Yes I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, but hey at least I didn't forget about it. So don't worry about me abandoning this story.

Anyway, have another chapter for you all to like or hate.

So enjoy, or not, I don't care you all have your opinions.

Everything belongs to their respective owners.

Chapter Fourteen: Enslaving an Etherious

"Ah… the sound of these humans screaming for their pathetic lives, it's all music to my ears." A young muscular man spoke with delight.

Standing on top of a ruins of a building, was someone who looked liked a man, only with a few differences. He had dark blonde hair and yellow colored eyes, as well as two animal-like ears sticking out of his head. His attire mainly consisted that of a sleeveless green colored shirt, and white baggy-like pants, as well as wearing a brownish bandana with pale yellow spots around his neck. Another thing that stood out of him was the black colored hands and the long yellow tail he had as well.

This was the Etherious Jackal, a member of the dark guild Tartaros, and one of the Nine Demon Gates.

The Etherious was out and about to do what he did best, killing and attacking humans. He had a small squadron of Tartaros soldiers with him as well, which aided in the attack on killing the humans in the town.

"I wish there were more humans around for me to kill, but hey, you get what you get." Jackal told himself with a grin. Now that he had his fill of human slaughter, he can head back to Cube and see if Mard Geer wanted him to do anything.

Back in the streets below him, the Tartaros soldiers continued their search and path of finding and killing any humans they were to come across.

However, a roar got their attention as they turned only for one of the soldiers to meet a large sword swung down right through the soldier's skull, killing him as the sword was pulled out of the lifeless body.

Ragtagg, enrage at these unknown enemies taking the chance of resting away, charged once more at the nearest Tartaros solider before slamming right into him with enough force to kill the being. The armored Warrior then jumped toward another soldier before slamming down on them, before bringing his sword down to kill the enemy below him. Two more Tartaros guards, seeing a human that was fighting back against them, ran at them with their weapons in hand. However, the Warrior merely grunted before grabbing one of the coming weapons with his hand before kicking the soldier in the stomach, forcing the soldier to go flying back without their weapon, before Ragtagg then turned around and used the weapon he took from the other soldier and stabbed the other incoming Tartaros minion. Another Tartaros soldier then ran right after him only for the angered armored black haired man to chuck his sword right at the minion's chest, landing a direct hit before the soldier fell on his back with a thud as the weapon piercing his chest killed him.

Ragtagg then walked over to grab his blade from the lifeless body, before he turned his direction to the Etherious on the ruins of the nearby building. To say Jackal was interested was an understatement.

If anything, the demon was excited a little from seeing a human putting up a fight.

"Now there's something I haven't seen in a while," Jackal started to say, getting the Warrior to glare at the demon's words, though no one could tell due to the man's helmet, "Maybe there is some excitement I can get here in this pitiful town."

"So you're the one who laid waste to this town?" Ragtagg questioned the demon up above him.

"That's right. Does that make you mad human? That many of your kind fell by my hand?" Jackal taunted the armored man with a smirk.

"I'm mad because you stole the chance of me resting in a bed!" Ragtagg shouted at the dark blonde Etherious, as the Warrior got ready to fight once more.

His answer got Jackal to blink once in confusion, before the Etherious burst out laughing from what he heard.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What pathetic reasoning! How dumb you humans are to not even care for one another like that!" Jackal mocked the armored man below him.

"I only care about those that I deem to be worth caring, and since you killed the people who were going to offer me a nice place to sleep, I'LL CUT YOUR F**KING BALLS OFF!" The Warrior roared out in anger.

And with that, Ragtagg then jumped right at the demon on the ruins of the building next to him.

Jackal however merely grins before ducking from the Warrior's swing of his sword, before simply slamming his own fist right into the plate wearing man's stomach.

Without warning, an explosion was then set off as the black haired armored man was then blown back from Jackal and right through a couple of buildings before coming to a stop. Thankfully though, the armored man managed to get back up as the rubble from the building that he crashed into was moved aside, before the man glared at the demon from his same spot.

"Oh? Now this might be fun." Jackal spoke with a sadistic grin, seeing how this human might actually last for a bit for him to have some fun with.

Before the Etherious could act however…

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

Jackel widen his eyes before turning around only to see a large blast of fire collide right into him, causing a small explosion that got the demon to go flying from his spot. However, the Etherious of Tartaros didn't seem that affected by the attack as he landed on his feet, before standing back up before seeing who it was that just attacked him.

Looking back up, the demon then saw a pink haired young man, a green haired young women, and a brown haired man then ran onto the scene, with the pink haired male being the one who fired off the attack if the flames he finished breathing out of his mouth were any indication.

"Ah! So you guys have showed up finally!" Ragtagg told them with a smirk, though it was covered by his helmet, so no one knew that he was smirking.

"You're the one who ran off first on your own." Matty responded to the armored Warrior, before the Monk then got into a fighting position.

"Stay back Hisui," Natsu told the green haired Princess of Fiore, as both him, Ragtagg, and Matty all got ready to fight the dark blonde Etherious, "We'll handle this."

Before they could fight the demon, Ragtagg then noticed a certain blue armored man and a red robed man not with the others.

"Hey! Where's Nixxiom and Moocluck?" The Warrior asked them, getting the other three to look back at the armored man.

"How should we know? They might have ended up running into a different part of the town!" Matty replied back to the black haired armored up man, who merely got his sword ready to cut the demon before him down.

Jackal couldn't help but smirk at these humans before him. He would have no trouble taking care of these pathetic humans.

"Come at me then humans! Fall by my hand!" Jackal shouted out with a grin.

Without wasting anytime, Natsu, Matty, and Ragtagg then bolted right toward the dark blonde haired Etherious, who merely grinned as he saw the three approaching him.

Before both Matty and Ragtagg could get closer, the ground they stepped on then glowed in a circular, complex marking look before the spots exploded due to Jackal's Landmine Curse, getting both Ragtagg and Matty to be launched into the air. Luckily both the Warrior and the Monk safely landed on the ground not far afterwards, showing that they were relatively unharmed.

While that happened, Natsu charged right at the demon still with his fists enveloped in fire. However, Jackal simply jumped over the charging pink haired Fire Dragon Slayer, getting Natsu to be surprised by the sudden move before turning around to keep his eyes on the demon.

However, Natsu's eyes then widen in horror, as did Ragtagg and Matty, when they saw the dark blonde demon male heading right toward an eye widened Hisui.

"You should have been more careful humans!" Jackal shouted out as he closed in on the green haired woman, who was unable to move out of the way in time before the demon was getting closer to her.

"HISUI!" Natsu shouted in worry and horror, seeing that he would be too slow to make it to the green haired Princess.

However, before Natsu, Ragtagg, or Matty could do anything else, and before Jackal could get a single hand on Hisui…

Without warning, dark energy then appeared around Jackel's neck before forcing him to stop as well as hover in the air slightly, much to the demon's, as well as everyone else for that matter, shock.

"W-W-What is this?!" Jackel struggled to say those words, as he felt the dark energy around his neck crushing his throat.

"Hah hah!" A familiar echoed voice laughed out loud, got everyone's attention.

The others couldn't be more relieved when they saw it was Nixxiom who had appeared, who had blood covering him for some reason. It must have come from killing the other Tartaros soldiers in the city.

"Alright Moocluck! Do your thing!" The blue armored man shouted out to his friend with a grin.

With that, the Knight moved out of the way before they all saw Moocluck approaching right behind the blue armored male.

Before anyone else knew it, Moocluck then gathered an unknown yet dark energy, his eyes glowing green, before blasting it right into Jackal, getting the demon to yell out as much as he could due to Nixxiom's ability still in affect crushing his throat.

"Demon! Your will is mine! Obey the call of your new master!" Moocluck's voice boomed across the air, as he continued to cast his power on the demon as well as overwhelm the Etherious.

And before anyone knew it, Jackal then ceased yelling as the Magic surrounding him vanished, as well as Nixxiom's ability faded away, allowing the demon to fall down to the ground.

"Hisui!" Natsu shouted, too worried about the green haired woman to see what Moocluck did exactly to the dark blonde Etherious. Naturally, the green haired Princess was caught off guard when the pink haired male pulled her into a hug, getting her to blush from the action, "Are you alright? He didn't get to do anything did he?"

"I-I-I'm fine Natsu. Nixxiom managed stopped him in time before he did anything." Hisui managed to tell the worried Fire Dragon Slayer, which relived him to no end as he let go of the woman.

"That's good to hear." Natsu replied, too worried about Hisui to realized that he actually hugged her.

The two's attention was quickly turned to the dark blonde haired demon, as they as well as the others saw the demon getting back up. Ragtagg readied his sword in case the Etherious tried anything else. However, Moocluck and Nixxiom merely walked up to the demon as he got back up.

When the demon looked at the red robed man in the eye, Moocluck couldn't help but have a cheeky grin, though it was unnoticeable due to the hood he wore. It looked liked his Enslave Demon spell worked.

"There we go!" Moocluck then turned to look at the others, "Don't worry guys, he is under my command now."

This got them to be confused.

"What do you mean by that?" Matty couldn't help but asked, not understanding what the red robed man was talking about.

"What he means," Nixxiom started to say, getting everyone to look at the blue armored man, "Is that this guy right here is in fact a demon, and Moocluck managed to forcefully get him under his command."

"A demon?" Ragtagg questioned in surprised. This guy they faced is a demon?

"Yup! I sense him having demonic energies, which was either him being a demon, or him being someone who had demonic powers." The Warlock explained to the other in hope to settle their confusion.

"How did you know that he was a demon and not someone who just had demonic abilities?" Hisui questioned, wondering how the red robed male managed to tell the difference.

"…I didn't. It was pretty much a gamble in all honestly." Moocluck admitted.

This got the others aside from Nixxiom to fall down anime style.

"Anyway!" Nixxiom interrupted before looking at the now enslaved Etherious under Moocluck's control, "Why did you destroy out beds we were going to sleep in?" The Knight demanded an answer from the now controlled demon.

Now that Jackal was completely under Moocluck's control, the Etherious didn't have any problems answering to his new master's companions.

"I always go out to destroy humans. From what we were made to do, they were insects that needed to be wiped out." Jackal answered to the Knight.

"Are there any more of you?" Matty asked the dark blonde demon, who nodded in confirmation to the alcoholic Monk's question.

"Yes, my guild Tartaros is filled with Etherious like myself." The dark blonde haired Etherious man answered the leather wearer.

This got the others to look at each other, so they were more of them and part of the same group. This got Natsu and Hisui to be more surprised though, as they knew more about the Etherious, knowing that they were demons from the book of Zeref.

"Can you take us to Tartaros?" Natsu then asked Jackel, surprising the others around him.

"Of course, if that's what the master allows." Jackal answered the pink haired Fire Dragon Slayer.

This got Natsu to grinned, before he looked back at the others with his smile still plastered on his face.

"What do you guys think? Want to take down some demons?" Natsu asked them with a smirk.

"Hah! I'm all down for getting blood on my blade!" Ragtagg exclaimed, showing his support for the idea.

"They attack and hurt people, so of course I'm willing to bring the fight to them!" Matty told the others with a confident smile of his own as he punched his fists together.

"I'm willing to show off more of my awesomeness if needed!" Nixxiom boasted, also liking the idea.

Hisui remained quiet for a moment, as the others looked at her. While it was clear that she may not be able to do much compared to the others, her own thoughts still mattered on this decision, so they waited to see what the green haired woman would say.

"…They have hurt innocents. We can't stand by and allow them to get away with it." Hisui answered them with a determined look on her face, getting the others to smile and smirk with joy from seeing her agreeing with them.

Moocluck then turned to look at his new demonic minion, before raising his hands in an ordering fashion.

"Alright! Take us to Tartaros!"

There we go! Chapter done! The battle with Tartaros will begin next chapter. So what did you all think so far?

See you all next time, whenever that will be.