Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. I am very sorry for being late!

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "Naruto"

Thoughts: 'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: "Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"

Demons and Dragons Thinking: 'The question is what to do with him…'

Chapter 12: Counterattack on the Phantoms

Jose couldn't believe what he'd just seen. This nobody had reflected his powerful Jupiter Cannon and then destroyed it, all in just one move! "Who is this mage?!" he screamed, barely able to suppress his rage at the thought of Makarov having yet another ridiculously powerful mage on his payroll.

"Haven't you heard, Master?" Gajeel asked. "Fairy Tail recently signed on a very powerful mage who finished over thirty job requests in a single week, all by himself. We also saw him in action when Fairy Tail hit our guildhall."

That last sentence made the Element Four shift uneasily, and the Iron Dragon Slayer smirked in spite of himself.

"After all," he added, "…there's a reason why he's also called the Demon King of Fairy Tail as well."

"I'm surprised that Makarov managed to snag someone so powerful." Jose snarled. "But why didn't any of you inform me about this earlier? I would've been able to account for him ruining my plans!" The master of Phantom Lord was starting to lose his temper, a vein in his neck throbbing in his rage. "Now I have to worry about this so-called Demon King, and Makarov has yet to appear!" His shouting was cut off by his most powerful pawn, the Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel Redfox, just laughing mercilessly.

"Something you find amusing?" Jose snarled, tendrils of darkness wafting around his clenching fingers. "Would you like to share it with us so we can laugh with you as well?"

Unfazed, Gajeel just shrugged. "It's just that… those Fairies got someone named Demon again, when their last one was reduced to a mere waitress and model." Popping his knuckles, he added, "Personally… I want to teach this demon the power of a true Dragon Slayer!"

"Is that so?" Jose sneered at Gajeel's cocky smirk. He turned towards his minions and snapped, "Awake the Giant!"

Meanwhile, Naruto's clone dispersed as the original fell to his hands and knees, wheezing. His father hadn't designed this variant of the Jikūkan Kekkai as a full-blown conduit for what was essentially a bootleg Bijūdama threatening to destroy a place that he had quickly come to call home.

He laughed as he realized that he'd gotten attached to the guild. The members reminded him of Konoha so much that it hurt. But they were their own people, with their own quirks and characteristics.

Natsu reminded him of himself when he'd just made genin; a hotheaded, loudmouthed, reckless little brat, with a lot more guts and determination than was good for him.

Gray was Sasuke through and through; cool-headed, but he knew how to have fun in ways that Sasuke never did.

Lucy reminded him of Sakura for some reason, even if she was the medical kunoichi's opposite in many ways. She was the normal one between them in team seven.

He let out a deep sigh as his chakra started fill up his reserves, back to maximum capacity a little slower than usual.

The Fairies were whooping in victory, happy that their demonic king had saved the guild from the magic blast. "The battle's just began! No point in celebrating until it's over! Erza!"

Erza stepped forward, standing next to him. "That blast could've endangered the townspeople as well; we can't let them do that again," she observed, resplendent in her armor.

Just then, Phantom Lord's guildhall began to shake and tremble. Parts of the mechanical building began to shift, changing to reveal the form of a stone giant.

Natsu, of all people, exclaimed, "Oh crap!"

Jose was gloating from the massive bipedal monstrosity, bellowing through some kind of megaphone. "You should grovel and beg for forgiveness, you damn kids! What will you do now, Demon King?"

He was too busy laughing to notice that Naruto seemed indifferent. "Learn your place, you insect!" he screeched triumphantly as his dark magic streamed forth in the form of humanoid shadows. These morasses flooded out of the castle-turned-giant and attacked Fairy Tail in a torrent, overwhelming them.

Turning off his speaker, Jose turned to his Element Four and barked, "Go to your positions! Begin the preparations! Since that Demon King can't reflect area-of-effect attacks, my Abyss Break spell will finish him off!" Cackling madly, he added, "If we're lucky, the blast will take the guild with it!"

"But, Master…" Juvia began. "…Juvia thinks that Abyss Break might wipe out the town behind the guild as well. That's excessive, Master…"

"We don't want to be labeled a dark guild, master…" Gajeel added, which was a little surprising. He was usually the most gung-ho and violent of Phantom Lord's Element Four.

"I don't care what you think!" Jose shrieked. "Just do as I say!"

The Element Four ran off to their designations in order to escape the wrath of their fuming master.

Watching them leave, Jose yelled, "Activate the runes!"

"Yes, master!" his minions cried as they began tinkering at their controls of their giant stone robot.

Meanwhile, down on the battlefield, Phantom Lord attacked everyone in sight. Including the unprepared Mirajane, who just froze up in fear as images of that day flooded her mind.

She only barely noticed Naruto appearing in a flash of light in front of her, standing guard as he quickly blasted some wind chakra for a Fūton: Kazekiri. With muted flashes of light, the shadowy entities were sliced in twain and screamed as they dispersed into nothing.

The death screams of the Shades snapped Mirajane out of her thoughts, and she was awestruck at his powerful aura threatening to electrify her senses. She stared hungrily at his back, studying his broad shoulders and sun-kissed blond hair as it stood over her like an unbreakable wall.

"Mira-chan, what the hell are those things?" the baffled blond demanded of the dazed mage-turned-waitress. She blushed as she realized that she was staring at him and turned her gaze towards the shadowy creatures attacking her guildmates.

Naruto knew that these things weren't human; he couldn't sense or even see any life energy from them. He'd tried to attack a couple of those things physically, but noticed that they drained his chakra and a little of his life energy when he'd made contact. But they had some kind of dark shadow power billowing from their bodies, with the same signature as Phantom Lord's master.

"These shadows are called Shades," the barmaid said quietly, blushing and avoiding his eyes. "They can draw out your magic and life energy if you're not too care-" But her eyes noticed the stone giant and she found herself gasping in shock.

Wondering what had terrified Mirajane so much; he followed her gaze and noticed the stone giant's mechanical fingers beginning to glow as it scribbled a massive design in thin air. Eerily enough, the display reminded him of fūinjutsu, but was written in a language that he didn't recognize.

He turned to Mirajane for an explanation, but she interrupted him by pointing at the massive magic array that was glowing white. "That's the forbidden magic Abyss Break! It's a powerful spell fueled by the union of the four basic elements; fire, water, earth and wind."

Loke, of all people, then added, "A magic array that big will obliterate the whole town of Magnolia in a wave of darkness!"

That assertion got Naruto's attention. His eyes hardened as his Chōbuku Rinnegan flared, running an analytical gaze across the building for weak points. Then he remembered what Mirajane had said. "Mira-chan, you said that the spell needed all four basic elements to work, right?"

"Yes, but what will that…" she started, before she noticed it as well. "I see…" she observed. "You're a devious little fox, aren't you?"

"I live to impress, Mira-hime," he teased, and the Demon of Fairy Tail blushed faintly at his familiar behavior. "You'll have to hide Lucy; she's the reason why Phantom Lord attacked us in the first place. I'll also leave behind a couple of Kage Bunshin for added protection, but remember that they're done for after a couple of solid hits."

Mirajane nodded as a few clones appeared out of nothing, saluting Naruto as he nodded at them before they turned to her. For a second, she wondered what she would've done to all these clones if this wasn't a serious situation. Blushing again, she mentally shoved these perverted ideas to the back of her mind. She'd see what they're capable of, at a later date. Instead, she grabbed Lucy's hand as she led her off to the guild again.

Lucy, having heard the entire conversation, pulled her hand out of Mira's grasp. "I'm staying and fighting! I'm protecting the guild just like everyone else!"

"No, you're not." Naruto said simply, his blue eyes hard as the ample-breasted blonde flinched under the cold stare.

"But why…" questioned Lucy.

"Didn't you hear what Naruto said?" Mirajane asked. "You're Phantom Lord's target. We're hiding you so we can protect you, so that they don't use you against us."

"I see…" Lucy sighed reluctantly.

Meanwhile, Naruto yelled, "Erza, Natsu, Happy, Gray, Elfman! With me!"

As the four mages (plus Happy) gathered around him, Naruto had managed to set up a crude diagram of Phantom Lord's converted headquarters. "Erza, I want you to take care of Aria even though I'd love nothing more than a piece of him for myself. But he's the most powerful of the four of them, and I know you can crush him easily."

Erza blushed at his confidence in her. He'd acknowledged her as an equal in spite of the fact that she'd yet to defeat him in battle! "R- right, Naruto-kun! I'll defeat him for y- I mean, for the guild!"

He smiled and nodded, having caught her slipup. Turning to Natsu and the floating cat Happy, he added, "Natsu, Happy, you two handle the fire user Totomaru of the Element Four. Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer magic will give him an advantage here."

Natsu was about to argue that he could handle the entire Element Four by himself, but was affixed by an icy-cold glare that quickly shut him up. Gray and Elfman were unsurprised; they knew Naruto was scarier than Master and Erza put together!

"Gray, your Ice Make magic will give you the best chance against Juvia the Rain Woman." Naruto then added, and the compulsive nudist nodded in agreement.

"Elfman, I honestly don't know that much about you or your abilities." Naruto shrugged. "But from what your sister told me, I have faith that you'll pull through to defeat the earth mage Sol quite easily. You must believe in yourself in order to win, Elfman."

"That's right, Naruto-san!" Elfman bellowed in excitement. "Men understand men, and me being a man among men says that I won't let you down!"

"Good man!" Naruto noted, pounding Elfman's back quite genially. "I'll be fighting Jose, though, so no one is to join me, understand?"

"But you can't face Jose alone!" Erza protested. "He's as strong as Master Makarov! Let me help you this time!"

Naruto smiled at her. "You know I'll be fine. I won't get caught off-guard like last time."

"No!" the redheaded swordswoman shouted. "After I finish off Aria, I'll be joining you and that's that!"

Not in the mood to argue, Naruto sighed. "All right, all right. If you're not tired or too injured from your first fight, then you can help me fight Jose." He was the only one of them who caught her slight smile of triumph and satisfaction.

"Okay, guys, we don't have much time, so let's bring down that castle!" he yelled cheerfully.

They charged at the castle with a roar, leaving Mirajane behind as an amused observer.

Gray generated an icy slide at his feet that took Elfman along with him, the two of them coasting along at a surprising clip as ambient water vapor froze in the face of Gray's power.

Happy grabbed Natsu and began gliding towards the stone monstrosity, the two of them recklessly fired up in anticipation of the upcoming brawl.

Erza shifted into her Tenrin no Yoroi and made a running jump for Phantom Lord Headquarters, her armor's wings flaring as she glided through the air on a direct course towards her target.

Naruto disappeared in a burst of speed, jumping off the cliff and running towards the stone giant at remarkable speed. Remembering an old chakra control exercise, he actually began skating across the water, stunning his guildmates yet again.

As she took Lucy's hand and ran off back towards the guild, Mirajane decided that she was very happy that she'd met Naruto. He was the first man to ever catch her eye and gain the respect of her demonic side as well. But that had her thinking; why was her demonic side so eager to obey him so completely? That such obedience came with an insistent mating instinct only made her wonder certain thoughts, which made her blush.

Before that day, her demons had made her a dominant girl with a taste for sadism, because they were naturally dominant and generally sadistic. But they were quick to submit to this stranger ever since he had unleashed that coolly dark and evil pressure, and that intense killing intent.

Just remember such casual power made her heart skip a couple beats and her body seemed to warm itself under the heat of a boiler.

Was he really a demon king? Such power to be naturally aligned with her own power as a queen?

The mystery of that man only made him even more appealing to the mostly-retired mage.

Meanwhile, Jose was having the time of his life. Thanks to Abyss Break, he was about to blow up the annoying guild and to Hell with a certain annoying pain his ass.

"Gajeel, you're retrieving our main target, Lucy Heartfilia." He turned to the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"But that Fire Dragon Slayer and the Demon King are on their way, I-" Gajeel complained, but Jose cut him off impatiently.

"I'll deal with this so-called Demon King myself!" Jose snarled, furious at his subordinate's reluctance. "Totomaru will take care of that dragon kid. Now go!"

Gajeel scoffed, but headed off to confront the Heartfilia heiress. A strange and heavy oppressive feeling sank into his metal-eating stomach, and his gut churned with his unease. Why was he suddenly so uneasy with his master's idea?

With his usual speed, Naruto was the first to arrive at the Phantom Giant. Concentrating his senses on his target, the energy signature of Jose Porla, his eyes flew open as he quickly found his target.

"There you are…" he murmured. "You didn't think that this would be easy, did you, Jose?"

He was about to head towards Jose, only to be confronted by the small fries of the Phantom Lord guild. Ignoring them in the hopes of discouraging them, he only managed to anger them. One of them shouted, "Hey, you! Why are you ignoring us?!"

Naruto blinked quizzically. "Wouldn't you ignore ants and insects before your feet?" he shrugged, dismissing them as unimportant. "You'd crush them without even looking twice." As if to prove his point, a powerful and cold weight suddenly bore down upon their shoulders.

It was a maddening feeling, the cold chill of mortality realized. His icy-blue eyes regarded them with an odd curiosity, as if he was wondering if killing them was worth the effort.

What was this monster, to be able to walk amongst them in the guise of human flesh?

Naruto popped his neck from side to side as he walked past the dozen-plus paralyzed Phantom Lord mooks, who were now catatonic. "I'm in no mood to teach these maggots how to breathe properly…" he muttered sullenly

Meanwhile, an irate Jose had just managed to recover from that strange attack that had threatened to destroy his soul under the sheer weight of its might.

"What was that just now?!" he screeched.

"It was one of the intruders, Master!" A random minion reported. "The man who stopped the Jupiter and destroyed it!"

"Damn! Have all available mages go stop him!" Jose yelled back. "He cannot reach this place!"

"But that would leave the others-" the minion protested.

But Jose interrupted him, shouting, "I don't care! Just do it!"

With that, the entire facility went on total alert.

Meanwhile, Natsu and Happy were lost. Not exactly a common occurrence with them, but there was something about Phantom Lord's mobile headquarters that had them wandering about the fortress' corridors quite randomly.

"Natsu, where are we going?" Happy complained in his squeaky voice.

"That Toto-something bastard, we gotta kick his ass! Or Naruto's gonna kick ours!" Natsu sputtered, horrified at imagined consequences.

"Seriously!?" the winged cat squeaked, sweating visibly. "How do you know that, Natsu?!"

"Didn't you see his cold and dark eyes?" the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer demanded. "He was saying 'do it or else' and he promised pain!"

"You're right, Natsu! I don't wanna feel pain!" the small blue cat-creature wailed. "Let's hurry up then!" he squeaked as he rocketed into a random direction opposite to Natsu's.

"W- wait, Happy! I can smell someone with fire magic this way…" Natsu shouted, pointed ahead of his body.

"Okay, Natsu!" Happy chirped, grabbing Natsu's back as the two of them fairly rocketed forward at full speed ahead.

A minute later, the two of them stumbled across their target. Everything about the man fairly screamed 'weirdo' to both Natsu and Happy, neither of whom were examples of normalcy.

Totomaru of Phantom Lord's Element Four was quite the character.

His clothes were quite the eccentric combination; he wore a burnt-red keikōgi with a thick fur collar held by netting and its rolled-up sleeves revealed fishnet on his forearms. Black pants and shin-high boots completed his look, but the thick black line-tattoo bridging his nose and breaking up at each side of his cheek bones was what tended to grab the eye.

The katana at his left hip and the black-and-white hair tied up in a samurai-style topknot made for quite the finishing accessories to his… ensemble. If Naruto was there, he'd have wondered out loud if this Totomaru character was trying to be a ninja or a samurai swordsman, because trying to be both certainly wasn't working out for him.

But because Naruto wasn't there, Natsu just yelled to him, "Are you the fire mage Totomiko?!"

"Totomaru!" the fiery Element Four member bellowed back, highly insulted. "That's my name; To-to-maru, you retarded brat!"

"Whatever your name is, you're going down!" Natsu snarled back, his fists suddenly enveloped in large fireballs.

Totomaru's lips curled back in a sneer as he drew his katana and held it before him.

To be continued…