The mission request had arrived at dawn, delivered by a panicked messenger whose horse was lathered with sweat from hard riding through the night. The paper itself was barely legible, written in the shaky handwriting of someone in desperate fear:
*"URGENT - Fairy Tail Guild. The town of Ironhold is under attack by a single mage wielding unknown magic. Buildings destroyed, guards defeated, civilians fleeing. Request immediate S-Class response. Will pay anything. Please hurry."*
Master Makarov had originally intended to send Erza alone, but Riven had insisted on joining the mission. After Kouen's warnings about the need to master his Djinn fusion and the ominous awakening of Marchosias the previous night, he couldn't afford to hide behind the guild walls any longer.
"This could be dangerous for you," Makarov had warned. "If this attacker really is a newly awakened Djinn bearer, facing them could trigger an uncontrolled transformation. Your power might respond to the presence of another Djinn whether you want it to or not."
"Then that's exactly why I need to go," Riven had replied, surprised by his own certainty. "I can't learn to control this power by hiding from situations that might challenge it. And if it is Marchosias's bearer, they might be too dangerous for anyone else to handle."
The journey to Ironhold took most of the morning, following mountain roads that wound through rocky terrain dotted with mining settlements. As they got closer to their destination, the signs of destruction became more apparent. Scorch marks on trees that looked like they had been hit by controlled explosions. Boulders that had been shattered with surgical precision. The lingering smell of smoke and something else—something that reminded Riven uncomfortably of a battlefield.
*"The signature grows stronger,"* Baal observed as they crested a hill that gave them their first view of Ironhold. *"It is definitely Marchosias, and his bearer has achieved partial fusion at minimum. Be very careful—the War Djinn's influence can be... infectious."*
Ironhold lay in a valley below them, and even from a distance, the damage was shocking. What had once been a prosperous mining town was now a war zone. Buildings had been reduced to rubble by some kind of explosive force. The town's defensive walls had been breached in several places, the stone blocks scattered like a child's toys. Smoke rose from dozens of fires, and they could see small groups of people fleeing along the roads leading out of the valley.
"Whoever did this wasn't trying to conquer the town," Erza observed grimly. "They were just... destroying it. There's no strategic pattern to the damage."
As they descended toward Ironhold, they encountered streams of refugees heading in the opposite direction. Families carrying hastily packed belongings, merchants abandoning their goods, town guards with haunted expressions and bandaged wounds. Most gave the Fairy Tail mages grateful looks when they saw the guild marks, but their relief was mixed with desperation.
"Thank Mavis you're here," called out an elderly man leaning heavily on a makeshift crutch. "The monster is still in there, still tearing things apart. Our guards couldn't even slow him down."
"What does the attacker look like?" Erza asked. "How many are there?"
"Just one," a younger woman replied, clutching a crying infant to her chest. "A man, maybe twenty years old, with black hair and these terrible red eyes. He's wearing some kind of armor that looks like it's made of blood and shadows. And the things he can summon..." She shuddered. "Beasts made of pure violence. They tear through stone like it's paper."
*"Definitely Marchosias,"* Baal confirmed. *"The beast summoning is his signature ability. But if the bearer has red eyes, that suggests deep fusion—possibly deeper than is safe for a new host."*
Riven felt a chill that had nothing to do with the mountain air. "What happens if someone fuses too deeply with their Djinn?"
*"They risk losing their human consciousness entirely. The Djinn's personality becomes dominant, and the bearer becomes little more than a vessel for ancient impulses. In Marchosias's case, that means an endless hunger for battle and destruction."*
They reached the outskirts of Ironhold to find the town's main gate hanging off its hinges. The thick wooden doors had been shattered from the inside out, and the iron reinforcements were twisted into unrecognizable shapes. Beyond the gate, the main street was littered with debris and marked by craters that suggested controlled explosions.
"Stay alert," Erza warned, requipping into her Flame Empress armor. The red and orange plates gleamed in the afternoon sun, and her sword burst into magical fire. "If this bearer really is influenced by a war-focused Djinn, he might attack on sight."
They didn't have long to wait. A roar that sounded more animal than human echoed from the town center, followed immediately by the sound of something large and violent smashing through stone. A moment later, a massive shape came bounding down the main street toward them.
It was a beast unlike anything in nature—roughly the size and shape of a bear, but made of what looked like crystallized blood and shadow. Its eyes burned with the same red light they had heard described, and its claws left gouges in the stone street as it ran. Most disturbing of all, the creature seemed to be enjoying the destruction it was causing.
"That's not normal summoning magic," Erza said, raising her flaming sword.
*"It's not summoning at all,"* Baal corrected through Riven. *"Marchosias creates his beasts from pure magical energy given form. They exist only to fight and destroy, and they feel no pain or fear."*
The shadow beast leaped at them with supernatural speed, claws extended to tear through armor and flesh. Erza met it head-on, her burning blade slicing through its torso, but instead of falling, the creature simply reformed around the wound and continued its attack.
"It's regenerating!" she called out, dodging a swipe that would have taken her head off.
Riven tried to help with his normal Requip magic, summoning his favorite sword and moving to flank the beast. But the moment he got close, something unexpected happened. The creature seemed to sense Baal's presence within him, and its behavior changed completely.
Instead of the mindless aggression it had shown toward Erza, the shadow beast stopped attacking and began to circle Riven like a dog recognizing its pack leader. Its red eyes fixed on him with something that might have been respect or recognition.
*"Marchosias recognizes my presence,"* Baal explained. *"His beasts will not attack the bearer of another Great Djinn unless specifically commanded to do so."*
"Can you make it stop attacking Erza?" Riven asked aloud, causing his guildmate to look at him with surprise even as she continued to fight the reforming creature.
*"Not without asserting dominance over it, which would require partial fusion at minimum. Are you prepared for that risk?"*
Riven looked at Erza, who was beginning to show signs of fatigue from fighting an enemy that could regenerate from any wound. He looked at the destroyed town around them, at the smoke rising from buildings that might still contain trapped civilians. He thought about all the times he had relied on others to solve problems he should have been strong enough to handle himself.
"Do it," he said.
Golden light began to swirl around his right arm as he called upon Baal's power with more intent than he had ever used before. This time, instead of fighting the transformation or trying to carefully control every aspect of it, he simply accepted it.
The sensation was overwhelming. Power flowed through him like liquid lightning, rewriting his magical circuits and expanding his consciousness to include perspectives that weren't entirely human. For a moment, he felt himself on the edge of losing his identity entirely.
But then Erza's voice cut through the magical storm: "Riven! Stay with us!"
The sound of his name, spoken by someone who cared about him, anchored his human identity. He was Riven of Fairy Tail. He was not Baal, but Baal's partner. The Djinn's power was his to use, not the other way around.
The golden gauntlet solidified around his entire right arm, crackling with controlled electricity. More importantly, his presence had changed in a way that made the shadow beast stop its attack entirely. It crouched low, recognizing the authority of a Great Djinn's bearer.
"Stand down," Riven commanded, his voice carrying harmonics that weren't entirely human.
The creature dissolved into wisps of red and black energy that dissipated harmlessly into the air.
*"Well done,"* Baal observed with something like pride. *"You maintained your identity while accepting my power. That is the foundation of proper fusion."*
But their victory was short-lived. Another roar echoed from the town center, louder and more violent than before. Whatever had created the shadow beast was still active, and it had apparently noticed the destruction of its minion.
"The bearer is coming," Riven said, feeling the approach of chaotic magical energy. "And he's angry."
Erza nodded grimly, flames dancing around her armor. "Are you ready for this?"
Riven looked down at his transformed arm, feeling Baal's power flowing through him in a more controlled way than ever before. For the first time since bonding with the Djinn, he felt like he might actually be able to use this ancient magic without losing himself to it.
"I think I'm starting to be," he said.
And as the sound of approaching destruction grew louder, he realized that this battle would be more than just a test of his newfound control. It would be his first real confrontation with another Great Djinn bearer—and possibly a preview of the conflicts that lay ahead in the struggle for the crown of the Djinn King.
The war for the future had begun, and Riven was no longer content to let others fight it for him.