[Last updated: 09/17/18]
A little while later, Erza and I were back in the room where we fought the entire platoon of Eisenwald swordsman; at least it seemed like a whole platoon, anyway. I was actually mildly surprised at the size of such an illegal guild. We were busy tying them up with rope that Erza pulled from out of nowhere, I assume through Requip. She was currently interrogating one of them who had regained consciousness on how to get through the barrier, and getting nowhere. Then, from one of the above hallways that opened up on one side to the room, stood Gray. He called out to her, prompting her to drop the man on the marble floor to lean against the wall. I tied him up as well. She looked up to Gray, "What are you doing here? I thought you were with Natsu!" He replied, "We decided to split up. Nevermind that now! Listen, I just found out that Eisenwald's real target is Clover, the next town up! Erigor's headed towards the conference as we speak! He's planning on using the Lullaby to kill the guildmasters!" A purple-pink miasma began to emanate from her (Although that might just have been me) as she picked up the man she had been questioning, adopted a frightful expression, and … asked him nicely why he didn't tell her.
She spoke to Gray again, who had by now found his way down to us, "There's a problem, the station's surrounded by a barrier." Gray nodded with a serious expression, "Yeah, I know. I saw it earlier. If you try to break through that thing, it'll make mincemeat out of you." She rubbed her upper arm gently, "Yeah … I already tried that." He tilted his head as he surveyed her, "Woah, is your arm ok?" She closed her eyes and said, "That's not important. What is, is getting out of here. We must stop Erigor before he reaches the guildmaster's conference." She thought for a moment before opening her eyes again in recognition, "Wait a minute, I remember them talking about somebody called Kage back at the pub. We have to find that man, Gray. He was the one that broke Lullaby's seal!" Gray rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "A dispeller, huh? A seal breaking wizard … he can take down the wind barrier!" Erza nodded, "That's what I'm hoping, now let's get searching!" This whole 'seal' business was new to me, but I suppose it made sense; if this Kage could break the seal on the barrier surrounding us, then we needed to find him.
About ten minutes later, Erza, Gray, and I were running down a long hall when the whole building actually shook. We all stopped and turned in the direction of the disturbance. Gray wondered aloud, "Was that him?" Erza flatly said, "Yes." As we neared the room, I began to hear Natsu conversing with someone. Erza yelled, "Do not harm him! We need him alive!" As we were running, Gray surveyed the burns and scorch marks around all the damage done to the hall – I.E. large Natsu-shaped holes in the walls – we were going down and muttered, "Way to go, you fire freak!"
Erza rounded the corner to the door and raised a sword, I came up to the same corner and heard Natsu exclaim, "I don't know what I did but I'm sorry!", followed immediately by the peal of metal meeting stone. I came in a half-second later and saw Erza had swung her sword along the wall judging by the line in the stone, and stopped just short of connecting with the neck of one of the enemy wizards – a young, leanly built man with black hair – that was centered in a large scorch mark on the wall; that must have been the source of the disturbance we felt a little bit ago. Erza had her face close to the enemy with a fierce expression and ordered crossly, "You will dispel the barrier and you will do so without complaint! UNDERSTOOD?!" Note to self: never piss this one off without a really good reason. The man in question quivered as he looked at the sword a fraction of an inch from his neck, "Ok, fine! I'll dispel it!" Of course, nothing is ever that easy; a magic circle appeared on the middle of his chest as an arm came out of it. Pained, the man looked up and behind himself and asked, "Why, Kuraka?" before slumping to the side, revealing the man without a nose I saw earlier who was currently waist-deep in the wall. He was shaking … by his expression, I don't think he did it willingly. Gray spoke, "No! He was our only way out of here!"
Erza held the critically injured man, "No! Don't die! We need your help, do you hear me!" Gray shook his head, "I think we're losing him, Erza!" She shook him slightly, "You're the only one of us able to dispel the wind barrier, just hang on!" Natsu clenched a fist and asked the man in the wall, "How … how could you do that to one of your friends?!" He looked up at Natsu. Natsu flared up as flames fanned about him, "He was a member of your guild! He trusted you and you tried to kill him!" Panicking, the man ducked back into the wall. "How could you?!" Natsu focused the flames around him to his fist and jumped at the wall the man just phased back into and punched through the wall, flinging him out of the wall and into the adjacent room. "Is that how you dark guild members treat each other?!" I looked back and Erza and Gray were still kneeling over the man, her pleading him to stay with us. Gray, with a calm serious face said to her, "Erza, he's unconscious. It's just no use." Comically, she began slamming him into the floor with a frantic expression, "We can't let him die! He's our only way out of here!" Gray, put off by her action said, "But there's no way for him to use his magic in this condition!" Erza, still slamming, said forcibly, "If I force him to he will!" I said, "Erza stop! You'll give him brain damage!"
We all eventually regrouped at the entrance of the station we originally came through and we filled in Lucy and Happy. Lucy exclaimed, "What?! Erigor wants to use Lullaby on the guildmasters?!" Natsu gritted his teeth in frustration, "Grr … we have to stop him!" I crossed my arms and stared at the closely focused winds blowing around the station about ten feet from us, "It's easier said than done, Natsu. Erigor cut off our only means of getting out of here, and is presumably headed there by air." Gray said, "I'm pretty sure we could catch up to him on the Magic Mobile. But … we can't do anything until we figure out how to get on the other side of this barrier!" Lucy turned to him, "How are we going to do that?" All of a sudden, Natsu ran forward and attacked the barrier directly with flames and was immediately thrown back, landing in a heap on the floor. And … for some reason, his butt was smoking.
Gray crossed his arms and shook his head at the sight, "See that's what happens if you try to bust through." Meanwhile, Erza was again kneeling over Kage, who had by now seen urgent medical attention. "Kage, wake up! You are our only hope right now! Natsu, got back up and readied flaming tornadoes around his arms and punctuated his next statement with a flurry of fiery attacks with every word. "We've gotta try to break through! We have to save Makarov!" On the last combo, the barrier activated with a bright light and sent him flying again, landing on his face. I winced in empathy. That must have hurt. Having had enough of it, Gray said in irritation, "Cut it out, you idiot! Obviously brute force isn't going to do you any good." Lucy gestured to the barrier and asked if Gray could try freezing it, or that perhaps Natsu could try melting it. He shook his head again. "If I could have, I'd have already done it by now." She then asked me if I could try using my Crash to break the spell itself. "I'm sorry, Lucy. I can't. I've barely trained with Requip magic; I haven't even touched the Crash magic yet." Well, at least not consciously anyway.
A second later, a flaming fireball ran past us and impacted the barrier again, Natsu. They yelled at Natsu again. Lucy yelled at him, "Would you stop trying to be the hero?! You're going to get torn to shreds!" Frustrated, a curse emanated from Erza, "Damn it! I don't know what to do!" Natsu was about to charge again when Lucy held him back by forcibly hugging him. Natsu rubbed his chin, "Crap!" He looked up and then back at Lucy (Who blushed briefly) "What? What's the matter?" Natsu exclaimed loudly in recognition and said that she could use her spirits. He said, "Back at Everlu's, I was pulled from one place to another by the Spirit World!" Cautiously, she nodded slowly, obviously unsure of where he was going with this, "Well, yeah! But normal people would suffocate to death if they tried that. It's hard to breathe in their world! Besides, a Celestial Wizard can only open a gate wherever they're standing." Natsu looked at her blankly and made a confused noise. She held up a finger, "Ok. Let me simplify this for you. Even if we could pass through the Spirit World, we would need another Celestial Wizard to open a gate outside the train station for us to pass through." Natsu scratched his head, "You're totally confusing me, just hurry up and do it!" She shook her head frantically at him, "But I told you, I can't! Not to mention the very act of a Human entering the Spirit World is a serious breach of contract! I didn't care when you did it because it wasn't my key, it was Everlu's!" He sighed and said, "I don't get your magic at all."
Meanwhile, by now I had walked over to a wall, placed my back against it, and slid down it into a sitting position. Gray came and sat down with me and sighed at their discussion. In a low voice, I leaned towards him and asked, "So … is Natsu always like this?" He raised an eyebrow and gestured with his thumb back at Natsu, "What, him being all brawn and no brain? Yeah, pretty much." I then noticed that Happy slowly walked past us, his eyes wide in remembrance as he walked towards Lucy. "Everlu's key … hold on …" He screamed, we all jumped slightly in surprise. "I just remembered Lucy!" She pulled an arm back and asked the cat, "Remembered what?" He said that he remembered what he was trying to tell her on the way here. Happy said, "Look!" and held up a golden key, much like the ones Lucy had shown me before. Surprised, she yelled at happy, "How'd you get your paws on Virgo's key?! Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's wrong to steal things?" He defended himself by replying, "But I didn't steal it! Virgo asked me to give it to you!"
Gray stood up with a grunt and said, "Come on guys, we're wasting way too much of our time listening to this nonsense." Natsu cocked his head to one side and asked, "Who's Virgo? Oh! Wasn't she that big gorilla looking maid?" Happy nodded, "Apparently her contract with Everlu was broken as soon as he was arrested. Before we all left that day, she came up to me and said that she wanted to sign a new contract with you, Lucy!" She held her head in her hand and said in mock joy, "Great. I get a big, ugly spirit. Anyway, thanks for letting me know, but I'll have to deal with her later. If you didn't realize it, we need to find a way out of here." He blinked a little, "But …" She cut him a look that stopped him short, "Why don't you just meow like every other cat?" Mira appeared in miniature on my shoulder and we shared a look before she disappeared again. Damn, Lucy … that was harsh. Saddened, he fell to the floor and began to trace a pattern into the ground with his paw, "I'm sorry. I just thought that since Virgo can drill holes, maybe she can dig through the ground to get us to the other side of the barrier …" That one took us all by surprise. We all said different variations of 'She can?!' All of a sudden, Lucy was all nice with Happy. She apologized profusely and he gave her the key.
She turned around and held the key out before her, "I call upon thee, in the world of the Celestial Spirits! And now, I beckon you to my side at once! Pass through the gate!" With a little fanfare, she slashed the key in the air the same way she had done with Taurus' key back when we were fighting for Macao. "Open! Gate of the maiden! Virgo!" The person summoned – Virgo – took the form of a maid with shackles around her wrists, short, pink hair, and had blue eyes. She wore a typical maid outfit draped around her petite frame, consisting of a black under coat and a white, frilled-trim apron. When she finished summoning Virgo, Lucy looked her at confusion. Virgo asked her, "You summoned, Mistress? What can I do for you?" Apparently, this was not what she was expecting, because she asked her, "Who are you?"
Natsu walked up to her and initiated friendly conversation. "What's up, Berger? Man, you look great! You've lost some weight!" She smiled politely and replied, "My name's Virgo. I apologize for any trouble I might have caused you." Lucy's eye practically bulged out of her face as she said, "She didn't lose weight, Natsu!" Gray looked over to Lucy and asked, "What do you mean?" I nodded and looked over to her as well, "I'm going to have to agree with Gray here, Lucy. You guys have met before?" Lucy kept looking at Virgo in extreme confusion, "She's, like, an entirely different person!" Virgo smiled and looked over to Lucy and replied, "I'm a very loyal spirit who'll do anything to please her wizard. So, I try to take on whatever form my wizard will find most appealing." Natsu said, "I don't know … I kind of liked it when you were all big and tough looking." Virgo perked up at that, "Did you really? Well then …" Virgo glowed with yellow light and next thing I saw, she was of an extremely tall stature and overweight with a brutish face and two pony tails. She said in a very deep voice, "I can change back, if you want." Lucy freaked out, "Don't listen to him! I'm your wizard and I liked your other form better!" Virgo glowed again and reverted to her previous form, "As you like, Mistress."
As this was going on, I sighed and got up. I walked over to the group and said, "Guys … we really don't have time for this right now." Lucy looked over to me and blinked, before nodding. "He's right. I'm sorry, Virgo. I'm afraid we don't have time right now; can we work out the contract details later?" She nodded, "Of course. Whatever'd you'd like, Mistress." Lucy crossed her arms and turned slightly as she asked, "Do you really have to keep calling me Mistress?" Virgo eyed Lucy's whip. "Would you prefer I called you 'Queen'?" She shook her head, "No." Virgo continued, "What about 'Princess'?" Lucy began twirling a lock of her hair around a finger as a smile spread across her face, "Yeah … that's more like it." Gray and Natsu were with me off to the side watching this; Gray said, "Princess? Yeah right." Natsu groaned and said, "Hurry it up, Ladies." At that, Virgo's eyes glowed red, "Yes sir." She placed an arm across her abdomen as she bowed slightly, while a yellow magic circle appearing on the ground beneath her. "Now then …" She burst through the ground with the sound of a jackhammer; fragments of ground were flying everywhere. Gray looked down the hole Virgo was making with an approving expression, "Oh wow! Look at her go!" Erza came near Lucy, "Nicely done, Lucy." She then slammed her face into her breastplate comically.
Gray stood before the hole cracking his knuckles, "Ok guys. It's about time we break out of this joint." I heard a slight scuffle behind us; we turned around to see Natsu with one of Kage's arms over a shoulder. Gray asked, "What do you think you're doing?" He replied, "I know he's one of our enemies, but I'd feel guilty if we just left him here to die." Kage opened an eye slightly at that. Erza's expression softened before she nodded.
Some crawling later, we emerged outside of the station with what looked like a large tornado contained around the building. The winds looked fierce enough to bar entry for anyone wanting inside – or indeed out. We had to shout above the winds to be heard. Gray said, "Looks like we made it out." Erza nodded, "Let's head towards Clover." I looked over and Lucy had to grasp hold of pieces of her clothing from blowing here and there from the winds. I sighed ever so slightly at the sight; modesty like that on the battlefield could get you killed. I mean, I understood to an extent why she acted like that, but still …
I barely heard Kage say, "It's no use. You'll never be able to catch up to Erigor. You can't stop us! We've won." We stared at the man before Erza looked around, "Where's Natsu?" Gray did the same, "Happy's not here either!" I didn't even notice them leave. They're sneaky; I'll give them that.
We found our vehicle and boarded it as Erza got back into the pilot's seat. She drove us at breakneck speed out of the town and onto tracks that lead over a massive gorge. I looked down; I couldn't see the bottom, a layer of clouds blocked my view at what seemed to be about a mile down. My attention was brought back into the cabin by Kage's voice. "So tell me … why are you taking me with you?" Lucy, who was sitting beside me replied, "Because you obviously need a doctor! And since everyone left town, you'll have to see one in Clover." She looked out the window briefly, "Try and show some gratitude." There was silence for a moment before he responded, "I don't understand. Why are you helping me? We're enemies. Oh, wait … I get it. You're taking me hostage so you can try and make a deal with Erigor." He chucked slightly, "Well you can forget it. He could care less about me or anyone else of his men." Lucy shook her head, "Jeese, lighten up, dude!"
Gray looked out of the window and replied to him, "If you want to die, we can make that happen." She looked over to him, "Chill, Gray." Was … did she just pun? He looked over to Kage, "There's a whole lot more to this world than just life and death, you know." Kage raised an eyebrow at him, "You should try to look for the positives; you and your Eisenwald pals."
All of a sudden, the vehicle hit something and everyone was thrown asunder inside the cabin. I looked out of one of the forward facing windows and shouted to Erza, "What happened?!" She shouted back, "It's ok, everything's fine now." Lucy was shouting something about her butt, but I was ignoring that for right now. I was more worried about Erza; I could tell by the fraction of her face I could see that that wasn't the truth. She looked strained and exhausted; I don't know how much more of this she could take. Determination and willpower can only take you so far.
We eventually pulled up to Natsu on the tracks just outside of the town of Clover. I noticed that what looked like Erigor's legs were poking out of a pile of rubble on the raised tracks, twitching every now and then. Lucy cried out Natsu's name to get his attention. "Hey! You guys just missed seeing me beat Erigor!" Happy shouted at little farther down the tracks from Natsu, "Aye!" Erza pulled up to him and shut the vehicle down. She weakly said, "I'm proud of you." Man, she looked in a bad way. She looked exhausted, tired, and weak in equal measure. Since she'd been driving us all this time, the vehicle (Which on closer inspection, seemed to run on magical energy drawn from the driver) must have drawn a prodigious amount of magic from her body, leaving her in this state. I got out and put an arm around my shoulder as I helped her down. Lucy asked, "You going to be ok, Erza?" She smiled to the girl, "Yes, I'll be fine; don't worry about me." I noted that after Kage got out, he surveyed the sight before us and gulped visibly.
Gray got out and went over to Natsu and crossed his arms at him, "I can't believe you had such a hard time with this guy!" Natsu raised an arm at that, "I never said that!" Gray looked at the state he was in, "You look pretty stupid wearing a scarf when you're half naked like that." He barked a laugh, "Like you have any room to talk!" He looked over to Lucy, "Hey Lucy! Give me your clothes!" She yelled at him, "In your dreams!" Erza laughed at that. "Anyway, well done Natsu. Thanks to you, all of the guildmasters will be safe now." We shared a pleasant moment. "While we're here, we should make sure to stop by the guildmasters conference to tell them what happened and ask them how we should properly dispose of the Lullaby flute." Happy said, "Might as well since we're so close to clover."
The section of the bridge we were on shook as the vehicle we came in gained shadowy wings and … flew … away. I was not expecting that; I still have yet to get used to this world. Erza shouted, "Kage!" Gray asked, "What are you doing?!" Indeed, Kage was in the driver's seat, with a shadowy appendage holding the flute while he piloted the craft away. It seems as if he took advantage of our momentary lapse of oversight. For him, it was actually a pretty smart move; a move I was kicking myself for not anticipating. Of course he would still do anything in his power to get away, he was still an enemy! Rule number one was always: Never underestimate what your enemy would do in order to win.
He looked over the edge of the flying ground transport and said, "Lullaby's mine now! You shouldn't have let your guard down, flies!" He glided farther down the track and landed roughly back on the bridge on his way to Clover laughing manically all the way. We were in shock. Natsu was the first to recover, shouting, "That jerk!" Then Lucy, "This is how he repays us for saving his life?!" Erza hastily pointed a finger towards Clover, "After him!" I offered to help Erza to Clover, since she's brought us all the way here on her own power, and was now paying for it. She hastily declined and after fixing me with her chocolate brown eyes asked me, "Jai? How fast can Spartans run? I need you to go as fast as you can and warn the guildmasters." I grinned at her. "You want me to run to Clover? Alright. I can do that." I got into a runner's stance, requipped the Speed Boost armor enhancement, and over the course of the next few seconds, my sense of time became stretched and elongated as I began to vibrate faster and faster, with an accompanying whine that rapidly increased in magnitude and pitch. I then took off like a rocket to Clover at high speed.
Clover town is a rather small town situated in a mountainous area, surrounded by dense forests. It is best known for the fact that it is the place where Masters of Legal Guilds are gathered to discuss their guilds. I raced from building to building once I made it into the town proper, looking for the guildmasters. I eventually narrowed it down to one building out on its own in a portion of the forest just outside of the town. I hastily knocked on the door and a few seconds later I heard footsteps and a man opened the door. I was met with the sight of an elderly, bald, and cross-dressed man. He was wearing a purple spaghetti-strap shirt accessorized by a gold and fuchsia hoop necklace, and a vertically-striped pair of pink and purple shorts. The look was completed with red lipstick and blush on each cheek. He had small, white wings that – if I've learned anything from my relatively short time here on Earthland – were probably capable of flight, albeit to a limited extent. One of the first things I learned of the man was that he spoke in a very effeminate manner.
The man introduced himself as Bob and bade me welcome. He noticed my guildmark and my haste and asked what happened. I relayed all the information as I could in as timely a manner as I could. He looked shocked for a moment, and then he nodded. He told me Makarov was out of the building at the time and said I should go back and regroup with my team. I nodded and left. I eventually linked back up with the others, as well as various guildmasters. Apparently they had been on the other side of the door listening in on my explanation to the guildmaster and had made their way here before me using their magic; or so I assume. I looked to Erza and she nodded before putting a finger to her lips for me to be silent and pointed a finger down to hill into a small copse of trees where Makarov and Kage could be seen discussing. All of a sudden, Kage dropped the flute to the ground and kneeled before Makarov.
Erza exclaimed, "Master!" Natsu said, "You stopped him!" Gray said, "Good job, Gramps!" Makarov, who was confused, said, "What? Heh? How'd you kids end up in Clover?" Erza slammed his head into her breastplate, "Master, your words touched me so deeply I was almost moved to tears!" So I guess we missed the show, huh. Gray, (Without a shirt) said, "Well, it looks like we've gotten here just in time to see Gramps talk his way out of yet another one." He then looked over to me and gave me a thumbs-up, "Great work, dude." I nodded in thanks.
And once again, nothing is ever that easy. Lullaby's three eye sockets glowed with a pink-purple light as a black miasma began to flow from them. We heard a deep, booming, distorted laugh emanate from all around, "I've grown tired of you cowardly wizards and your antics!" It was then the presence of numerous royal guardsman made itself known as they worked their way out of the trees and into a clearing; above Clover appeared a very large purple magic circle. There was a wispy thick strand of black miasma coming down from the circle. "I can no longer hold back! I shall come forth to devour you myself!" It was then a large wooden leg came down onto the ground with a thunderous sound. And then another. The miasma solidified into a monstrous looking, extremely tall humanoid figure with three eyes. There appeared many cutouts in its wooden gently curving nature-esque body. It looked about twenty stories tall. "I shall feast upon your pitiful souls!" Lucy blinked at it, "It's so big!" Happy floated nearby, using his flight magic with a deadpan look on his face, "Way to state the obvious!" Kage asked, "What is that thing?! Erigor never said anything about a monster!" Bob, who had covered his mouth with a hand, said, "We're in a pickle." One of the guildmasters wearing a black wizards hat that had a collar of small spikes above the brim leaned against a tree and said, "It must be a demon from the book of Zeref." I could hear and see people all over Clover run around at the sight of the monstrous form looming above the town.
It looked down at us and grinned a gruesome smile. Lucy asked, "Why did the flute turn into a monster?!" The guildmaster answered her, "That's what Lullaby's true form looks in the flesh. It's a forbidden black magic called Living Magic; Zeref's specialty." Erza asked, "'Living Magic'?" Gray asked, "Who's Zeref? Wasn't he some ancient wizard?" Bob answered, "Zeref was the most evil wizard the world had ever known. He was very powerful in his day; but never in my wildest dreams I never thought his dark legacy would pop back up again." Lullaby put its large wooden hands on the ground to either side of us and leaned down using its arms to look at us better and said in its distorted, looming voice, "Now then … which of these delectable souls will I dine on first?" Natsu clenched his fists, "'Delectable', huh?" He then looked at Gray and excitedly asked him if he thought souls were really that tasty. He replied in annoyance, "How should I know what they taste like?" Lucy looked over to them and asked why they were always thinking about eating. Erza turned around to look at us, "Natsu and Gray! Get everyone to a safe place!" Natsu looked at her, "Quit barkin' orders!" Gray nodded, "Yeah! You're not the boss of us!" She had that glint to her eyes again, "Just do it!" They complied toot sweet. Lucy sighed, "Another bad Happy impression."
I then heard a loud, magically enhanced voice emanate from the large gathering of soldiers that had mustered in the field not too far away. "No giant wooden demon is going to scare off the Fiore Army! Charge!" Then a thousand voices rose up at once, "Yes sir!" Lullaby changed stance to direct at them. "You doubt my power?! I'll prove it to you!" It leaned back and then forward, placing its head well before its body. It opened its mouth, formed a magic circle, and a ball of energy rapidly formed before streaking towards the voices in a flash. Some distance away from the field, a giant explosion erupted, forcing all but myself to cover their eyes. The first thing I saw was that one of the larger mountains near where the army was located was just … gone. They retreated. Lullaby laughed, "I have no need for those pathetic humans! I prefer the taste of a wizard's soul over the taste of those soldiers!" Natsu stepped forward confidently with a raised fist, "Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try! Bring it on, big guy!" I heard a chorus of voices of the gathered guildmasters wishing him good luck. Looks like they're not going to be of any help. Great.
It was then Lullaby activated a large magic seal above him and roared loudly, causing everyone to hold their hands to their ears. Erza readied her swords as Gray and Natsu rushed forward. I spawned a DMR and shot Lullaby with a round imbued with Crash magic, cutting his roar short. I growled, "Shut up, you big pile of tinder! You're annoying me." When the smoke cleared, I saw that I had left a large hole in his hollow body. Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor again and went on the offensive as well. I peppered Lullaby with volley after volley of shots from my DMR. Gray used his ice magic, Erza her swords, and Natsu with his fire magic. He even managed to sucker punch Lullaby in the face, actually making it stumble back a step before it swung a massive arm back at Natsu, destroying the hill he was on in retaliation. "You're making me angry!" Lullaby roared again and looked to the sky. The magic seal above it disappeared and the trees around us turned brown and lost their foliage as the grass and flowers wilted around us; it was sucking the life out of the plants around us. "Just one note and your souls will me mine!" It took a pleased stance with its hands together, and a discordant noise sounded from its' body. It gasped audibly. "I don't understand! Why can't I play my melody of death?!" We quickly figured out that we punched so many holes in its body that we messed up its sound. The damn thing really was just a giant flute.
I laughed and shouted up to Lullaby, "Talk about going out with a whimper, eh Lullaby!? Come on! You're actually putting me to sleep over here!" It kicked at the ground at me, "You dare mock me?!" I nimbly jumped over its foot when it kicked at me and started climbing up its leg, ripping chunks out of it out as I go. "Yeah! I dare to mock you! You're annoying me; plus, you haven't even properly attacked us once yet! C'mon! Some "Demon Flute" you turned out to be. Is this all you are? Just a bunch of hot air?" He shook me off his leg, but not without me taking a large strip of its bark with me. "You're making me angry!" He demolished a building with a giant foot. "I will kill you all!"
Meanwhile, Gray used his magic to make a large half-circle shield of ice on the ground to protect a group of people that Lullaby's attacks were dangerously close of. Natsu drew in the fires it had created as luminous ribbons, "Now I've got a fire in my belly!" That surprised it; it gawked at Natsu. "You're not human! You're a monster!" Natsu climbed up its arm when it punched at him. "Yeah, like you can talk!" Lullaby tried in vain to shake Natsu off, "Hey! Stop climbing on me!" Meanwhile, Erza requipped into an armor called Black Winged armor. This armor is black with silver trimming that has silver crosses in several places. It has a revealing silver-edged breastplate and plates flanking her hips that reach down to her waist-guard. The waist-guard leaves the front of Erza's body exposed, with her groin being covered by what looked like a bikini bottom. She also had large plates guarding her legs. She has two wings that have black metal "arms" acting as the wings' leading structure, but the parts used to fly are composed of a membrane-like material with her hair is tied in a ponytail. She requipped a sword that was themed to match her armor. I looked at Erza's armor approvingly. 'I think I found a new favorite of her armors so far.' Mira giggled at that. Gee … I wonder why …
Gray put his hands together and produced a spinning sawblade-like ice attack whose name I didn't catch, and aimed it at Lullaby's midsection. While it was caught off-guard, Erza flew in and sliced at its' cheek, throwing it off-balance. We all told Natsu (Who was primed and in position to attack), "Natsu! Do it now!" He punched his fists together to generate a fiery magic circle, "I've got this!" He stood with his arms out parallel, forming a 'T' and grew large balls of fire in them. "With flames of my right hand! And the flames of my left! Put the two together … " He slammed the two hands together, resulting in a large fireball that was more than double their original size, held it above his head and fed it, " … and this is what you get! Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" He jumped high into the air, summersaulted a little before he aimed and threw it at Lullaby with incredible force. It sent Lullaby on its back and a beam of white light shone from it as it exploded, piercing the heavy clouds above. The flute clacked to the ground. The glow in its eyes faded, and deep cracks formed all around the face of its three-eyed skull.
The guildmasters drew near. Makarov placed his hands behind himself and said, "Well done." Bob said we were amazing. "You kids made defeating Zeref's demon look easy." It was the man from before, the one with the spiked collar on his hat; I believe his name was Goldmine, but I may be mistaken. Kage came near and sat down roughly and said to Lucy, "I can't believe how strong they are! Wow! Are all Fairy Tail wizards as powerful as these guys?!" Lucy nodded happily, "There's no doubt about it! This is the strongest team!" Happy jumped in the air excitedly, "Aye!" Makarov neared, "Yeah, we are an awesome guild, aren't we?"
Goldmine talked how they might want to give thanks to the Fairy Tail guild, but directed everyone's attention to a large hole in the ground where the guildmaster's meeting used to take place and said we might have gone a little overboard. That surprised me, and Makarov just screamed theatrically and fell to the ground at the sight. Natsu laughed, "Yeah, we made a mess of the place, huh?" We picked up Makarov and made our way back towards Magnolia.
[So, that was a boss fight. Also, Jai and the others might be on some kind of watchlist now … Perhaps.]
