Life After Near Death

The Strength in Tragedy

"There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.' No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster."
― Dalai Lama XIV

Gray had been in enough fights to know never to take his eyes off the enemy. However, at the ominous words of Mallumo, he glanced over to Natsu.

How would he take this, being faced with the blood on his hands, confronting someone whose father he had burned alive?

There were times when even Gray remembered hearing those screams, although he had been on the cusp of losing consciousness. Certainly, that day was a nightmare for Natsu, who had to deal with the aftermath of that battle, emergency cauterization of Gray's arteries so he would not bleed out, carrying his mangled body to a hospital, and overseeing the arrest of the Sons of Darkness. Likely, there had also been an inquiry about the one person who died that day. The Magic Council would have demanded an explanation. Natsu never mentioned it, and Gray had been unconscious for so long that the aftermath of that fight was concluded before he woke up. Surely, a lot happened that he knew nothing about, and he had never bothered to ask, since that day was traumatizing enough to him.

Natsu's face was empty, his eyes staring with no reaction at all, but Gray realized his fist had tightened, as well as strained tension in his jaw. Suddenly, Natsu spun around and marched out of the room with the altar. Gray scrambled to follow.

Natsu shouted out into the dank cave. "All right, I saw his picture. I remember him. Don't know his name, can't remember yours. Malibu?"

"Mallumo," came the echoing voice. "My father's name was Maljunulo. Take that name with you into the afterlife. You will die here, and your soul will remain trapped in these hills. It's a cursed place, if you haven't figured it out. Souls cannot escape, doomed never to be reborn, trapped by a magic not even the wisest in Fiore have fully unraveled. So remember my father's name as you haunt these lands for eternity."

"Already forgot it," Natsu said mockingly. "Come on and show yourself."

"No. Remember his face, not mine. I am merely carrying out what he would have done, had you not interrupted the noble fight between enemies."

"The fight was already over," Natsu protested. "He won. It didn't have to be to-the-death."

"That is up to the victor."

"Like hell will I allow that!" Natsu shouted in rage.

"You interrupted a fight. For the Sons of Darkness, a fight between enemies is a sacred thing."

"I only butted in because he was about to kill Gray."

"Do you mean like this?"

A purple sphere flew out from nowhere. Before Natsu could react, it bashed into Gray's chest. Gray collapsed with a howl of pain.

No! Not again!

"No!" Natsu shrieked.

The purple orb burst into a cloud that seeped up into Gray's nostrils, mouth, and into his eyes. When Natsu looked down, there was no gaping hole in his chest. Gray was not even bleeding; however, he had collapsed and his eyes were massive with terror.

Mallumo's solemn voice pronounced, "May you die in terror."

"What the hell did you do to him?" Natsu looked all around for the source of that echoing voice.

"I specialize in a different field than my father: emotions and memories. He is reliving the fight with my father. He will experience it as if he is there right now, only this time he's reliving it with his greatest fear."