The Blue Pheasant Flies On

Chapter 1: Not Quite Dead

Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively

A/N: Another Fairy Tail crossover here. I really should think about branching out more, but I like Fairy Tail's setting too much. It's so easy to adapt things to. This is a challenge that was pitched to me by 2015 Lewamus Prime and I really liked the premise and decided to give it a try. I am also looking for a beta for this story.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Magic/Magic Item

Location/Time Change

Punk Hazard

Two very tall men stared at each other from across the remains of the island that had been designated their battlefield. One man had curly black hair and a long face compared to his opponent's square jaw and short hair. The curly-haired man had a series of extreme burns that covered the right side of his body from his waist up to his neck and was missing his left leg from half-way up his thigh down, which had been replaced by an ice prosthetic. The short-haired man was bleeding profusely from the right side of his face and neck. The two were panting in exhaustion from the tenth day in their battle to the death. Around them the very nature of the island had changed so that half of it was a burning wasteland and the other half was a frozen mountain range just from the intensity of their powers.

The curly-haired man was unable to support himself any longer and collapsed to the ground. He limply rolled over and looked up at the face of the man that had defeated him. He took satisfaction at the damage he had managed to inflict on the older man. "It appears that you win, Fleet Admiral Akainu," he mocked while struggling to breath. The battle between them had been the hardest fight of his life and he had lost it, so he was willing to act a little petty at the moment. "It appears that my 'Lazy Justice' lost to your 'Absolute Justice.'"

"You put up a good fight, Admiral Aokiji," Akainu replied with a slight emphasis on his title. It didn't matter in the end. Akainu himself was both stronger and had the advantage over Aokiji's ice powers. If the man was only able to match 'Fire Fist' Ace's fire powers, then he had no chance against Akainu's own magma powers that had burned the aforementioned fire user. "But you have lost. As you said, I will be the next Fleet Admiral of the Marines."

"If you're in charge of the Marines then I don't want any part of them," Aokiji told him.

Akainu let out a sigh. "I see. Then I accept your resignation, former Admiral Kuzan," Akainu lifted up his fist that was then turned into magma, "Goodbye."

Kuzan had known that his life was forfeited when he had been unable to maintain his fake leg and collapsed. He couldn't work under a man who believed in "Absolute Justice" and knew that Akainu wouldn't let him live with retiring after their fight to the death, the use of his real name instead of his moniker confirmed it. He regarded his end with the same calm expression he had always worn. His last words would forever be ingrained into Akainu's mind as a reminder as to the type of person Kuzan had been even with his fist punching through his chest, "Arara."

Mountains of Brago, X774

Kuzan slowly opened his eyes and stared at the wooden ceiling above him. 'This is the afterlife?' he wondered, remembering dying when Akai- no, Sakazuki shoved his magma fist through his chest. 'I was expecting something… more.' While Kuzan wasn't a religious man by any definition he had still been expecting something more extravagant than the small wooden hut he apparently was in when he died. At least, if he wasn't immediately reincarnated. The opinions on what happened after death varied depending on who you asked, and he had long ago given up on actually learning the truth. Unless he had managed to come across someone who had eaten a Devil Fruit that let them know the truth of what came after death and he actually remembered to ask them for the information he wouldn't worry about it.

He couldn't sense anyone around him with his Haki and any attempt to move left him in unbearable pain, especially on his right side, 'Right, the fight.' A quick examination with his left hand revealed that someone had apparently found him in his injured state and had bandaged his wounds. But who could have done that? Judging by what he could sense of the weather he was on the frozen section of Punk Hazard, but the island had been uninhabited when he and Sakazuki had started their fight and even if someone had been able to avoid their detection they would have surely died or been exposed during their ten-day death match.

Kuzan then felt three people show up within his Haki's range, but he must be mistaken. Of the three people he felt, two of them were children just under an officer's power and the other was around a mid-level Vice Admiral's power. Something was wrong here. He would go along with things for now until he had a better grasp of the situation.

The door to the cabin was opened and Kuzan's eyebrows rose in surprise. The three people who had entered consisted of two young boys and a woman dressed only in their underwear. He knew that the temperature outside had to be freezing so why these people were running around nearly naked was beyond him. One of them might have eaten a Devil Fruit that could withstand the cold, but not all three of them. One boy had spiky silver hair that jutted back from his face and the other had spiky black hair that drooped down. Both had dark boxers on. The woman had chin-length purple hair and a very obvious figure that was only covered by a green bra and matching underwear.

"Sensei, he's awake," the silver-haired boy pointed out to his apparent teacher. Odd. Kuzan would have marked them down for her kids.

The purple-haired woman walked up to Kuzan's head and sat down next to him. "How are you feeling?" she asked while placing a hand on his forehead.

"Better than I thought I'd be," he tried to tell her, but his voice came out weak and scratchy. How long had he been here? Or had his throat been injured in the fight and he'd just not noticed? "How long-?" He was overcome with a coughing fit and unable to continue. Had he damaged his lungs?

"You've been here for a little over a week. We found you in the mountains covered in horrific burns while training," she informed him. She turned to the kids. "Gray, grab him a drink. Lyon, get some more bandages." The dark-haired kid went to the sink so he had to be Gray and the silver-haired kid must've been Lyon then. Good to know. Gray gave her a cup and she slowly let him drink from it. It was embarrassing, but he was in no position to argue. "Try talking now."

"Thank you," Kuzan said. His voice already sounded better. "Where am I?"

"I'm sorry. You must be confused. My name is Ur. This is Gray and the one who went to get the bandages is Lyon," Ur introduced herself and the boys to Kuzan. As if summoned by his name, Lyon arrived carrying a large roll of bandages and several tubes of some kind of medicine, probably for burns. "To answer your question, you're in my cabin. It's a couple of miles away from the nearest town," she began to roll out the bandages and started to take off his old ones. "You were hurt pretty badly. What happened?"

These people obviously didn't know who he was if they had to ask and he wasn't about to tell them his name while he was at their mercy and there was no help nearby. Most pirates would spring on the chance to take down an Admiral —well ex-Admiral— if they had the chance and he didn't know where his saviors' allegiance aligned. With his last memories being Sakazuki driving a fist through his chest, Kuzan was understandably paranoid about his current situation. Her mention of a town nearby was suspicious as well. In order for there to be a town then he had to have been taken off of Punk Hazard, but she said that they had found him in the mountains. It was all very suspicious, and he would have to keep things close to his chest for the time being. So Kuzan fell back to a strategy he had mastered while in the Marines. Lying.

"I don't know. I remember getting into a fight, but not much else," he said to cut off any further questions. Pretending to have partial amnesia was an old trick that worked quite well for him before. It gave an out for any future questions, yet still allowed him to know some basic things without being suspicious enough to warrant any in-depth analysis.

"You must have hit your head during the fight," Ur told him. She had finished unwrapping his wounds and Kuzan could finally see the full extent of his injuries. It was pretty bad. He had a massive amount of angry burns all along the right side of his torso and most of his right arm that ran all the way up to the side of his face. It was a miracle that he hadn't lost anything important and still had his arm. The remains of his left leg were burnt pretty badly as well, and it would take a while to heal. Unfortunately, he couldn't just turn into ice and negate the damage that way. It would have to heal on its own time. Ur noticed his gaze and explained, "I had the local doctor come here and look at you after we got you out of the cold. He was amazed that you survived both your wounds and the cold from the mountains. He did what he could to treat your wounds but said that it would have to be left to time in order to heal and that it would scar pretty badly. You're better off here in the long run than at the local clinic."

Kuzan let out a grunt. He had been expecting that and thought that he had actually gotten off pretty lightly. He only lost one leg and his Devil Fruit would make that no problem at all. Something that she said was off though. "Why would I be better off here?" Was she a doctor? And if so, then why was she training out in the middle of the snow without her clothes on? And why would she have called for another doctor in the first place?

Ur didn't say anything at first and just held out her hands over his wounds. A blue glow surrounded them and formed a seal in midair before a thin sheet of ice formed over it to help with the swelling. Kuzan stared at her in shock as the ice formed over his body. "Because I'm an Ice Mage," she told him with a small smile at the shock on his face. "Now what was your name?"

Kuzan's mind refused to process what he was seeing. It shouldn't be possible, couldn't be possible. He numbly answered her question while he was preoccupied with comprehending what was happening before him. He did retain enough sense to not use his more widely known moniker of Aokiji though.

"Kuzan."

One Week Later

Kuzan was finally able to sit up in his bead and was currently alone in the cabin while Ur and her disciples were training in the snow again. The swelling from his wounds had gone down and they only hurt whenever he tried to move them too much. For now he was keeping them in an ice cast so he wouldn't aggravate them. After Ur's reveal of her powers Kuzan had cited still being tired and she had quickly dressed his burns and ushered the kids out. He had immediately attempted to use his powers and discovered that they were still functional. He had even broken off a toe in order to make sure that he could still regenerate. Later when she had given him dinner, fully dressed in a light-colored jacket, black pants, and a dark tube top, Kuzan had questioned Ur on how she was able to use ice like that. The answer and subsequent explanation he had received showed that he was worse off than he thought.

From what had been described to him he wasn't even in his own world at the moment. There was no World Government, no Marines, and any pirates that existed were treated as a minor annoyance for the most part. Instead of Devil Fruit these people used magic that ten percent of humans could naturally use as well as various species of monsters. There was an extremely diverse amount of magics that could be learned by multiple people. Ur was a master of Ice-Make Magic and was teaching it to her students, which explained their lack of clothing when he first met them and why they had been up in the mountains when he had appeared.

This world apparently had literal demon as well, and one of them was nearby and had killed both Gray and Lyon's parents. Hence, why they were with her. How they matched up against some of the monsters of his world, such as Oars Jr, was still up for debate and he didn't plan on finding out anytime soon.

The amount of time it was taking him to heal was becoming increasingly frustrating. Ur and her students had become more comfortable around him and were asking him questions to help him recover his "lost" memories. He had been using half-truths and vague wording in order to satisfy them, but it wouldn't last. Ur had been shooting him second glances after some of his answers but had thankfully refrained from saying anything for now. It was only a matter of time until she confronted him about it though and he wanted to be gone before she reached that point. The only things that they knew about him was that he was in his late forties, was an ex-soldier, and wasn't from around here. One of the more difficult things to explain had been his height. Back in his own world there had been nothing out of the ordinary with being just under ten feet tall. With giants and dwarves running around the Grand Line height never really played a factor. However, here it was extremely out of place with over six and a half feet being well above the average. He had ended up hand-waving his height due to a lack of memory but doubted that it was the last he would hear on the matter.

Kuzan looked down at his injured hand and flexed it, wincing slightly. But even if he left where would he go? He was a stranger from a different world with only basic knowledge of how the one he was in now worked. He had joined the Marines when he was younger in order to protect people and stop pirates from rampaging. Even after he had seen the horrors of what the World Government was willing to do and that not all pirates were evil, he had stayed in order to rise up in the ranks and become strong enough to follow his own justice without repercussions. He may have never shown any ambition after reaching admiral, but that was because he was satisfied with Sengoku's rule and didn't see any need to improve. Kuzan thought that he had shown plenty of ambition when he had fought Sakazuki for the title of Fleet Admiral. From what he could tell there wasn't really a need for anything like that here. Most of the guilds or the Magic Council that Ur had told him about took care of threats like that. For now, he was stuck and had nowhere to go or a goal to achieve.

He sensed the return of the Ice Mages. Kuzan sighed. He would have to wait a little longer before making a move.

One Month Later

Kuzan was finally able to move his right arm and side without suffering from too much pain and had started to begin light exercises in order to help his body recover from both its injuries and the time he had taken to heal, under the heavy supervision of Ur of course. She had threatened to finish what Sakazuki had started if he ended up hurting himself by overdoing things and ruining all of the work she had put into healing him. She had even gone as far as to make a prosthetic leg with her magic to help him walk around. It caused him to limp while he used it and Kuzan could have used his Devil Fruit powers to make a better leg, one that could bend while he moved and essentially replace what he had lost, but he wasn't willing to show off his powers at the moment. They would cause more problems than he could or was willing to afford, especially with the two kids. One was obsessed with revenge and the other worshipped Ur as if she was the pinnacle of power. He had seen many people that had gone down those paths, pirates and Marines alike, and it usually ended badly. For now, he was forced to be satisfied with practicing while they were away.

He was currently dressed in heavy clothes that Ur had modified to fit his large frame. His old clothes had been reduced to tatters and thrown away and none of the ones sold had a chance of fitting him. He had been grateful for her assistance and used the time she was sewing and the kids were asleep to ask her more about the world and magic. He learned many things from her about how things worked here and would be forever grateful for that. This world seemed to work under the theory of a more relaxed justice than the Marines. The judges and rules varied by country and, while the death penalty existed, it was used a lot less often. Overall, Kuzan preferred this world's form of justice over his old world's. He found it closer to his "Lazy Justice."

He once again picked up the approaching presence of Ur and her disciples back from their grocery shopping in town. She wasn't willing to leave the kids alone with him, whether because she thought that he would bother them or vice versa Kuzan didn't know. Something was wrong though. Gray was moving faster than the other two and it appeared as if they were chasing him. Kuzan shrugged his shoulders and returned to the cabin. If it was important then he would learn about it soon enough.

This was worse than Kuzan would have guessed. Instead of another one of the little spats he had figured that Gray had gotten into with either Ur or Lyon, the boy was on a warpath over that Deliora demon Ur had told him about earlier. He had barged right in and immediately started to gather up his things with the intention of leaving permanently. Ur had tried to stop him of course, but he wouldn't be swayed. They were currently shouting at each other loud enough to be heard over the snowstorm that had started shortly after their return.

"I am going to kill Deliora! There's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise!" Gray declared while heading for the door dressed for the cold in a white jacket.

"Deliora is too strong for you to face!" Ur shouted back. "He would crush you like a bug. If you go out that door you will die!"

"NO! I will defeat him! I can do it!" Gray insisted. He threw open the door and prepared to step out into the storm.

"Stop! You can't defeat Deliora, Gray! You're not good enough, yet!" Ur told him.

Gray stood in the doorway and refused to face Ur. "Shut up. You don't know anything," he told her in a much lower volume than he had been using previously. This didn't last for long and he spun around to glare at Ur with an ugly look on his face. It contained all of the hatred that had been stewing inside of him since Deliora had taken everything away from him. "I'm going to avenge my mom and dad! You got something to say about that?!"

Ur saw that he was serious and delivered an ultimatum, "If you walk out now then I'll expel you!" Gray had stayed with her to gain power and she hoped he wouldn't be willing to give that chance up at the moment.

Gray didn't even hesitate as he turned to leave, "Sounds good to me!" His response shocked Ur and she wasn't fast enough to catch him as he began to sprint out into the storm.

"Gray!" she called after him to no effect.

Gray carelessly plowed through the freezing wind and snow with his head down. "If I die then it's your fault for not teaching me a more powerful magic." His words were said in frustration and anger and he never suspected that anyone would actually hear them. If he had looked back he would have seen the hurt look on Ur's face before it was lost to the storm.

"Arara," Gray froze at the sound of Kuzan's voice. The tall man seemed to appear out of the air next to him with a lazy expression on his face. "I hate to interrupt, but is that really something you should say to your teacher?" he asked with a bored tone.

Gray was startled by the man's appearance. From what he knew Kuzan was still heavily injured and should have difficulty moving, so how had he gotten ahead of him? And when did he even leave the cabin? He was sure that the man was there when he had been arguing with Ur earlier. He quickly recovered and attempted to brush him off, "It's true. All she taught me was Ice-Make Magic and it isn't very good at all."

"So you're going to go after the giant demon that destroyed your hometown with less than a year's worth of training and armed only with what you consider a 'weak' magic?" Kuzan asked with an air of indifference. "You're only going to get yourself killed, boy."

"Shut up! You don't know anything. You're just an old cripple that's lucky he can remember how to put on his pants!" Gray yelled in anger.

"Oh?" Kuzan lazily stared down Gray and released some of his power, causing the boy to shake in his boots. "And what are you? A little brat that is running off half-cocked with barely an understanding of his power that will only end up meeting his parents a lot sooner than he should. Tell me, do you really want your last words to your teacher and the savior who took you in, saved you from a short life of loneliness, clothed you, fed you, trained you, and loved you to be throwing any of your shortcomings in her face and then dying without listening to what she had to say or getting a chance to apologize? Are you really that selfish and horrible?"

Kuzan's words cut deep into Gray, but instead of dissuading him it only served to make him angrier. "To hell with you, old man! You won't stop me! I will defeat Deliora!"

Kuzan's eyebrow rose up at Gray's reply. "I'm not stopping you," he motioned to the front of Gray that was wide open. "The only thing here that's stopping you is yourself. You're so blinded by your pride, guilt, and anger that you won't listen when you tell yourself that you can't do it." Kuzan lowered himself down so that he was looking Gray in the eyes. "You don't understand that you should listen to that voice inside that's telling you 'you can't do it.' Fear isn't there to hold us back, it's there to remind us that we are mortal and that there will always be something better than us. The trick is to learn when to listen to that fear and when to ignore it. Right now, you should open your ears, brat," Kuzan finished. He turned away and disappeared back into the storm with a burst of Soru. Kuzan reappeared in front of the cabin and frowned at his leg. The prosthetic that he wore had been unable to keep up with the kicks required for Soru and had shattered halfway back. He would have to start remembering that he was missing a leg even if he replaced it with his powers. "Excuse me, what's going on?" Kuzan asked once he walked inside.

Ur had perked up when Kuzan entered thinking that Gray had come to his senses then slunk back down into her chair in disappointment when she saw it was Kuzan. She then jerked back up with a realization. "Where have you been?!"

"Outside," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I saw Gray running away pretty fast. What happened?"

"That stubborn dumbass is trying to take on Deliora alone. He'll get himself killed like this," Ur said.

"Aren't you going to stop him?"

Ur shook her head sharply, Gray's parting words still fresh in her mind. "No. I expelled him because he wouldn't listen to me and chose revenge."

"Okay," Kuzan told her skeptically, drawing out the word. He walked out of the room and into the library where Lyon was reading a book. He ducked to fit inside the doorway, but still managed to hit his head anyways. He was never going to get used to that. Lyon turned around with a start when he heard the noise and attempted to hide his book, but relaxed when he saw it was their injured guest. "Get your things together, kid. We'll be leaving soon," Kuzan advised him before turning around to leave.

"What do you mean, Kuzan-san?" Lyon quickly hid the book and followed the old man out of the room. "Why would we go anywhere in this storm?"

"To save your fellow idiotic student."

"But why? Sensei kicked him out because he wouldn't listen."

"Ur isn't the type of person to just abandon someone like that," Kuzan said.

Shortly after that Ur came looking for Lyon to help her go after Gray and save him. She was surprised to find him waiting for her at the door along with Kuzan. Lyon had gotten his blue jacket and Kuzan had removed his heavier clothes so that he was now dressed in a dark shirt and pants under the outer part of his jacket. The man himself nudged Lyon's side. "Told you."

"What are you doing?" Ur demanded.

"I can't let a young woman like yourself go off to fight a demon with only two kids as backup, can I?" Kuzan rhetorically asked.

"You're injured. You won't be able to keep up with us and will only end up hurting yourself." Ur argued.

Kuzan rolled his eyes at her concern. It would take more than that to hurt him, even with his current injuries. He was a logia eater. Unless the demon magically knew Haki or had a hidden fire move he would be fine. The only reason he was so weak at the moment was because of the physical damage to his body and that was only his right arm and side. "I'll be fine," he waved off her concerns. "It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I just let my saviors run off to fight without me."

Ur shot a hard look at the man who did nothing in response. She eventually snorted and moved to the front of their group. "Do you think that you can fight Deliora like that?" she asked without turning around.

"Yes."

Ur let out a hmph but didn't continue to insist that he stay which Kuzan took for a good sign. "Fine. Lyon stay close to me. It will be dangerous." If the idiot was willing to throw his life away in some misguided attempt of repayment, then that was out of her hands. She had a student to save.

"Yes, Sensei," the young boy replied. He was nervous watching the two adults argue in their calm voices and was glad that it had been settled.

Ur opened the door and led them out into the storm after Gray.

Several Hours Later, Random Town

They had tracked Gray through the snow all the way out to the current town that Deliora was rampaging through. The demon had apparently just started as there were still some people fleeing from the place and most of the buildings were still standing. The monster itself was a giant that stood about as tall as Oars Jr had back in Marineford. Its skin was dark blue and had a series of spikes that ran down the front of his body and around his neck. Its hands ended in massive claws and its feet resembled those of a giant bird. The most terrifying part of him was its head that was crowned with two large horns attached to a metal plate, hollow holes where its eyes should have been, a mouth that was filled with pointed teeth, and long hair that went down to its neck.

"Arara," Kuzan muttered at the sight of Deliora. His appearance wasn't that surprising to him, but the demon was causing a decent amount of destruction. It would be quite problematic if it continued to rampage.

A flash of blue was seen, and a small ice construct struck Deliora from below. It seemed to have no effect on the demon other than to annoy it. A giant arm came sweeping down at its attacker and destroyed an entire line of houses in order in the process.

"Gray!" Ur shouted in fear. She had felt his magic being used and there was no doubt on who would be stupid and reckless enough to attack Deliora with suck a weak move. She wanted to run forward and protect him, but there were still so many people that needed to be evacuated. Ur was caught in a dilemma and left unsure of what to do.

Kuzan's hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up at the man. "Don't worry. I'll take care of the civilians. Go save your student," he told her. It wasn't a suggestion. There was a look about the normally carefree man that reminded her of the faces she had seen soldiers wearing occasionally. At the moment, Ur's doubts about the man that had been plaguing her since his claims of amnesia left her. She could trust him.

"Lyon, stay with Kuzan. Help him evacuate the town," she ordered. After getting his confirmation, Ur sprinted off to save her other student.

Kuzan and Lyon began to direct people through the streets and searching for injured survivors. Lyon used his Ice-Make Magic to make animals that would help drag people to safety or move debris. Kuzan just used his strength and Haki to locate and save others. While they were doing that he would frequently glance to where Deliora was rampaging. The demon apparently possessed a magical beam that caused giant pillars of flames to appear everywhere it hit, and it was a long beam. It was quite obvious why Deliora was so feared and how it easily destroyed towns in hours. It was quite worrisome to Kuzan. He was made out of ice and couldn't be harmed physically by the beam, but if that thing hit him then the flames would kill him for sure. Giant constructs of ice would frequently appear only to be destroyed quickly after. They seemed to do little damage to the behemoth and from what Kuzan could tell Ur was working more to distract Deliora than actually fight it. He would have to hurry up if he didn't want to let her die.

Finally sensing that all of the living townspeople had left, Kuzan went and found Lyon. The silver haired boy was panting slightly from using so much magic but was otherwise fine. The pair quickly traveled through the rubble of the town and came across the still fighting Ur. It appeared that she had been distracting Deliora so that he wouldn't finish off the unconscious Gray. Kuzan quickly assessed the situation and began to form a plan. "Lyon, protect Gray. Make sure that Deliora doesn't notice you," Lyon noticed the change in Kuzan and immediately went to follow his orders. The former Marine then rushed forward to assist Ur.

Ur panted heavily while down on the remains of her right leg. She had gotten caught up in Deliora's last attack and had lost it along with sustaining a head injury that caused blood to flow into her eye. A quick use of her magic replaced the missing leg, but it was still worrisome. She had known that Deliora was strong, but she hadn't thought that it would be this strong. Her attacks hadn't done anything to the demon other than bother it. She watched Deliora begin to charge another attack and put her hands together for her next attack. "Ice-Make: Rose Garden!" A giant forest of roses and thorns erupted across the ground to bind Deliora and force its head upwards so that the beam shot into the air.

Deliora then broke out of the bindings with a roar. Before it could do anything Kuzan made his move. "Ice Block: Partisan." Several spears made of ice appeared around Deliora and attempted to pierce the demon. It had no overall effect like Ur's attacks from before. Kuzan appeared next to Ur in a flash of Soru and let out a sigh, "It seems like he's going to be difficult."

Ur stared at Kuzan in shock. The man had been living in her house for over a month and he hadn't shown a single sign of knowing how to use Ice Magic. She had sensed the amount of power that he wielded and it surpassed hers, but she had never seen a sign of it. She had felt something whenever she got within a certain distance of her home, but that had been it. She had always assumed he was either too injured to use it, he used a type of Sensing Magic, or that he was a Holder-type mage and had lost the magic item he normally used in his fight. She understood what he had done now. His magic was the same as hers and her student's so anything that he did while she was away would just be contributed to either Gray or Lyon if she found it. She couldn't even be sure that the leg he had been using was the one she made or if he had swapped it out earlier.

Kuzan noticed Ur's state and spoke up, "The citizens are evacuated, and I saw that you were having a hard time so I stepped in." He never took his eyes off of Deliora while remarking about her depleted magic power and lack of a right leg. It wasn't as bad as his, but a missing leg was a missing leg.

Ur pushed all of her questions and doubts aside. When someone was willing to help you fight a demon that hadn't been taking any damage from your attacks you didn't question their motivation. Accusations could be flung around if they made it out alive. "Thanks. But you have a lot of explaining to do after this," she warned him.

Deliora prepared to fire another beam and the pair chose to dodge it instead of deflecting it. "What can you tell me about him?" Kuzan asked. With his lack of knowledge on magic he wasn't willing to take any chances. Haki or no Haki, if he was hit with an attack that he thought wouldn't hurt him, but did, then he'd be in trouble.

"Large, strong, tough, shoots a laser, I'm not sure what you're looking for here," Ur told him.

"Anything else?"

"Do you think it needs more?" she sarcastically asked.

Kuzan let out an internal sigh. He understood that people dealt with stress on the battlefield in different ways, but the people that got snappy were the most annoying. "Fine. That's enough anyways. Could you hold him in place?" Kuzan asked before sprinting at Deliora at a normal pace. Ur needed to hold it so that its mouth beam couldn't hit him and he had to give her time to act.

"Enough for what?" Ur asked, but Kuzan was already too far away. She didn't understand what he was doing, but he had a plan, which was more than she could say. Her hands came together as she cast her signature and strongest spell again, "Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"

The roses and thorns once again bound Deliora together so that he was facing skywards. Kuzan used that moment to Soru closer, but Ur was running low on magic and her attack wasn't as strong as last time. Kuzan sensed what would happen and shifted to ice right before the demon burst out of its bindings and swiped a hand through the logia-eater.

Ur watched in horror as her ally was seemingly obliterated in front of her along with her ice. That had been their best shot and it was casually destroyed by Deliora. Her best chance now was to find Lyon and Gray and then run. She turned to look for the boys only to find that Lyon was standing behind her while holding Gray. Ur quickly recovered and started to walk towards them, "Lyon, perfect. Give me Gray and make us something to get us out of here. We need to leave while Deliora is distracted."

"What are you talking about, Ur?" Lyon dropped Gray and looked at her with a crazed face. "You're not running away, are you?"

Gray woke with a start and a scream. He rapidly glanced around the area and was frightened by the scene of Deliora's rampage and confused by Lyon and Ur's presence. "What's going on? Why are you two here?"

"We came to save you, Gray. Now we need to get away from here," she informed him with a pointed look at Lyon at the end.

The boy didn't get the hint, "You're the strongest, Ur. You can beat Deliora easily."

"There is always someone better," Ur reminded him. "Kuzan was stronger than me and Deliora killed him. We need to go. Now." The boys stared at her announcement. One in shock the other in disbelief and anger.

"Liar!" Lyon shouted at her. "He was a crippled old man that couldn't move without you." Tears of denial began to form in his eyes. "I became your student because you're supposed to be the strongest. Don't lose to that monster, Ur. Don't betray me."

Ur sadly looked at Lyon. She had merely assumed that his respect and opinion of her was based on her status as his teacher and strength as a mage. In actuality he had hero worship for her and had been convinced that she was the strongest mage in the world. She would have to do something about that after they got away. Apparently, he hadn't been listening when she told him about others being stronger than her.

Before she could say anything, Lyon jumped in front of her and took a stance that crossed his arms with his right palm down and the left palm up. "If you won't fight him then I will," he declared.

Ur recognized his stance and began to run towards him, "Where did you learn that?"

Lyon kept all his focus on Deliora as his magic power began to build. "You weren't teaching me anything other than your Molding Magic, so I learned it from one of your books," he informed her. "To think that you were hiding an Ice Magic as strong as Iced Shell."

"Lyon, you didn't finish reading, did you?" Ur rhetorically asked. If he was trying to use it then he either had gone crazy or hadn't finished. She was so close. Just a few more inches and she'd reach him.

Ur was too late and Lyon's power surged outwards, knocking her back and attracting Deliora's attention. Gray watched in shock while Lyon's power rose far past anything he had used before. Before Lyon had a chance to finish, Ur froze him in a block of ice.

Gray looked at his teacher in shock, "Ur, what are you doing?!"

"Iced Shell… ruins the user's body…" Ur told Gray between pants. She could feel the adrenaline starting to run out. "But it is the only way to defeat Deliora," she admitted. Ur rose to her feet and stood in the path of the approaching demon. "I never expected Lyon to come up with the same plan as me. He truly is my student." She moved forward and assumed the same stance Lyon had. Magic began to build around Ur and the ends of her hair started to turn white. "I won't let you get any closer! This is the end, demon!"

Before Ur could launch her spell the ground around them gained a layer of ice and Deliora was stopped in its tracks. "Ice Time Capsule," Kuzan calmly stated as he walked up from behind Deliora. The demon attempted to break free of the ice only for it to advance further up its legs. Kuzan stretched a hand out and placed it on a part of the leg that wasn't frozen yet, "Ice Time." The rest of the ice quickly worked its way up Deliora who was roaring in rage. The demon tried to charge another of its magic beams only for its head to freeze before it could fire. Kuzan then casually swept his arm through the frozen demon and destroyed its leg. It fell and crumbled into a multitude of separate chunks, killing the 'Demon of Destruction,' Deliora.

While Ur and Gray stared at him in shock Kuzan panted heavily and sweat dripped from his brow. It was as he suspected. Every time he used his ice powers and even his Haki he had felt as if something was being drained from him but had originally chocked it up to him being weak from his fight. As time went on and nothing had changed, he began to fear that the change was permanent. His last use of his powers proved it. In order to turn into ice and reform had taken longer than it should have, and his energy had been drained in the process. Those last two attacks weren't supposed to take that much effort, but in his weakened state he could barely muster the power needed for them. His vision began to go dark from his efforts and he slowly pitched forward. He knew what had happened to all of his powers now.

Kuzan could use magic.

A/N: So that was a long-ass first chapter. I wanted to cover Deliora and explain what had happened to Kuzan, but damn. I'm not entirely happy with this and it felt like a bit of an exposition dump at some points, but I can't think of a better way to do it. This will probably be the closest to a God-like fic that I will ever get as Kuzan is way more powerful than a majority of the Fairy Tail characters. He won't be completely overpowered, and I imagine it would be like if we were to follow Gildarts around. This won't be updated as often as my other ones, but I do want to work on it some more so it shouldn't have that big of a gap between updates. So, until then, later.