickslow's magic allows him to control souls bound to objects, like his dolls. My soul curse utilizes living souls as weapons. They retain their abilities when they were alive and can act independently to some extent, but they need my curse power to stay active." Dannis' lip twitched to a half smile. "Wanna see what they can do?" He challenged.

"You're on!" Mirajane grinned. Gildarts stepped back to give them both space. 

Dannis went quiet as he focused on the spirits. Gildarts noted how synchronized their movements were, their forms shifting slightly as they followed Dannis' silent commands. 

Made of pure darkness as they were, Gildarts saw how they seemed to blend into the shadows. If they were fighting in the night, even he would struggle to see them. They would be very useful for missions that require stealth.

"Satan Soul!" Mirajane shifted into her demon form and charged at the spirits. With a mental tug, Dannis sent the wraiths towards Mira.

While it was obvious that Mirajane was dominating the fight, being much faster and stronger than Wraiths, her every attack would phase through their shadowy bodies as if punching through smoke. 

"If physical attacks don't work," Mirajane pulled back as she created an orb of darkness in her palms. "Then try this! Evil Shower!"

The orb broke apart as it sent hundreds of bullets of darkness against the spirits. When the smoke cleared, it revealed the spirits in various forms of damage. 

Some had their forms chipped away, while others were missing some limbs. It took a second, but they started regenerating quickly after Dannis' pumped in more of his curse power.

"Not bad," Gildarts commented. "So this uses the curse part of your powers, right? Not magic?"

"No. I basically have two types of energies to pull for my abilities. My regular Darkness magic, which can be enhanced to have slayer-like properties. And my Soul Curse that uses curse power." Dannis confirmed. "While good for having a backup, my curse and magic being separate energies mean that the curse wouldn't refill whenever I use the absorption aspect of my magic."

"Huh, didn't think of it that way. How taxing is it to keep these spirits up? Not gonna lie, having invulnerable minions sounds really useful." Mirajane said with her hands on her hips.

"Just keeping them up doesn't use a lot, but regenerating their form takes quite a bit. I'm gonna have to find a way to increase my reserves, in that case."

"With that out of the way, let's see what you can do with devil slayer abilities," Gildarts suggested. "Mira, if you don't mind?"

"Of course! Bring it on!"

Dannis nodded, he then took a deep breath as he focused his power. Black markings appeared on the left side of his body, going down all the way to cover his arm. The spirits disappeared as Dannis pulled out his sword.

Mirajane braced herself as Dannis launched his attack. A black arc was ejected from the swing of his blade, Mirajane crossed her forearms to block. The clash persisted for another second before the arc dissipated. Mira grunted in pain as she brought her arms up, revealing the purpling bruise that covered her arms.

"It feels…different," she admitted, her voice strained. "That attack hurt, and not in a traditional sense. I don't like it."

Dannis put his sword down, his expression concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it just stings a lot more than I expected it to." Mirajane reassured him with a smile before she cocked her head to the side in curiosity. "Natsu's a dragon slayer right? He told me once that he could eat fire and it replenishes his magic. Can you do the same thing?"

"I mean I kind of already do, my Black Hole spell takes in magic and reconstructs them to become pure ethernano. But then again, I can do that to most magic spells. I've never tried eating a darkness spell before."

Mira grinned as she lifted a hand and conjured another orb of darkness. "Wanna try?"

Dannis' eyes widened before smirking as he quickly ate the magic off of Mira. "Oh yeah, that tastes great." He clenched his fist twice as he studied himself. "The magic I regained is also much more than usual."

"Darkness Devil Slayer. It has a nice ring to it. We make a great team don't we?" Mirajane cackled, to which Dannis replied with a smile.

"We sure do."

Gildarts shook his head as he saw their interaction. 'I swear, these kids…' A wide grin appeared on his face.

They spent the rest of the afternoon testing Dannis' new abilities. Mirajane and Gildarts took turns sparring with him, pushing him to explore the extent of his powers. Gildarts then told them both to team up and fight against him.

Suffice to say, Gildarts was proud of his successor's progress. While Dannis and Mira were still far from actually beating him, he actually had to put in a bit of effort to keep both on the backfoot. 

Dannis' wraiths were useful for making small distractions and having more manpower in the fight. Mira's ability to constantly supply Dannis with magic and their natural cohesion with one another made them one hell of a duo.

He couldn't wait to see what they could do in the future.

______________________________________

— Makarov Dreyar —

"So Grilthos isn't actually defeated. I'm glad Dannis managed to survive that encounter, but the news that this demon is still alive and roaming across Fiore is worrying." Makarov said as he sat in his office, the ghostly form of the First Master sitting across from him.

"Agreed, one of the things that all etherious have in common is their pride. We have to consider the fact that Grilthos might have a grudge against Dannis, and by extension, Fairy Tail." 

"Hmph, if he really decides to do that, then he better be prepared for full retaliation. Fairy Tail takes care of its own."

Mavis smiled in agreement at his words. While Makarov doesn't really yet know the circumstances as to why she's actually here, having the Fairy Tactician on the side of the guild does alleviate his concerns somewhat. 

"In any case, what I'm worried about is the fact that there is someone pulling his strings. I saw it, Makarov. Grilthos was fully prepared to finish Dannis, but someone spoke to him telepathically and told him to pull back. Whoever this person is, he has enough power to command one of the etherious, and a decently powerful one too."

Makarov put a hand on his chin in a classic thinking pose. "The only one I could think of that could pull that off is the leader of Tartaros." Seeing the first master's confused expression, he clarified. "Tartaros is one of the most prominent Dark Guilds here in Fiore. Their strongest members are called the Nine Demon Gates, Grilthos was among their member before he decided to go rogue. Not much else is known about the guild, but they are assumed to have control over a few other Dark Guilds in the underworld."

"So despite going rogue, this leader still has enough of a hold on Grilthos for the latter to obey his orders." Mavis confirmed.

"I would assume so. The council is in a buzz recently regarding the state of the world. Just in the past few years, more and more dark wizards are popping up. While the number of rune knights and Light Guilds still outnumber the amount of dark guilds, they are quickly catching up. The only good news about all this is that the underworld isn't united in any sense."

"But you have suspicions, don't you Makarov?" Mavis questioned.

Makarov sighed. "My son, Ivan, founded a dark guild recently. He calls it Raven Tail. I don't know what I did in life for me to experience the fall of my own son, but nevertheless, I have reasons to believe that Ivan is planning something. I don't know what it is, but something is happening in the underworld that us light wizards don't know about."

Makarov looked out the window of his office to see his children all with smiles on their faces. Sure they were all in the process of destroying the guild for the umpteenth time, but they were all happy and content. That's what matters to him the most.

"I'm just worried about what the future will be like. Dark times are coming, First Master. While it is my hope to shield all my children from the horrors of the world, I'm not naive enough to think it will ever happen. All I can do now is to prepare them the best I can."

"You've done a wonderful job already Makarov." Her words got him to look back up at her. To his surprise, Mavis was smiling. "I've stuck around Dannis ever since he's passed his S-Class trials. Ever since then, all I've seen is the love that everyone shares for their family. Sure there have been exceptions, but the camaraderie exists in all members of Fairy Tail. It's a wonderful guild, Third Master. You've made your predecessors proud."

Makarov didn't expect her words to touch him so, but they did. He never realized how great it was to have someone he could share the burdens of leadership with. 

Hearing a loud crash from outside, he and Mavis laughed as Natsu slammed a table against Gray's back, sending the ice mage soaring through the air. 

Pushing away his worries, he decided to simply enjoy the days with his family. He can worry about the future later.

_______________________________

— End of Demonic Arc—

_______________________________

AN: So his curse ability is officially called the Soul Curse. As mentioned, he could summon wandering souls to help him in combat, whether that be as summoned creatures or other more practical uses. 

This brings an end to the Demonic Saga, where Dannis realizes that he's got quite more inside him than he initially thought. This saga encompasses Dannis' journey of self discovery, both in terms of his traumatic past and his identity as an S-Class mage of Fairy Tail.

Next, we'll be picking up the plot with the underworld, as well as the start of the journey in canon.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.