"It's okay, Carla." Wendy was still sobbing a bit, "Mr. Rhode has magic to restore my magic power, so it's alright."
Carla exclaimed in surprise, "You can restore your magic power? Why not last time..."
"Last time I was totally exhausted." Rhode said helplessly, "Let's not talk about this for now, did you discover anything?"
Carla said, "Seems like a very ordinary town, nothing special."
"Aye! Carla's right. But..." Hapi hesitated a bit.
Erza asked, "But what?"
Hapi looked at Carla and said, "We seem to have seen something strange glowing."
Carla folded her arms, "I told you, what does light from so far away have to do with here?"
Since there were no other clues, Rhode asked, "What kind of light, in which direction?"
"Just light, lighting up on the mountain, sometimes purple, sometimes gold, sometimes blue, changing all the time."
Hapi tried to recall for a while, pointed towards the north and said, "The direction is over there."
Rhode and Erza exchanged a glance; isn't that the direction of the Black Magic Sect's altar?
Rhode waved his hand, "Summoning, Gorge Swift Crab!"
Erza followed him and jumped onto the crab's back, "Carla, you and Wendy head back to the hotel and rest! Hapi, where's Natsu?"
"Natsu said he smelled trouble and rushed out of town, in the direction... huh~~~!!!"
Hapi pressed his face with both hands, looking shocked, "Seems like it's in that direction too! Why? Did Natsu burn down the mountain?"
"Maybe even more troublesome than burning the mountain." Rhode said, "Anyway, let's go take a look. Wendy, Carla, remember, if anything unusual happens, leave immediately without waiting for us."
With Rhode's command, the River Crab immediately started running.
Hapi spread his wings and caught up, "Wait, I'm coming too!"
Thinking Natsu might have gone to a dangerous place, Hapi couldn't even care about Carla.
"Hey, what's over there?" Carla said displeased, "Honestly, all you self-talking people."
Carla had some bad guesses, could the Black Magic Sect and demons they mentioned really be over there?
Wendy watched them leave, hesitated a bit before saying, "Carla, let's head back, I have something I want to verify."
"Even Wendy..." Carla felt Wendy was influenced by Fairy Tail, "Just saying, if there's danger, I'll take you away immediately."
...
At the point where mountain meets sea on the North Coast, less than ten kilometers to the southeast lies a group of mountains.
There was originally an altar here, destroyed by Erza's Evil-breaking Spear, and later sealed by an array drawn by mages invited by the Advisory Council.
Later, Earth Mages were invited here to use magic to change the terrain, filling the valley into a small hill.
Moreover, an Illusion Mage set up an Illusion Array, making it impossible for ordinary people to approach.
Additionally, scouts were sent periodically into the surrounding mountains to inspect for suspicious individuals, layers of protection reduced the possibility of demon resurrection again and again.
The truly permanent solution would be to summon the demon and completely defeat it, but data shows that to summon this Cannibal Demon requires using children's bodies and souls as sacrifices.
The Advisory Council would not commit such atrocities against children, nor would they want to perform such Black Magic, so they had to settle for the next best thing.
And now, a reckless individual is crashing around the edge of the Illusion Array.
"Annoying! Why am I back here again?! "
Natsu scratched his head, and punched the big rock beside him twice to vent his frustration.
Clearly, he smelled trouble nearby, wanting to go over and have a fight, but he kept finding himself back to where he started.
It's infuriating.
Natsu pressed his fists together, sparks flying from the middle, "In that case, maybe..."
"Natsu!"
The familiar voice made Natsu freeze, sweat rolled down his face:
"E-er-er... Erza? I-I-I wasn't going to cause trouble! Ahahaha, ahahaha..."
Rhode couldn't help but laugh, that was admitting without even being asked.
"Natsu, are you alright?" Hapi flew onto Natsu's shoulder, "I thought you were going to burn the mountain down."
Natsu said guiltily, "How could I do something like that, hahahaha!"
Erza didn't pursue Natsu's reckless plans, instead, she asked, "Why did you rush in here, did you discover anything?"
Natsu became a bit serious, "I keep smelling a strange scent, also there was light inside earlier, isn't it possible the demon you mentioned is in there?"
"Earlier there was only one altar here, which Erza smashed, the Advisory Council also had people come to handle it, logically there shouldn't be any strange scent, right? Besides, why is it glowing for no reason?"
Rhode tried to receive some scent from the Shadow Wolf on the way but didn't catch anything unusual.
And how could such a distant place be connected to Liss's illness?
Could there be some magic to curse and kill targets from afar?
Hapi hid behind Natsu fearfully, "Aye-yah... Is the demon coming out from Hell?"
Erza pondered, "Can't rule out the possibility of factors causing the seal to loosen and the demon to resurrect, we need to see for ourselves."
"But I can't get through!" Natsu was getting a bit impatient, "Can't walk far ahead before ending up back here!"
"There's an Illusion Magic Array set up nearby which unknowingly affects one's sense of direction, this technique..." Erza assessed, "probably only slightly weaker than Mystogan's level."
Natsu covered his head with both hands, his pink hair was a mess from his grasp, "Mystogan is stronger than the person who set this? Then how can we beat him?"
Natsu wasn't afraid of fighting, but if he couldn't even touch the opponent's hem, how could he fight?
If he couldn't defeat Mystogan, how could he become an S-Class Mage?
Erza asked, "Rhode, if it were you, what would you do?"
"Any magic array requires magic power to maintain, generally defeating the spellcaster can just nullify it."
"But now, this illusion array clearly needs long-term maintenance; compared to a formal sealing array, it likely isn't continuously supplied magic by the spellcaster. So it must be powered by a magic crystal or connected magic power transferred to an Advisory Council member."
"For an Illusion Magic Array, the first possibility is more likely, and for continuous operation, the used magic crystal should be one that 'charges' by gathering surrounding magic power."
"The simplest method is to bombard it, breaking mountain body, trees, stones all to pieces, eventually cracking the magic crystal and breaking the illusion array."
Not destroying the place again, Natsu got excited immediately, "Leave that to me!"
Rhode held him back, "Don't mess around, we're just here to check it out, not to destroy it, those magic crystals are expensive."