Chapter 48

Salem Pov

I sat on the forest floor near a river while leaning on a tree and cooking a giant fish on a fire waiting for a call from Harumi and concentrating on my control of Ethernano which caused a transparent green dome around me for 14 feet in height and diameter causing to making me hover a bit 7 feet in the air.

I looked at my hand and began focusing on morphing a specific body part of one of the souls in my arsenal. I envisioned and focused on a specific part of the Rathalos on my left hand and I smiled at the success. I see Morrigan do stuff like this all the time and she makes her body do weird stuff to mess with me or during control lessons.

She did stuff like growing extra mouths out on her hand or a large on her abdomen, growing an extra head on  though it was brain dead as she said growing a brain using her magic takes up a lot of time and magic so her og brain did the work when making it function.

She did say it was all in the magic control and flow of ethernano in her body mixed properly focusing on what part she wants to appear and where she makes it appear. If I wanted to do it I had to master those things then I could somewhat also do it.

I pointed my hand in the sky and shot out a large fire blast from my hand mouth.

Next I focused on giving myself a third mouth on left hand which was a little more difficult because I was accessing two creatures now but was good at magic control so as the it flowed into my right hand and I focused on gaining access to the specific part of the Zingore and it's mouth formed on my hand.  

Of course I had to stabilise the two control elemental attributes which wasn't hard because fire and lightning were basically sister elements. I nodded to myself and pointed both of them in the sky and they shot out a large vortex of their respective elements.

"Nice." I smirked to myself as at least I was able to use souls at once now it could be the building blocks in fusing them together for more efficiency. "Bleh Bleh." I chuckled to myself as I brought out my cat tail which was much easier to hold my phone to take a picture as I crossed my in an X position and stuck out my tongue so did the mouth hands.

Then my phone began to ring and it was Harumi.

"Hey Harumi." I answered it.

"Hello to you too Salem-san and yes i did capture it but I need to ask you is the Cerberus still here?" Harumi asked.

"Hang on, let me recheck…" I went to my phone and checked my map. "Yep it's still here and in the same location as 2 hours ago." I confirmed.

"Excellent listen I secretly arrange an emergency after the council had concluded there previous

"A secret meeting?"

"Yes the dark trinity aren't just the most powerful dark guild but they are extremely connected and they might have spies in the council and Imperial army so I couldn't risk the Oni-Dragons finding out about this operation at any cost. So rushed to the guild Phoenix Talon and requested two two members for assistance in form of a job request. "

"'Whistle' The number one guild of the country huh you sure aren't pulling your punches."

"We cannot waste at this moment especially what they can do with the Cerberus."

"Okay so what's the plan?"

"We will meet at the forest further away from the base when you get close just call me and I'll direct you to our location."

"It's okay I can track either you and Kagura, it will be fine."  We said our goodbyes and cut the call.

I stretched a bit then crouched down and jumped high into the sky. I turned my arms into the Rathalos wings and took off, breaking the sound barrier.

10 minutes later

As I was getting closer to the meeting place. I sensed a familiar magic power coming at me fast. I looked at the direction of the source and I saw Morrigan flying towards me. 

"Holy crap Morrigan." I uttered in slight surprise.        

"Hey~Hey~ Junior." She grinned and rubbed my head. "Oh my you've gotten taller this past month haven't you and your voice is getting deeper too. Good for you~." She said in a baby voice.

"Don't patronise me and stop messing with my hair." I pushed my hand and my head.

"Oh not, the teen angst is starting to kick in." She gasped a little dramatically.

"Well your in a good mood I see you had a good time at Sin." I rolled my eyes. "But I'm surprised by your back though."

"This mission was assigned    to both of us, so it would be unprofessional of me if I just abandon it. Plus even if I wasn't here I still ran into some interesting details while at Sin. Now lets got wouldn't want to keep Harumi waiting."

We both began flying to the meeting place.

"Oh by the way, nice hair style. Who did it for you?"

"Oh some shrine maidens at a ninja village, now let's pick up the pace. I really want to get this over with fast."

 At the meeting place

Kagura was sitting on a rock in a meditative position with her sword on her lap and absorbing the ethernano around her. She has meditated before but as a form of training mostly but she's seen Salem just doing this for relaxing and she had to admit it truly was.

Kazuki was just sitting on a tree just enjoying the nature around him while waiting for the mission to begin. A bird even flew near him and perched on his finger .

Harumi was sitting down reading all the information provided by Morrigan about the dark guild Ebon legion which the Oni-Dragons were collaborating with. Apparently they were a dark guild from Sin which apparently gained power through the Cerberus by getting demons from the demon realm. Though their operations were taken over by the Abyss eye which was the largest dark guild in the country, which she always found impressive especially since how complicated the country could be.

"Harumi-san, where are these Ishgar mages you hired!" A man comically in frustration. He had blond hair which was neatly brushed, brown eyes, and was wearing an imperial soldier uniform.

"Calm yourself Ritsu-san, you give yourself yelling won't bring them here faster." A man with long black hair tied in a ponytail and coppet eyes spoke. His attire includes a long, flowing sleeveless robe showing of his muscular arms and tiger tattoo on his left arm and a red sash around the waist. The pants are loose-fitting and flowy, matching the style of the robe.

"Nah let him keep going, it's providing me with something to keep me entertained while we wait." A beautiful woman with golden eyes,  long, flowing hair with a mix of pink and a tad brown, the most striking thing about her were her fluffy pointed ears. She wore a suit of armour with a colour scheme dominated by shades of purple and blue, shoulder guards, gauntlets and a cloak. 

"I have every right to be upset. I mean what kind of professional mages arrive late for an important mission like this! Especially since you said this boy Raidenmi-dono spoke of is so vital for its success!"

"Don't worry Ritsu-san. I've worked with Salem-san and he is a very strong and reliable mage and he wouldn't just turn his back on his job." Kazuki spoke.

"Well you can put it in  Ritsu-san, because they've arrived." Harumi pointed to the sky as Morrigan and Salem flew down towards them. They landed close to the others with Morrigan's hands around his shoulder.

"Hey Harumi sorry we're late~." Morrigan waved and winked at them.

"Sup~." Salem did two finger salutes and winked as well.

"Finally the both of you are 10 minutes and 25 seconds late anymore than that you both could have caused a major ho." Ritsu yelled, blowing back the shape-shifting duo.

"My~ my~ Looks like we've got a screamer here." Morrigan groaned as she picked her, which was ringing a little. 

"That's an understatement." Salem also picked his ear but the ringing was a little worse for him. "And how are you Mr.banshee?"

"Hmph my name is Ritsu a soldier not Mr.banshee and I apologise for my tone but you must understand we are invading a base of one of the members of the dark trio especially since Raiden-dono stated that you're the only one who can permanently kill the um anomalies as you call them." spoke Ritsu.

"It's cool, just don't scream in my ear. Hey Kagura, good to see you." Salem spotted his friend and walked over and sat beside her.

"I'm glad to see you too Salem-san." She greeted me with a smile.

"Yo Kazuki." He worded as he looked at the ninja just chilling by the tree.

"Hello Salem-san. Looks like our paths had converged sooner than I thought." The ninja nodded at the younger mage and sensed some traces of Inari's magic in him and wondered what their goddess was up to this time.

"So these are the mages from Ishgar you hired." The woman analysed Morrigan and Salem so she walked over to Morrigan."Hello there  Akira Watanabe, a member of the Phoenix Talon guild, hopes we can get along." She looked up at Morrigan and was a little taken by the height difference.(Morrigan is 6'0 while Akira is 5'4).

"Nice to meet you too. My name is Morrigan and this rugrat is…" Morrigan stretched out her hand and grabbed Salem away from his position. "Is Salem." introduced the both of them and Salem's eyes just widened a bit as he looked at her.

'Body magic?' Akira then turned towards Salem as she seemed to be taken back by her.

"O-Oh yeah I'm cool" He cleared his throat and regained his cool. He was surprised because she looked like a league of legends character. Now he never played the game but his pictures of a lot of them on the internet plus their trailers were pretty cool. Hell, I thought Inari was Ahri the first time he saw her.

"Aw I think he has a crush on you" Morrigan poked Salem's cheek.

"My brother in Christ it's not that." Salem rolled his eyes with a blush on his face. "She's really pretty I admit that but she just reminded me of my owl transformation that's all." He cleared his throat and came up with an excuse on the fly.

"Oh thank you but I'm flattered but already married with a daughter about your age." Akira lightly chuckled. "But the reason for my talons is because I'm sort of part Tengu."

"That's pretty cool." Salem commented about the Tengu part.

"Tough break Junior but I promise I will help you through your first heartbreak." She put his head in her bosom. 

"I can't breathe you crazy witch!" 

"By the way are you two mother and son or brother and sis…" 

"We're not related." The duo said at the same time with a deadpan expression.

'When you do things like that, tell me otherwise.' Akira mused a bit as the two were making a similar facial expression.

Then Takeshi walked over to them. "It's an honour to meet you  Morrigan-san and Salem-san. My name is Takeshi and I'm a member of the Phoenix Talon guild as well." He held out his hand towards Morrigan, who shook it, making Takeshi's eyes widen.

He then found himself in a dark purple room and his eyes landed on a large throne. Sitting on it was a shadowy figure in the shape of a woman and all he could see were crimson eyes looking down at him like he was some ant.

"Hello, are you going to let go of my hand? Are you okay or do you just like what you see handsome~?" He was back to reality and Morrigan was waving her free hand in front of his face.

"Oh s-sorry about that." He quickly let go of her hand and backed away from Morrigan.

 "I know that look Takeshi-kun, what's wrong?" Akira asked him a little worriedly.

"That woman isn't right."Takeshi commented as when she looked at Morrigan there was a dark and evil presence surrounding her.

"So what's the plan of attack? Are we just going to raid the place?" Asked Morrigan.

"No, actually the people of Kazuki-kun's village sent a scouting team to investigate the base before we got here." explained Harumi. "If you please Kazuki-kun."

"Aright." Kazuki nodded as he jumped down the tree. " As Harumi stated, we had sent in a scouting team after Salem-san had told us the location of the base. They did a brief search of it but were unable to get a full search due to being almost but we managed to lead a talisman there in order to quickly enter the base."

"Incredible you don't see space-time techniques performed through the use of talismans everyday." Ritsu praised their work as he analysed the talisman held by Kazaki's. The level  talisman usage has yet to be truly conducted in the army.

"Thank you, they worked hard to keep them concealed so that they wouldn't alert the enemy."

"Hung on shouldn't we know what kind of enemies we're dealing with before we head in." Kazuki questioned.

"Kazuki-san has a point, going in blind is a little reckless considering this a base of one the dark trinity were talking about." spoke Akira.

"Hm I understand that's why I have this." Ritsu brought out a lacrima showing a picture of five individuals. "This is Ryuzen, the leader of the Oni-Dragons. He has been active for over 15 years. Not much is known about his origins but he used to attend a prestigious magical academy of Nobunaga in the capital but due to past run-ins with Raiden-dono we know he is seeking to take the throne from the emperor and open the east gate of the demon realm." He showed a picture of Ryuzen.

"This woman goes by the devil's eye. There isn't any information about her past but we do know she uses incredibly powerful eye based magic so please keep on your toes when you're around her." He showed a picture of a female figure covered in a dark cloak. The only thing clear was her grey skin by her chin and red lipstick.

"Next is a man known as Kenshin Arashi, otherwise known as the Crimson Typhoon. He was a bloodthirsty swordsman who only speaks one language which is bloodshed. He has slaughtered hundreds of people just for the pure thrill of battle leaving a river of blood in his wake. Just his bloodlust alone is enough for an army of men to quiver."  A picture of a person with red skin and an Oni mask with horns. He was dressed in a battle kimono he was armed with two swords that have ornate handles, tucked into their sash. 

"Thirdly is Professor Quill. He is a member of the Machias race and used to be a very skilled scientist working for the magic council and specialised in the arts of alchemy but he was found to be conducting terrible and illegal experiments on people and animals for the sake of gaining an item known as the philosopher's stone." A picture of a man around his forties wearing a lab coat with green greying hair, a beard and had some cybernetics attached to his head.

The information shocked Salem as he didn't know alchemy was also a thing in the fairy tail world heck the philosophers stone is also here. But from what he remembers from a fullmetal alchemist he can guess what sort of experiments were conducted for the man to try and forge the stone. That is if alchemy works  the same way here as it did in fullmetal.

"Just what is a philosopher's stone?" asked Akira. She had at least basic knowledge of alchemy but she never heard of a philosopher's stone.

"A philosopher's stone is the ultimate prize of an alchemist. It is said to be an item which holds so much power that it can bypass the rules which govern the universe and allow the users to perform miracles which would be extremely difficult or down right impossible even though magic.  A lot of alchemists have tried to produce it but all have failed including the greatest alchemist to ever walk Earthland, Duke Barbaroa." Morrigan explained, gaining a surprised look from everyone excluding Harumi and Salem. "What, I'm a treasure hunter and plus I've been around." She shrugged.

"Hold on, I thought alchemy involved the mixture of ingredients and material rather than applying chemistry." questioned Kagura as alchemy was not common in Ishgar so she just had common knowledge on it.

"It's really a matter of transmutation which in simple terms involves exchanging or transforming one thing into another from tangible to intangible objects." Salem answered but he wasn't going to go into the terms of equivalent exchange as he wasn't sure if that was a thing here. "The method he used so he could someday get his hands on the stone was through human sacrifice wasn't it?" Ritsu nodded that much to the horror of Takeshi, Akira, Kazuki and Kagura. Ritsu and Harumi were more surprised at his knowledge of alchemy though.

"That's terrible." Kagura gasped a bit as it sounded like dark magic and forbidden magic requires some sacrifices. In-fact she brought her back to the bastard followers of Zeref purging villages. She began to clench her fists as she thought about the scum making her anger flaring causing magic to subconsciously activate causing the gravity around them to increase a bit.

"Kagura, calm yourself." Harumi snapped the girl back to reality.

"Oh I'm sorry I lost a bit of control of myself, please hit me as a composer." She quickly apologised, bowing her head causing everyone to sweatdrop. Salem just lightly poked her forehead. "Eep." She rubbed her forehead with a light blush.

"There your sins are forgiven." He joked and patted her head much to her bemusement. "You can go on."

"Alright." Ritsu cleared his throat as he decided he would ask the boy who he came to about such knowledge later. "Finally Kenji Diago, a former yakuza executive turned Oni-Dragon who specialises in ring magic, is on your toes when confronting him as he can use any type of magic on you." He finished with a picture of a man with black, grey eyes which were covered by tinted glasses wearing a suit, all his fingers had on a different coloured ring and was smoking a cigar with a smirk on his face.

"So what-…"

"Sorry Takeshi but save your questions for later we got to go right fucking now." Salem interrupted Tekashi from asking questions.

"From the way you're acting I can guess they have some power anomalies in that base?" Morrigan deduced as he usually got like that whenever there was an anomaly he needed to take care of quickly.

"Yes, they do and I would like to get there fast before they do anything too crazy with them." They basically had three pokemon, one dark one psychic and electric, a plant type Digimon, Vulf from ninja gaiden Darkus Bakugan Bakugan and two from Nioh which consists of the kitsune and Hino-emma which have been acting weirdly, the froghemoth.

"Alright everyone we've already wasted enough time so here the plane. We will split up into two teams. One will come with me and confront Cerberus and the other will go with Salem-san to deal with the anomalies. Any objections" Harumi asked sternly and they all shook their heads.  Her team were Kagura Morrigan and Ritsu and the others were with Salem.

"Now Kazuki-kun if you please."  They nodded and brought out a talisman and placed it on the ground and did a hand sign and blue fire erupted from him forming six flaming tails and ears.

"NEXUS OPEN!" He chanted and they were all covered in blue flames and disappeared.

At the base.

The Cerberus has returned from its trip to the underworld with a four armed org looking demon with its mouth constantly flaring out fire.

"Marvellous Inferno Oni." Ryuzen commented as he sensed that this one had incredible power.

Blakesley was watching everything with keen eyes, curious about the demon dog. As ordered by Eris she had to stay a little longer to watch its magic in action and save to say she was still impressed it can travel to the demon world ignoring all the gates but she picked about a few things.

The Beast seemed to have a limit to the strength level of which demon it can transport from the underworld because it wasn't. She was pretty sure more than one powerful demon would have been transported at a time and at least just one of the demon kings would have been out ready. 

Before  they knew what was happening a magical seal appeared on the wall  much to the surprise of everyone in the room. Harumi then came of it and in the speed of the lightning went straight for the Inferno Oni sheathing her blade which was coated in lightning devil slayer magic.

"Lightning devil's Plasma Slash!" She chanted as cut the demon's head off its body.

Harumi wasn't done as she set her sight as she went straight for the Cerberus without hesitation ready to go straight for the kill. But before the demon could fire a counter attack a shield formed around it stopping her attack.

"Stop right, you abomination, don't we will not allow you to damage our lord's gift." All the cloaked declared but as in the blink of an eye Morrigan and Kagura came out of the portal and knocked them all to the ground.

"Well that was surprisingly easy." Morrigan looked at the cultist in disappointment but she wondered just what was Abyss Eye's angle with all this especially sending such weak mages to escort an important creature but knew she shouldn't drop her guard as she can feel they had something on their sleeves

She noticed that the barrier was still up around the demon dog and the collars on each of their necks  emitting magic and she could tell each of them had different uses. Her thinking was halted as she felt a familiar presence in the room and thus Morrigan's  attention was taken by Blakesley.

"B-Blakesley." Morrigan spoke in a little shock as she looked at the woman.

"Sister." She said with malice as she glared at the woman.

"Ryuzen by authority of the Imperial army you are under arrest!" Ritsu yelled, showing his badge.

Ryuzen looked at the scene and beside the shock of the sudden entry he formed a smirk in amusement as he stared at the group.

'Well this is interesting. Wait.' His smirk dropped as he noticed someone was missing. 'Where's the boy!'

Author's Note:

Yeah guys sorry if I butchered houw alchemy works in fairy tail and basically copying and pasting the concept of the philosophers stone from Fullmetal Alchemist. But Fairy tail didn't really flesh out it's Alchemy power system. And from a fundamental stand point it was like a more buffed version of Fullmetal's alchemy.

During the Golden Owl arc when they need the philosophers stone to give Viernes a body it was not explained who it was obtained. The two Dukes just combined into one body making a hot chick (for some reason) and the girl made the philosophers stone and gave it to sabertooth with no explanation on what materials or power source she used. So I just decided to use the old human sacrifices and transmutation gig