"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"
Natsu punches the small guy in the cheek, causing him to go flying.
"ROARRRRRR!!!"
Deliora's cry could be heard throughout the entire island.
Gray comes into the cavern helping Tato walk, his arm draped over his shoulders.
Gray had woken up after Tato's fight and saw Lyon laying, unconscious on the floor, so he laves the room and catches up to Tato in the temple, and saw him limping towards the cavern where Deliora was.
"I should be fine now, some of my strength has come back," Tato says.
He looks up towards Deliora. Half of its body is still trapped in ice. The purple light of the moon drop could be seen, but shortly thereafter, it disappears.
A green bright light fills the cavern as the monster flexes and breaks the rest of the melting ice. Deliora is now free.
"Those fools actually freed that thing," Tato whispers.
Gray walks over to where there's water and collapsed to his knees. He picks some of the water up in his hand and it slowly runs out of it.
"Ur," he says, "Thank you."
"Hey!" Natsu runs over to Gray and Tato.
"There's only one thing to do now, we have to take that thing down!"
Tato nods his head.
"Yeah, but you and Gray are in no position to fight."
Natsu snorts.
"You're not either."
"I still have a little fight in me."
This was a lie though, Tato, even though he recovered a little strength back, was in no position to take on a demon.
'My body still hasn't recovered enough for another Kaioken, it'll rip me to shreds.'
"Hehe, none of you are strong enough. But I am."
Lyon is seen dragging himself across the ground, badly injured.
"It's mine! I'll defeat it."
Gray looks down at Lyon, feeling bad for him.
"Lyon…"
"I'll be the one to surpass Ur…finally. Heh hehe hahaha."
"You can't fight," Natsu says, "You can't even get up off the floor."
"Hehe," Lyon looks up at Deliora, "I've waited so long…so long for this moment. Ugh…"
Gray knocked him out. He didn't want Lyon to get himself killed, because he knew that he would try to fight this monster.
"ROAARRRRR!!"
Gray rushes and takes a stance. He has one hand over the other, with his palms facing different directions. He starts to charge his magic.
'That's the! That fool! Giving his life away for nothing!'
Tato jumps in front of Gray to keep him from casting the Iced Shell, he sees out of the corner of his eye that Natsu is standing with him.
"Get out of the way!"
"Not gonna happen Gray," Natsu says.
Deliora starts to move.
"Keep him back," Tato tells Natsu.
"ROOOOAAARRRRR!!"
'Here it comes. My body is still not ready for the Kaioken again.'
Deliora throws a punch towards Tato.
'But I don't have a choice. Come on body, don't let me down. Surpass your limits!'
"Kaioken!"
Tato's muscles bulge once again and a red aura covers him.
His muscles scream with pain, but Tato has to ignore the pain.
"AHHHH!"
He screams as he meets Deliora's fist with his own.
When their fists connect with each other, a small shockwave is sent throughout the cavern.
The monster's fist starts to crack, then its arm, then its entire body and head. Deliora then explodes into dust and is no more.
Tato drops the Kaioken and collapses to his knees. His arms fall to his side as his body is truly exhausted from going past its limit.
"You did it!"
Natsu came running and threw Tato's arm around his shoulder and picked him up. He helps him to where Gray is standing.
"N-No, Deliora was already dead," Lyon says, lowering his head in defeat. He had woken up just as Tato made contact with Deliora and saw its demise.
"That was nothing more than it's dying breaths."
Gray seems to get lost in his thoughts.
'All the years, Ur has slowly been draining Deliora's life force.'
He looks off into the distance and he hears the whisper of his former master.
'I've freed you from the darkness, Gray.'
He smiles and a tear makes its way down his cheek.
'Thank you Ur. Now may you rest in peace.'
…
Natsu, Gray, Tato, and Lyon all exit the cavern and meet up with Lucy and Erza, who are waiting for them.
Gray is hold Tato up as they fill in the other two on what happened.
"Heck yeah! We totally just did a S class quest all by ourselves!"
Natsu jumps up and down in celebration.
Lucy clasps her hands together and get stary eyed.
"You think Master Makarov will let us on the 2nd floor of the guild now?"
Erza gives a death glare.
Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Tato all shudder.
Lucy tears up.
"We're still getting punished, aren't we?"
Erza crosses her arms.
"Aren't you all still forgetting something? The request asked you to lift the curse on the villagers and return them to their original forms. You still haven't done this, so your S class quest isn't over."
Lucy's face is filled with confusion.
"But I don't understand, I thought the curse would be lifted once Deliora was dead."
"Wrong. This curse you keep talking about is the after effects from the intense magical energy coming from the moon drop."
Tato retrieves his around from around Gray's shoulder. He bopps his hand into palm like he's figured something out.
"That does explain why I've been having weird feelings about atmosphere since being here."
Erza cuts her eyes to Tato. She widens her eyes and her face starts turning red.
'He has no shirt! How'd I not notice this earlier but oh my god! He's ripped! Oh why am I thinking like this! But he is easy on the eyes! Stop it Erza! But he could go like this more often at the guild and then…'
"Earth to Erza!"
Tato was snapping his fingers at Erza who was lost in thought.
"You good? You started breathing heavy and drooling."
She gets red in the face.
"It w-w-was n-nothing!"
He raises an eyebrow, not believing her, but lets it go.
"Let's go change them back," Natsu cheers out.
"Yeah, but we don't know how," Gray says.
He then remembers that Lyon was behind him laying against a rock.
"Lyon, do you know."
"No."
"But the villagers said all this started 3 years ago, when you guys got here," Lucy says.
"When we got here 3 years ago, we knew that there was a village somewhere on the island, but we had no reason to reach out to them. We didn't bother them and they didn't come to the temple."
"For 3 years," Erza asks.
"I still don't understand though, the moon drip light is so bright, it can be seen anywhere on the island. It's weird that they saw it every night but never came to investigate," Lucy says.
"The villagers weren't turned by the moon drip, it doesn't affect the human body," Lyon says.
Tato is listening intently and his index finger is tapping his chin.
"You lie," Natsu says.
"How do I lie? I've been exposed to it's light for 3 years and look at me, I never changed."
He looks away and scoffs.
"I wouldn't trust them, they're hiding something, but you guild wizards can probably figure it out."
Natsu growls.
"We're not done with you…"
Erza squeezes his face to make him be quiet.
"That's enough."
…
Toby is laying on the ground after his defeat from Erza.
"You want to know why we did what we did to revive Deliora? We lost our homes, our families, our livelihoods to Deliora, we just wanted revenge and Lyon came along and said that if we helped him revive the monster, then he would destroy it. We saw hope and so we decided to help him achieve his goal."
…
Erza beings slowly piecing the puzzle together.
"Sounds like we need to ask the villagers some questions," Tato said.
Erza nods her head in agreement.
"Let's go."