Kai's automated, procrastination-fueled spell had successfully dragged him all the way to Kunugi town. After the floating array of magical supplies finished sloppily patching his fresh structural damage, he had managed to scout out a perfectly hidden rooftop to pass out on.
Not a single inn was open at midnight anyway—especially not after Eisenwald's brief, high-profile raid on the local station. Dragging a few stolen blankets and heavy canvas sheets from his spatial pouch, he collapsed onto the stone tiles. Years of dodging angry clients and guild authorities had made him an expert at sleeping under the open sky. Within minutes, he was dead to the world.
— Earlier That Day – Team Natsu
The ride to Oshibana was a specialized form of psychological torture from the exact moment the engine sparked to life.
Erza was gripping the steering handles of the magic four-wheeler like a knight charging down a demon lord, her eyes locked forward in a fierce, completely unblinking stare. Beside her, Natsu was already draped heavily over the chassis, his face turned a vibrant shade of seaweed green as he whimpered incoherent prayers to whatever god governed motion sickness.
Happy flapped worriedly alongside his head, keeping a safe distance. "Don't puke on me, Natsu… I don't know how to wash fish smell out of my wings!"
Lucy was being hurled from side to side like a sack of unground flour every time Erza drifted around a mountain pass. "Erza—!! Please! At least pretend this thing has actual suspension! We're going to flip!"
Gray, holding onto the safety rail with white-knuckled intensity, shouted over the roar of the wind, "You're going to completely drain your internal reserves if you keep forcing the magic engine to overclock like this! Slow down, Erza! We'll get there in one piece if you just pace yourself!"
But Erza didn't hear a single word. Or perhaps she did—and simply chose to treat their logic as background noise.
Her voice was quiet, vibrating with a cold, simmering fury. "They endangered a peaceful town. They threatened to slaughter innocent civilians for a petty grievance. And… they attacked Kai. Even if he acted like it was a minor inconvenience… he was bleeding through his clothes. He was forcing himself."
That alone was enough to tell the rest of the team that the brake pedal no longer existed to her.
The vehicle tore down the cobblestone road like a runaway kinetic spell until—
BOOM!
They burst straight through Oshibana's grand front gates with all the subtlety and grace of a rogue lacrima cannon.
Thick, black smoke was already rising above the central city hall like a dark pillar, twisting lazily into the afternoon sky. Crowds of panicked citizens were bottlenecked at the edges of the plaza—some crying out for missing family members, others simply frozen in sheer terror at the sudden dark guild occupation.
Lucy's breath hitched in her throat as she took in the chaos. "Please tell me… please tell me we aren't too late."
The Entrance to City Hall
Squads of grey-armored Rune Knights had established a messy, defensive perimeter around the base of the hall. Some were frantically barking orders to secure the streets, while others carried wounded civilians away from the spreading fire. The sight of the Fairy Tail emblem earned Team Natsu a handful of startled glances, rapidly melting into profound relief.
Gray approached the nearest commanding knight, his expression serious. "What's the status inside? Give it to us straight."
The soldier swallowed hard, his hands visibly shaking as he pointed toward the shattered glass doors. "The train arrived from Kunugi… then dozens of dark mages poured out like locusts. They rushed the central chamber—everyone inside was forced to flee for their lives. We sent an advanced tactical unit in after them to secure the high officials, but…" He shook his head, looking down at the blood-stained pavement. "We lost all communication fifteen minutes ago."
Erza's grip on the hilt of her sword tightened until the metal of her gauntlet groaned under the strain. That was all the confirmation she required.
"Let's move," she commanded, her cape snapping behind her. "We clear the building."
Inside the Hall
The deeper they ventured into the municipal building, the more apparent the devastation became.
The grand entrance lobby was entirely deserted, save for the crackling of stray fires and the distant, ominous echo of collapsing support beams breaking the silence. Official documents were scattered across the floor like autumn leaves, heavy oak chairs were overturned and shattered, and the marble walls were heavily scorched with the residue of low-grade elemental spells.
Gray exhaled sharply through his nose, his eyes scanning the corridors. "There's no sign of the internal security detail. They should've been holding the choke points."
Lucy glanced at the dark shadows stretching across the ceiling, her heart hammering against her ribs. "You… you don't think they were—"
Erza didn't even slow her pace. "An entire dark guild operating under a unified front would overwhelm standard infantry easily. If the knights were fortunate, they were simply incapacitated by the initial wave."
"And if they weren't fortunate…?" Lucy whispered, her grip tightening on her stellar keys.
Erza didn't answer. Her silence spoke volumes.
A moment later, they rounded the bend into the inner corridor—and there, scattered across the polished floor like broken dolls, lay the advanced unit of Rune Knights. They were completely unmoving. A few groaned faintly, clutching deep lacerations, while others lay entirely still in the dim light.
Happy lowered his ears, his usual cheerful demeanor vanishing. "They didn't stand a chance, did they?"
Natsu clenched his fists so hard his knuckles popped, a low, dangerous growl vibrating in his chest. Every last trace of his motion sickness had been thoroughly incinerated by pure, unadulterated rage. "These absolute bastards…!"
The Central Chamber
Natsu kicked the final set of double doors clean off their hinges, the heavy wood slamming into the floorboards with a massive crash.
At once, dozens of heads snapped sharply toward the entrance.
The central municipal hall was packed to maximum capacity with the remaining fighting force of Eisenwald. Some stood guard along the balconies, others leaned heavily against the marble pillars, and a few were frantically trying to tend to their own fresh injuries. The air inside was thick with a volatile mixture of desperate fanaticism… and the distinct aroma of a failed plan.
And sitting right in the center of the chaos—
A man wrapped tightly in bloody linen bandages, clutching a vicious, oversized scythe. Erigor.
His posture was rigid, his body hanging stiffly as if he was having trouble keeping himself upright. His breathing was uneven, and dark blood was actively seeping through the fresh wrappings across his torso—revealing severe, localized burn marks beneath.
A handful of dark mages were clustered around him, desperately applying low-grade healing salves, but the wounds looked fundamentally wrong. They were deep, clean, and terrifyingly surgical—the unmistakable calling card of a fighter who didn't waste a single millimeter of movement.
Lucy's eyes drifted to the left, spotting another familiar silhouette crouching by a pillar.
Kageyama.
The shadow mage was trembling violently, covered from shoulder to hip in long, clean, crisscrossing slash cuts that had already thoroughly saturated whatever makeshift medical cloth they had slapped onto him. He was deathly pale, sweating profusely, and still gasping for air—looking exactly like a man who had been systematically dismantled in a matter of seconds.
The moment Team Natsu stepped into the light, every single Eisenwald mage went dead silent. A heavy wave of raw hostility and desperate malice rolled toward the Fairy Tail wizards like a physical weight.
The wounded dark mages didn't stay seated for long. Grinding their teeth, they pushed themselves up from the rubble. Smug grins, cold hatred, and the dangerous edge of cornered animals sharpened their expressions. A dense, unsettling energy filled the room as dozens of men formed a living wall between Fairy Tail and the deeper administrative offices.
Then—a faint, unnatural twitch of movement came from the rear of the chamber.
The air cracked with the sudden, violent manifestation of localized wind magic. Erigor rose into the air. It wasn't an act of strength or grace; it was pure, spiteful necessity. He floated stiffly, his body hanging unnaturally straight like a corpse being jerked upward by invisible, agonizing strings. His scythe clicked against the stone floor as he tightened his grip, though even that minor exertion caused a visible tremor of agony to ripple across his bandaged face.
Erza's eyes narrowed, locking onto him instantly. "Erigor… the Shinigami," she said, her voice dropping into a register of pure steel.
The bandaged vanguard lifted his head, his cold, murderous gaze sweeping past Natsu, bypassing Gray entirely, and landing directly on Lucy. A sick, twisted grin split his face beneath the bloody linen.
"Well, well… the blond one survived. What a terrible shame," his voice grated out, sounding like rusted iron scraping against bone. "I don't see that arrogant, ink-slinging bastard anywhere in your little lineup. Tell me—did he finally die from the internal bleeding I gave him? Because if he's still breathing, I'm going to rip his spine out the moment I track him down."
Lucy froze for a fraction of a second under the sudden intensity of his gaze, fear sparking in her chest. But the memory of the battlefield—and the sheer arrogance of the man before her—caused a hot, sharp wave of anger to take over. She clamped her fingers tightly around her celestial keys.
Before she could even open her mouth to fire back, three distinct figures stepped forward in perfect unison. Erza. Natsu. Gray.
Erza spoke first, her voice ice-cold and unyielding. "Kai is alive. And you aren't fit to speak his name."
Natsu didn't bother with restraint. His fists instantly erupted into violent, crackling flames. "You should be worrying about your own skin, you damn overgrown scarecrow! I'm gonna beat you into the ground until you wish Kai had finished the job properly!"
Gray slammed his right fist into his open left palm, a frosty mist immediately rolling off his shoulders. "You picked the wrong damn guild to threaten, friend. We don't take kindly to trash talking our family."
Erigor's lip curled into a snarl. "Wrong? No… look around you, little fairies." He spread his arms wide—wincing visibly as the motion tore at his dislocated spine—and the dark mages behind him drew their weapons, their magic circles flaring to life in a dozen different colors.
"It is you who should be begging for mercy. Because once we're done painting this floor with your blood, we're going to parcel your corpses up and deliver them straight to that little brat you're so incredibly proud of." His eyes burned with a manic, unhinged light. "And then we'll slaughter every single soul in this pathetic town just to draw him out into the open. Every. Last. One."
Natsu lunged forward with a roar, but Erza extended a single, armored arm across his chest, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Why? Why target innocent civilians?!" Her voice was a mix of profound disgust and rising fury. "Guild disputes do not involve the populace! Even the most depraved dark guilds understand that line is not to be crossed!"
Erigor's laugh was a bitter, broken rasp that ended in a wet cough. "Innocent?! They live soft, parasitic lives under those self-righteous 'laws' your precious Council protects! They are fed, sheltered, and coddled! While those very same laws stripped everything away from us! Our status! Our pride! Our entire future!" His dark wind aura crackled violently, shattering the glass panels of the nearby windows. "With the Lullaby, we were going to balance the scales! Teach them what real fear feels like! Take back the world we deserve! But that little tinkerer piece of trash—" his eyes narrowed into slits of pure, venomous hatred "—he broke my body, ruined our timing, and humiliated the reaper!"
He leveled his scythe directly at Erza's throat. "But the execution is back on schedule. And we start with you."
The moment his weapon lowered, the command was absolute. "Kill them all!"
A massive, multi-colored wall of offensive magic detonated across the hall all at once. Wind bullets, compressed stone impacts, sonic ripples, and jagged blades of corrupted ethernano converged on the group.
Gray reacted instantly, sliding into a wide stance and slamming both hands into the floor tiles. "Ice-Make: WALL!!"
A towering, thick fortress of sculpted ice erupted from the bedrock, intercepting the entire magical barrage in a spectacular explosion of frost, sparks, and white smoke. The structural stone beneath their feet groaned under the sheer weight of the impact.
Natsu grinned savagely, the heat radiating from his body turning the back of Gray's wall to pure steam. "Nice shield, ice princess!"
Without waiting for a reply, Natsu sprinted directly up the vertical face of the ice structure.
Gray yelled out, vein popping on his forehead, "Stop calling me that! And don't just jump blindly into a crossfire, you idiot—!"
Too late. Natsu vaulted clean over the top of the melting barrier, inhaling a massive lungful of oxygen mid-air as his chest expanded.
"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!!!"
A titanic, swirling vortex of crimson flames blasted across the chamber, completely scattering the front line of Eisenwald mages like bowling pins. The sheer heat disintegrated incoming spells in mid-air and turned iron weapons to slag.
Behind the cover of the blinding blaze, Gray materialized through the steam, his movements fluid and precise as he launched a relentless barrage of ice spears and frozen knuckles into the chaotic melee.
Erza turned to them, her eyes flashing with battle intent. "Take care of the remaining forces! Leave Erigor to me!"
Gray smirked, shattering an enemy's wooden staff with a swift backhand. "Like we need to be told twice. Don't let him off easy, Erza."
Natsu already had two dark mages tucked under his armpits like sacks of groceries, smashing their heads together with a wild laugh. "Got it covered! Go kick his ass!"
With the central path thoroughly cleared by the boys, Erza launched herself into the air, her boot catching a stray shard of falling ice to kick-start her momentum. She shot straight toward the hovering reaper like a silver comet.
Their gazes locked in mid-air. Erigor sneered through his bloodied wrappings, bringing his scythe around in a wide, vicious arc. "Ready to join your little friend in the dirt, Queen of the Fairies?!"
Erza's magical aura erupted in a dazzling, blinding flash of light that filled the entire municipal hall.
"RE-QUIP!"
Feathers of pure light exploded outward. Heavy metal plates shimmered and shifted, reconfiguring around her body in a fraction of a second.
Heaven's Wheel Armor.
Dozens of gleaming, silver swords materialized in a perfect, orbiting sphere around her form, spinning like a beautiful, metallic storm. Her steel wings snapped open, capturing the thermal currents from Natsu's flames to match Erigor's exact altitude, leaving them eye-to-eye in the dusty, smoke-filled air.
"You will answer for every drop of blood you have spilled," Erza declared, her swords vibrating in perfect synchronization with her rapidly rising mana. "And I will not grant you mercy."
Down below, amidst the chaos of the melee, Lucy moved forward with purpose, her eyes locked onto a specific, trembling figure trying to crawl toward a side exit. Kageyama.
He lifted his eyes weakly at the sound of her approaching footsteps, finally recognizing her face. His expression twisted into a volatile cocktail of shame, fear, and deep-seated frustration.
Lucy took a deep breath, steadying her rapidly beating heart as she pulled a golden key from her belt. "This time," she said quietly, her voice ringing with absolute clarity, "you aren't escaping us."
She gripped the celestial key tightly. A warm, golden shimmer flickered between her fingers, reminding her of how she had even obtained it—Happy had panicked and shoved it into her hands the moment they entered the hall, apparently having completely forgotten that Virgo had left it with him hours ago for safekeeping.
Alright, let's see what the new contract can do, Lucy thought, a confident smile touching her lips. It's time to shine.
She raised the key high above her head, her voice resonant. "I open the Gate of the Maiden—"
A massive vortex of pink, stellar magic flared around her, swirling into a tight pillar of light.
"Virgo! I summon you!"
— Natsu & Gray vs. Eisenwald
The secondary line of the dark guild tried to capitalize on the summon, throwing everything they had left.
"Wind Cutter!"
"Stone Impact!"
"Explosive Talons!"
A chaotic torrent of elemental spells shot directly toward the Fairy Tail vanguard. Gray didn't even flinch. He brought his palms together, his fingers forming a specific, rigid matrix.
"Ice-Make: SHIELD!!"
A massive, beautifully sculpted kite shield of solid ice burst from the floorboards. The incoming spells slammed into the dense frozen barrier—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—spiderwebbing the surface with deep fractures and sending frozen shrapnel flying, but the shield held perfectly.
"Cover my blind spot, ice-stripper!" Natsu shouted, his body already shrouded in a heavy layer of shifting heat waves.
"Stop calling me that, and keep your eyes on the vanguard!" Gray snapped back, shifting his weight to anchor the shield against a secondary blast.
Natsu grinned wildly. As the last magical impact faded from the shield's face, he vaulted off Gray's shoulder, launching himself clean over the melting edge of the ice.
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!!"
His hand ignited into a roaring blaze as he drove a devastating punch into the chest of the nearest dark mage, the kinetic shockwave blasting three more behind him through a brick pillar.
"Tch—there are way more of these secondary grunts than I calculated," Gray muttered, dropping into a low stance as three swordsmen rushed his position. "Ice-Make: LANCE!"
A barrage of sharp, crystalline ice spears shot forward like an automatic rifle volley, striking the ground directly at the attackers' feet, shattering their balance and sending them sliding helplessly across the smooth stone.
The remaining Eisenwald members recovered with the desperation of cornered men. "Surround them! Don't let them space out their casting!"
A dozen mages rushed Natsu simultaneously from his flanks. Natsu's grin only widened. "Now this is what I call a real warm-up!" His left fist ignited as he caught a mage by the throat, using the man's own body to sweep another two into a pile of broken furniture.
Gray spun gracefully behind Natsu's back, delivering a crisp, martial kick to an assassin's solar plexus before instantly freezing the man's forearms to the floor tiles mid-strike.
"Hey!" Natsu barked, punching another grunt away. "That guy was clearly in my zone!"
"Move your feet faster then, flame-brain!" Gray shot back, already pivoting to face a new threat.
Another squad tried to flank them through the side corridor. Gray slid across the floor on his knees, his open palms making direct contact with the smooth marble tiles.
"Ice-Make: FLOOR!"
The entire central walkway instantly transformed into a sheet of frictionless, hyper-dense ice. Half the advancing dark mages lost all traction, flailing wildly before crashing into one another in a chaotic pile of limbs.
Natsu barreled right over the top of the sliding bodies, his fists leaving trails of white-hot cinders in the air. "Fire Dragon's… WING ATTACK!"
Every sweeping strike sent out a massive shockwave of localized heat and kinetic pressure, dropping Eisenwald members one by one until the grand hall looked like a disaster zone. Gray caught the final airborne attacker with a precisely timed pillar of ice rising from the floorboards, knocking the man out cold against the ceiling.
"Boomerang Blade!" a sniper shouted from the upper balcony, releasing a crescent-shaped projectile of compressed magic straight toward Natsu's blind spot.
Natsu didn't even bother dodging. He simply spun around and drove his forehead straight into the incoming spell.
CRACK.
The magical blade shattered into harmless ambient mana particles against his skull. "HA! Is that the best your guild can do?! Way too weak!" Natsu barked, cracking his knuckles.
Within less than five minutes of pure, coordinated violence, the Eisenwald frontline was completely broken. The battle wasn't entirely over, but looking at the sea of unconscious bodies, the dark mages knew with absolute certainty that they were looking at their own funeral.
— Erza vs. Erigor
High above the battlefield, the atmosphere was violent.
Erigor hovered with immense difficulty—his face pale as linen, his entire torso stiff and unyielding due to the structural damage Kai had inflicted upon his spine. Yet, the sheer, murderous intensity in his eyes hadn't faded a single bit. He spun his massive scythe in a wide, sweeping circle, the ambient wind gathering around his form until it sounded like a shrieking gale.
Erza floated directly opposite him within her Heaven's Wheel matrix, dozens of pristine silver swords orbiting her like a ring of silent, lethal guardians.
Erigor brought his scythe down with a savage scream. "STORM BRINGER!!"
A massive, localized vortex of pressurized, slicing wind roared across the gap between them, intending to shred her armor to pieces.
Erza simply extended her arms, her voice calm and absolute. "Blumenblatt!!"
The orbiting swords shot forward in a radiant, cascading torrent—meeting the pressurized gale head-on. The entire upper half of the municipal hall was instantly filled with the deafening, metallic singing of clashing steel against high-frequency wind.
Erigor's eyes widened in genuine shock when he realized her blades weren't being deflected by his gale—they were actively matching the pressure, cutting through the wind currents, and piercing straight through his perimeter.
"Tch!" He twisted his body awkwardly in mid-air, a sharp spasm of agony crossing his features as he barely evaded a silver blade that shot past his ear and detonated violently against the far ceiling.
Erza followed the attack with a spectacular burst of speed, disappearing from his field of vision and reappearing directly behind his flank in a flash of bright silver light. Her floating blades instantly reconfigured into a tight circle.
"Circle Sword: Dance of Blades!"
Dozens of swords cut through the air in perfectly synchronized, overlapping arcs. Erigor managed to deflect the majority with a hasty layer of wind armor, and a few others he evaded through sheer instinct, but three clean slices bypassed his guard entirely—each one drawing a sharp grunt of pain and fresh blood through his linen bandages.
"You will answer for what you did to Kai," Erza said, her voice dropping into a register of pure, icy condemnation.
Erigor flinched at the name, his expression twisting into a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred. "That arrogant little mechanic bastard…! Don't you dare speak his name to me!"
The wind around his body erupted in a violent explosion of negative energy. A highly compressed sphere of storm magic hurled itself directly at Erza's chest.
Erza raised her hands, her magic flaring to its absolute peak. "Heaven's Wheel — Trinity Shot!!!"
Three massive, ornate greatswords materialized from her reserve and launched themselves like artillery shells at the incoming storm sphere—piercing cleanly through the center of the spell and slamming directly into Erigor's torso. Due to his spinal injury, he couldn't execute an aerial dodge in time, forced instead to manifest his ultimate defensive technique at the absolute last second.
"Storm Veil!!"
Erza's brow furrowed slightly as she watched her greatswords bounce off the incredibly dense wall of pressurized wind surrounding his body. Seizing the opening, she rushed forward herself, swinging her primary blade with everything she had. But the moment her steel contacted the Storm Veil, the sheer kinetic pressure of the compressed wind threw her backward, sending her crashing heavily into the stone wall. Her sword clattered across the tiles below.
Erza struggled to her feet, her body trembling slightly. The prolonged, exhausting drive in the magic vehicle had drained a significant portion of her baseline reserves, but looking across the gap, she could see Erigor was in an even worse state. His breath was coming in ragged, bloody gasps.
"This battle… is far from over," she said firmly, her eyes never leaving him.
Erigor smirked through the swirling vortex of his armor, his voice echoing with manic desperation. "Oh, but it is, little fairy! Now you burn!" He gripped his scythe with both hands, using his wind magic to launch himself directly toward her stationary position.
Erza quickly floated upward, a dangerous smile touching her lips as her magical signature shifted. "You are not the only wizard capable of summoning a tempest, Shinigami."
"Blade Cycle: Tatsumaki!"
The massive array of swords floating around her person suddenly began to spin at an impossible, blurred velocity, generating a localized tornado of sharp, high-frequency wind slashes. The two opposing wind spells collided in mid-air with a screeching roar. Erigor found himself completely stuck—unable to pierce through her blade-typhoon, and completely unable to retreat without leaving his compromised back wide open.
In a flash of light, Erza materialized directly behind the distracted reaper, a massive, heavy-grade iron spear resting in her hands.
"Trinity Shot: Maximize!!"
She launched the heavy projectile with terrifying kinetic force. The spear pierced through the air like a railgun round, reaching Erigor just as he managed to turn his head. He tried frantically to manifest a secondary wind barrier, but with his attention thoroughly divided by the sword-tornado behind him, the heavy iron spear tore cleanly through his defensive gale and struck him squarely in the chest.
A thick line of blood pooled at his mouth, his wind aura instantly collapsing. Before he could even begin to fall, Erza appeared directly in front of him, her armored fist pulled back to its absolute limit. She drove a devastating straight punch directly into his jaw, the sheer kinetic force throwing him completely across the grand hall.
He hit the far wall with a massive impact, dropping into the rubble completely out cold.
—Lucy & Happy vs. Kageyama
Kageyama staggered backward as Lucy approached, his hand clutching his bleeding side where Kai's precise cuts had thoroughly compromised his mobility. He grimaced, shadow magic swirling weakly around his boots. "You again… stay the hell back!"
"Gate of the Maiden — VIRGO!!"
In a spectacular burst of pink stellar energy, Virgo emerged into the room in a flurry of rose petals, immediately dropping to one knee before her summoner. "How may I serve you today, Princess? Is it time for punishment?"
Lucy pointed a commanding finger at the shadow mage. "Virgo, we will finalize the details of our formal contract later! For now, restrain him by any means necessary!"
Virgo nodded crisply, her expression perfectly stoic. "As you command, Princess."
The celestial spirit vanished into the floorboards in a fraction of a second, her high-grade earth magic causing the stone tiles beneath Kageyama's feet to ripple like water. Before the shadow mage could even register the movement, heavy, solid stone chains erupted from the ground, wrapping around his ankles and binding him mid-jump.
"H-Hey!! What the hell is this—?!"
Virgo popped directly out of the stone right in front of him, delivering a devastating, clean uppercut to his chin that launched him backward into the air.
Kageyama, fighting through the haze of a concussion, quickly summoned a cluster of shadow serpents to shield his retreat. Virgo was entirely on top of him, systematically shattering the darkness with her bare hands, but Kageyama's eyes suddenly snapped past her—landing directly on Lucy.
She's the weak link, he realized, desperation taking over.
"Shadow Snakes!" He launched a secondary wave of darkness directly past Virgo, targeting Lucy's position. Lucy tried to scramble backward, but the shadows slithered up the floorboards, binding her boots before she could clear the zone. As Kageyama rushed toward her with a makeshift blade of darkness, Lucy felt a sudden, familiar wave of powerlessness wash over her—exactly like how she felt back at the railway when Kai had to step in and handle the pressure for her.
Her eyes snapped wide open, a sudden, hot flash of genuine anger burning away the fear. No. Not again. I am a wizard of Fairy Tail!
Gripping her leather whip, she snapped it forward with a fierce hiss. Kageyama, despite his injuries, managed to lean his torso sideways, easily dodging the leather cord with a smug smirk. "Too slow, blondie!"
But the very next millisecond, a massive, heavy stone slab was dropped directly onto the top of his skull with a loud, hollow BAM!
Kageyama's vision went completely blurry, his knees buckling instantly. Happy flew directly over his head, wearing a smug, matching grin. "Aye! Bullseye!"
Lucy smiled brightly at the blue cat. "Thanks, Happy! Virgo, finish it!"
With Kageyama's focus completely shattered, Lucy snapped her whip around his ankles, pulling him flat onto his face just as Virgo materialized above him with a massive, sculpted earth hammer. The spirit slammed it down directly into his back, cracking the marble floor and completely knocking the remaining wind out of his lungs.
Kageyama coughed up a speck of blood, his shadow magic entirely dissipating as he collapsed into the dirt. "How… how is every single person in this damn guild so completely psycho…?"
Lucy let out a long, exhausted exhale, her shoulders finally dropping as Happy flew into her arms for a massive hug. "You did incredible, Lucy! That was amazing!"
"Th-Thanks, Happy… I couldn't have timed it without you," she panted, wiping the sweat from her brow.
—The Aftermath
With the entirety of the Eisenwald dark guild successfully incapacitated and bound securely in Virgo's stone restraints, Erza regrouped with the rest of the team in the center of the ruined hall.
"Now then—where is the Lullaby flute?" she demanded, her sharp gaze scanning the rubble. "We need to secure the relic immediately."
Erigor was currently hovering on the verge of unconsciousness and was entirely incapable of coherent speech, so the entire team turned their heavy, intense gazes directly down onto Kageyama.
The shadow mage winced visibly as the four terrifyingly competent Fairy Tail wizards surrounded him. "W-Why are you looking at me?! We… we don't even have the damn thing!"
The entire room went completely still. Erza's gaze sharpened to a dangerous, predatory edge. Natsu blinked stupidly, tilting his head. Gray's brow furrowed into a deep frown.
Lucy sputtered, her voice cracking in pure disbelief. "What do you mean you don't have it?! You literally hijacked an entire train line for it!"
Kageyama looked weakly toward the floor tiles, his voice trembling. "When… when that silver-haired Kai guy knocked me out back at the tracks… he took it from my coat. He… he swapped the real flute with a regular wooden tree stick. That's why I was so beat up when we got here… Erigor thought I betrayed the guild and punished me for it."
Absolute, total silence descended upon the grand municipal hall.
Natsu's face slowly shifted into a massive, wide grin before he burst out into hysterical laughter. "Pfft—HAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, that is TOTALLY something that bastard would do! He completely played you guys!"
Gray rubbed his forehead with a long, exhausted sigh. "Yeah… honestly, I should've seen that coming. The guy doesn't do anything unless there's an artifact or a profit involved."
Lucy's left eye began to twitch violently, her face turning a vibrant shade of crimson. "He… he WHAT—?! You're telling me I fought through an entire army of dark mages and risked my life… FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?!"
Erza's armored fists clenched so hard the metal screamed. The vivid memory of Kai standing on the railway tracks, looking them dead in the eye and telling them he was "too tired" and was going to "take a nap" flashed through her mind. It all made perfect, infuriating sense now. The only reason that chaotic little tinkerer had stopped fighting wasn't because he was spent—it was because he had already successfully stolen the prize right out from under their noses.
"That… sneaky… completely unprincipled… infuriating little parasite—!" Erza hissed, a dark, terrifying aura radiating from her shoulders.
Natsu and Gray quickly held up their hands, taking a synchronized step back. "Hey, come on, Erza, it's not a huge deal, right? The threat is still technically stopped! Eisenwald can't use the flute if Kai has it locked away in his pouch anyway, so the mission is a success!"
But Erza slowly turned her head, her glare so intense it practically melted the stone beneath her boots. Lucy joined her side, both girls practically steaming with pure, concentrated wrath.
"HE DIDN'T TELL US!" they screamed in perfect unison.
The boys flinched violently, completely dropping their arguments and taking another three steps back into the safety of the rubble.
Erza and Lucy tilted their heads back, their voices echoing through the broken rafters of Oshibana city hall in a deafening roar:
"KAAAAAAAI!!!"
Natsu leaned over to Gray, whispering out of the side of his mouth. "…Hey, wanna bet twenty jewels he explicitly knew they'd react exactly like this?"
Gray snorted, crossing his arms as he watched the smoke clear. "Knowing that guy? He probably calculated the exact volume of their screams while he was sketching in his notebook. He's probably sleeping like a baby right now."
Happy giggled, waving his paw. "Aye! Kai is Kai!"
Erza and Lucy continued to tremble with sheer, unadulterated irritation. But deep down, beneath the violent desire to throw him through a wall the next time they returned to Magnolia… neither of them was actually surprised. Not really.
Because this was Kai. An absolute, infuriating, chaotic bastard who was utterly impossible to predict—but somehow, always three steps ahead of the rest of the world.
Always.