Not a single soldier boy was bleeding when they nailed those coffin lids.

Houren hummed the tune to himself as he walked down the pristine streets of Era, a place, in this moment, that seemed so reminiscent of the Paradise that was so often written about in religious scriptures. Seriously. He knew that it was uncommon, unprecedented really, to compare any city in any nation in this world to what was essentially Heaven, but there was a certain charm about Era that made the Fairy Tail mage think of exactly that. It wasn't the traditional description of Heaven, the paradise in the sky that Houren was thinking about, no, rather, he was thinking about some obscure fiction book that he had read a long time ago as a kid where the unsuspecting young protagonist found himself in some limbo like world where everything was still. The world itself was contained within a reasonably side village, where everything was still and while not devoid of color, definitely wasn't a vibrant place. He remembered explicitly that the place had color, but the colors seemed so pale, so faint that it was as though the entire setting was a fresco painting. The story was in the first person, it had to be noted, and the protagonist was, as Houren had pointed out, incredibly young and as such, it was clear that the story's author was also making good use of the ''unreliable narrator'' trope. In other words, because the narrator of the story was actually the protagonist, who was a child to boot, his viewpoint could not actually be considered reliable as to the true events in the story because more often than not, the protagonist was just as clueless as the reader; even more so really when you thought about it as he was a kid who wasn't able to pick up any of the hints or implications given to him. At first, he had thought he was in some normal village as he seemed to vaguely recall the structure of the place (implied heavily to have been in a dream given to him by an angel of some sort), so he started by trying to find people and might have spent a whole two or three chapters doing exactly that until an angel felt sorry for him and went to explain to him the truth. As the reader, even a young Houren was pretty sure that the protagonist was in heaven or at the very least, he was aware and believed that the village was representative of some afterlife place. For the protagonist in the story though, he didn't pick up on that at all despite actually being in the setting and having all these clues in front of him. In the end, he had to be explicitly told before he realized he was in Heaven, and even then, because he seemed to be a follower of ''that religion in particular,'', he was under the impression he was in limbo and awaiting entry into true paradise.

In the distinct canon of that fictional world though, such things as Heaven and Hell did not actually exist, and one's deeds in life did not matter at all so instead, everyone went to the same place. In that sense, although Houren compared Era to that Paradise, he did not explicitly mean Heaven, but rather you could not call it Heaven because that was the only afterlife in that particular world. In real life, that may not be so, and as such, you could guess that Houren's mind was currently fairly messy in regards to everything and anything. At the end of the story, the Fairy Tail mage remembered that the conclusion was incredibly profound but could not remember exactly what happened. He did remember, however, that the boy was incredibly shocked at the revelation that his teachings had been wrong, that the religious figures of his town when he was alive had been lying to him, not intentionally, but they had been wrong after all. There was no ''paradise'' for those of good disposition, nor was there ''damnation'' for those who sinned without regard for anyone's welfare. Houren was pretty sure it was another few chapters before the boy ultimately accepted his fate, that paradise, the afterlife rather, depended on the individual; the bad side was that he would never ever see his loved ones again, but that was fine because sooner or later, he would completely forget them anyway. The protagonist was roughly 15 or something, so more or less, that was 15 years with all the loved ones that he knew from the very beginning of his life, but since he probably retained no knowledge of his early childhood, he could probably only remember 9 or 10 year worth of memories with his family and loved ones. He had an eternity in this new reality, so it probably wouldn't be 30 or so years before the faces of his parents began to fade away, and in another 50 or so, his memories would probably become incredibly vague to the point that he would not remember their faces at all. His times with them would probably become blurred too, and he would not remember exactly how old he was when he was recalling certain memories. Of course, it went without saying that by this time, special occasions like their birthdays and anniversaries would be forgotten to the protagonist; this was the cruel, fatalistic logic that the ''angel'' had used when explaining to the protagonist the futility of wanting to remember his past life. The story ended with the angel granting the young boy protagonist his final wish of seeing his parents one last time in their world, before ultimately accepting his fate. Once he did so, the world that he now inhabited became much brighter, at least in his eyes, and Houren could remember a short epilogue that takes place perhaps a thousand or so years later where the protagonist is finally joined by another human like himself.

Or was that an ending that Houren had scribbled in himself, as he could also recall being somewhat dissatisfied with the canon material.

Dragon Slayer Secret Art: The Fire of Saint Elmo: 1029/2000

Children check under their beds for monsters; what do monsters check under their beds for?

This phrase only goes to show that even in the realm of the mysterious, there were more mysteries. All of human knowledge collected thus far in the minds of every human was not expansive enough to answer every question that there is. As such, it was better not to try and think so hard about things that seemed needlessly profound. At the very least, that was Houren's attitude to life. He didn't need to know about this thing or that thing, he just wanted the strength necessary to protect himself and the ones that he loves, and that is exactly why he needed to master this technique. It was a so called ''Fire Dragon Slayer Secret Art'', a special move that was impossible to recreate with simply elemental magic, a right allowed only for those that utilized Dragon Slayer magic. Houren counted himself among this elite few, warriors who were granted the ability to slay those mythical beasts of old. He had been training in a cove in Era that was pretty much inaccessible to the rest of the city unless you looked very, very hard to find it. Fortunately, nobody seemed all that interesting in finding Houren to begin with. Those people he knew in his residence of Magnolia, his landlord, neighbor or whatever all knew that he was a wandering spirit and as such, never bothered to worry about him all that much whenever he didn't return home. They just assumed that he was relaxing somewhere, and if not that, then he was doing some requests that would require his undivided attention for a long, long time. It was also worth noting that Houren's home wasn't really all that decorated at all, he had the most basic of furniture, just enough to live in and be comfortable, but luxury items were pretty much out of the question for him as they would have just been a waste of money for him. He hadn't really met anybody in Era that he could call a friend just yet, so there was nobody worry about him in this city at the very least. That was good as well, since he must have been in this cove living off the land for at least the past few weeks.

Using some eroded rock as a bar, Houren had trained his strength by doing at least a hundred pull ups a day, but he had already reached where the point where he knew that it wasn't anything physical that he was lacking. His affinity with fire was strong, even before obtaining that Fire Dragon Slayer lacrima, he had been a fire mage, but it seemed like he had not yet mastered this magic. There were secrets that he didn't know, and as of right now, he couldn't even call himself  Dragon Slayer, could he? Sure, there were no known Dragon Slayers out there that could literally be known as ''Dragon Slayers'', or else they would be famous throughout all of Fiore, and hell, even the world, but even so Houren found himself to be lacking in comparison to them. "This world is an indefinitely cruel place where it is much easier to take the easy way in place of the righteous path. In the future, it won't be uncommon for me to face three, four, even five enemies by myself. If I can't master this move, I won't be able to protect anything..." the Fairy Tail mage was talking to himself more than anything else, because he was almost a hundred percent sure that there was nobody else in this cove where he was now training. Houren Vanadis let out a growl, more reminiscent of an actual dragon than a human who had the aspect of one, and allowed the fire to consume him, one of the techniques that he had already mastered that allowed him to buff both his strength and endurance. If he was in this form when practicing this brand new technique, then perhaps it would be easier.

Tightening his fist as though he were about to knock the head off of someone, Houren punched the air, the sheer force of it sent a blast of fire streaming from Houren's hand and into the dark expanse of the cove, brightening it up for only a moment before fading away again. If it had hit an enemy or any living thing at all, Houren was confident that it could very possibly have charred it to bits, but that was not the technique that he was trying to learn. It took him a few years, but he finally realized that brute strength was not the most important thing in a spell, and that there was more necessary things. After all, magic was not originally created as a means of combat, and it was much more common to see people use magic spells for pure convenience as opposed to fighting other people. In that respect, it was all about grace and technique. It was better for Houren to master this skill in all its aspects as opposed to making it do as much damage as possible. He tried it again a few times until he was quite literally burnt out. He was panting quite heavily and didn't pretend to be tough or anything like that as some people might have done, not because he was a cool guy like that, but because there was literally nobody else in the place to show off to. He fell to his knees and began to ponder his next move. He was tired now, and wouldn't be able to conjure up the necessary strength for another attack, but did that matter? It wouldn't matter, he decided, he just needed one more chance, and he was sure that he'd get the hang of this spell.

St Elmo's Fire: 2010/2000