edited chapter 15
"Natsu, Gray, I need you two to do me a favor,"
"What is it," Natsu said, knowing what was going to happen
Erza went into how she heard a few things and didn't like them, so she asked the two of them to accompany her.
"You didn't forget about little old me, now did you" Ultear informed with a devious grin.
"Yeah, Erza," Natsu said with a shit-eating grin.
"Fine, she can come along on one condition...we fight to see who is the strongest," she said with conviction.
With a sigh, "Fine, you two can fight when we get back," Both females shared a mental victory.
The next day
As you'd expect, Ultear and Erza were glaring at each other, waiting for the other to make their move.
"Hey Lucy, what are you doing here," Happy said, having a good idea why.
"Mira asked me to keep Ultear and Erza from killing each other"
"You're not doing a good job."
"There's no way I'm getting in between those two."
"Smart move."
"Still can't believe Erza has that much luggage."
"No surprise here."
"Lucy, what are you doing here?" Erza questioned
"Mira asked me to tag along to learn the ropes."
"Very well."
Natsu finally showed up with the train tickets forcing Ultear and Erza to back off.
"Let's go. We have a job to do."
As soon as the train started moving, Natsu immediately rested his head on Ultear's lap.
"I thought only Gajeel only suffered from motion sickness," Lucy said
"All the dragon slayers in the guild suffer from it," Ultear informed.
"That must suck for you."
"Not really," she said as she played with his hair.
"Thanks, honey," he manages to say.
"No problem."
"So Erza, mind filling us in?" Gray questioned.
Erza went in, explaining why she called for their help before stopping to get something to eat.
"Brother," Natsu's eyes shot wide open at the unmistakable voice of Lullaby rang through his head.
"did you guys say something?"
"No, we did not. Why?" Erza questioned
"Must have been my imagination then."
"Natsu, what's wrong," Ultear said using the curse power E.N.D taught Natsu and, in turn, her.
"What's the game plan," Happy butted in using the same curse power.
"Lullaby, he's calling to me."
"Hehehe."
"Not now, E.N.D," he said via the curse.
"Party pooper."
"What are you gonna do," she said
"I don't know last time. I was left on by accident."
"I have an idea. Follow my lead," she said via curse before giving an impressive display Ultear fell asleep.
"Nice one," he said before following her lead.
"Happy when the time comes. Well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest," she informed.
"Aye, sir."
"Looks like those two are fast asleep," Lucy said
"I know you can hear me." Lullaby rang out
"What do you want."
"You to take me so we can return to Zeref to fulfill his wish."
"Not happening."
"Come on. I know you want to. It will be easy. Let's kill everyone here and be on our way."
Not wanting this to drag on, he needs to end it here. "No! he's mine. I don't need your help."
"Fine, be that way, don't come crying to me when you die."
"Doubt you'll be alive by then," he thought to himself.
"Hey, Erza, what kind of magic do you use?" Lucy asked.
"She makes people bleed," Happy informed.
"I don't think it's that good, personally like Gray's magic."
"That's right, Mira, mention you an ice wizard" Gray put his hands together, forming the fairy tail symbol out of pure ice.
"Pretty," she said softly.
They sat in comfortable silence till they reached the next train station.
"Natsu, keep pretending your sleeping."
"Got it."
When they finally made it to the train station, ultear woke up. "Wake up, Natsu," she said, a light patting his head.
"Do you need any help?" Lucy asked.
"No, I got it, go on ahead, I'll wake him up" winking to Happy to do as they planned, he gave the nod.
"Ok, then don't take too long."
Two minutes later
"Crap, we forgot about Natsu and Ultear," Happy shouts.
They look behind them only to see the train take off then Erza demanded one of them punish her.
With Natsu and Ultear
As the train continued onward, a lone figure approached the couple.
"Well, if it isn't a couple of fairy tail wizards," he said with a smirk, "how's life in guilds these days."
Natsu stood straight up before collapsing to the ground thanks to his motion sickness.
"I can handle this guy," she said
"Let me show you how it's done," he said, unleashing his shadow magic on them only for the train to come to an abrupt stop.
All three wizards fell over, and like before. But then, the lullaby flute came flying out of Kageyama.
"What do we have here," she said.
"Shit, you weren't supposed to see that."
"Parallel worlds."
Suddenly an endless supply of lacrimas orbs shoots toward Kageyama, only for him to counter with his shadow magic. The resulting crash caused the section of the train to blow out.
"Gonna have to do better than that," she said as the train conductor said they are moving soon.
Kageyama had a wicked grin before unleashing all his magic, succeeding in throwing Ultear out of the moving train.
"Damn it, " Natsu shouts, jumping after her.
Using a fire dragon claw, Natsu made it Ultear just in time, wrapping his arm around and landing on his backsliding some ways.
"Natsu," Happy shouts. Their group catches up to them in magic mobile.
"Are you alright?" Erza said
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little banged up from the ground, you ok Ultear."
"I'm fine."
"What happened."
"After the train started moving again, we were approached by a man with shadow magic."
"Wish Rogue was here," Gray said offhandedly.
"The train stopped causing him to drop a weird flute. It had a skull on it with three eyes."
Like in the old timeline, Lucy recognized the description immediately gave her thoughts, only to be followed up by Erza.
Clover
It was the standard guild master confidence; they were chatting drinking when a bird with a hat holding a letter in its talons approached Makarov.
"Master Makarov, Master Makarov," the delivery bird said on its approach.
"Thank you," he said before opening the letter revealing a mini Mira talking about Natsu, Erza, Gray, and Ultear started a team.
On the one hand, Makarov had mixed feelings about the amount of destruction these three can cause, but on the other hand, Ultear with them.
But Ultear has been very selective at times regarding how she uses her arc of time.
"So what are your thoughts on this" Goldmine said
"Wait, isn't Ultear the beauty who married to your fire dragon slayer" Bob interjected
"Yes, normally I would be concerned about those four, but if Ultear's with them, that changes things hopefully for the better."
"How so."
"She has arc of time, so she can fix whatever gets destroyed on the job assuming she in the mood."
"Yikes!"
With team Natsu
Team Natsu is in hot pursuit of the train carrying the Eisenwald guild.
They just entered the town, heading toward Oshibana station.
Gray lectured Erza about using too much magic for magic mobile before saying she'll use hand-to-hand combat.
Moments later, they stood outside of Oshibana station with the conductors standing guard.
Summoning all his willpower, Natsu stood forward, knowing what Erza was going to do.
"I'm Natsu Dragneel of the wizard saint. You may also know me as the flame prince. We on the pursuit of the Eisenwald guild, we believe they took over the train station."
"T-the flame prince, go right in and teach them a lesson," the conductor said.
Natsu looks the Erza giving her a mischievous grin, causing her to look to the side, glaring at him simultaneously.
As they continued the pursuit, they found the downed formes of the rune knights before reaching the boarding station.
They now stood before the Eisenwald guild.
Erigior ranted about the train station and how many people we hear before talking about how his rights are gone.
Erza started, "Natsu Gray, go after Erigor-we can take care of these guys," Ultear finished.
"Are you serious" Lucy cried as she instinctively took a step back.
Natsu and Gray did as they were told and bolted to stop them from playing the lullaby flute.
Erza requip a couple of swords and began to dispatch the wizard before them.
Just as she was about attack another, a lacrima came out of nowhere, knocking one out cold.
"If you think you can have all the fun, you're sorely mistaken."
"How about a contest who gets the most is the superior wizard" she demanded
"Took the word out of my mouth" the two females pulled out all the stops taking out dark wizard after dark wizard count up the wizard they took.
"I feel so useless," Lucy thought to herself as the two females before effortlessly took out wizard after wizards.
5 minutes later
The battle was over Erza took out 25 dark wizards and Ultear 26 and ten from Lucy thanks to cancer.
"Looks like I win," She said, only for Erza to glare at her.
You could see lightning bolts from their eyes fighting for dominance over the other.
With Natsu Gray
The two wizards ran until they hit a crossroad.
"Looks like we're gonna have to split up."
"Yeah, just don't die on me," he whispered that last part.
"Likewise," getting a grin from his flame counterpart.
Gray followed his path till he ran into the broadcast room, only to be attacked by the wizard who uses urumi magic.
He quickly dealt with him only to learn the real goal was the guild master conference on clover.
With Natsu
After a short fight, Natsu stood over the defeated form Kageyama right when the other caught up to him.
"GET HIM OUT OF THEIR," He shouts, pulling Kageyama away just in the nick of time as another wizard burst through the wall.
Erza was quick to pull him out of the wall before dealing with the one who knows a karakka.
"Come on, Kageyama, you have a wind barrier to dispel," Natsu said, hurling him over his shoulder.
Wind barrier
"Kageyama do your thing," Erza demanded
Kageyama did the task given to him after seeing how the fairy tail wizard took out his guild.
"I almost wish Wendy was here to deal with the wind barrier," Gray whispered to Natsu.
"Tell me about it," he whispered back.
"There it's done," he said as the wind barrier dissipated, he slowly walked away.
"Where do you think you're going," Natsu gave him a wicked grin grabbed hold of him.
"If you think we're going to let you walk away, you thought wrong," Gray informed
"Oh, come on," as he was thrown onto the magic mobile, they drove here.
"Come on, Happy."
"Aye, Sir"
"Where are you going" Erza question
"I'm going on ahead just in case we don't make it time."
"Very well will catch up to you" Natsu and happy went full steam ahead.
"Talk about deja vu."
"Aye, sir."
In a matter of minutes, they caught up with Grigor landing on the track with a thud.
"You, how did you get past my wind barrier!"
"You can thank Kageyama," he said with a chuckle.
"I'll have to kill him when this is over."
"That assuming you can beat me."
"Alright, fairy fly, let's see who the superior wizard is."
"Hmm"
"FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST" he shouts, bolting towards Grigor.
He quickly counters with his storm mail armor causing his fist to bounce off.
"Hmm, dang, I was hoping that would be enough, Happy stand back."
"Aye, Sir"
Flames erupted from Natsu's body, shooting straight up in the sky, forming a pillar of fire.
He slowly increased their intensity melting the track around them like in the old timeline Erigor wind barrier began to dissipate before giving him his devastating flame elbow knocking him out cold.
It was around this time the other caught up.
"Nice job Natsu," Ultear said
"It was nothing."
Seeing Lullaby in the open, Kageyama took the chance drove off with the lullaby flute.
"Damnit!" Natsu shouts
"Come on. We have to hurry," Erza shouts as they pursued Kageyama.
Nighttime clover
Kageyama stood outside the guildhall conference building when he heard a strange noise behind him.
It was none other than the Makarov looking through the current sorcerer weekly magazine talking about the beautiful women.
He offered to pay the man a song with the lullaby flute.
Just as he was about to play, his memories from the past few days came flooding back to him.
The rest of team Natsu caught up to them only to be interrupted by the guild masters.
Natsu and Gray were on their toes when Bob made himself known.
Makarov gave an inspiring speech about guilds, friendship, and the path of life.
For the second time, Natsu's eyes went wide as Lullaby called out to him once more.
"Join me, brother, and we shall dine on their souls,"
"NO! These are my friends."
"Fine, then you can watch them die if you don't want to be found out" moment later, the true form of lullaby emerged, towering over the mountains and the forest below.
His towering form stuck fear from everyone in the vicinity.
The guild master went into explaining Lullaby's true form and his creator.
Lullaby ranted about how he hates regular humans and prefers the souls of wizards.
"Gray, let's see the true power of a devil slayer."
"Took the words out of my mouth."
"Requip black wing armor."
"Parallel worlds."
"ICE DEVIL RAGE"
The three shout as they unleash a barrage of attacks on the demon flute.
"Natsu, why aren't you helping" Lucy adds
"Normally I would, but it's Gray time to shine as a devil slayer."
"He's right. He's all your Gray," Erza shouts, backed up by Ultear.
"Thanks, but I may need some cover."
"Right," the two females said in unison.
"ICE DEMON LANCE" he shouts as purple-colored ice lances race toward Lullaby.
Gray proceeded to shoot off more ice devil slayer magic toward the demon flute black up by Erza and Ultear, keeping the beast in place.
Out of rage, Lullaby swatted them away.
He started building up his magic to play his song, only get an unrecognizable wheeze of air.
"What have you done to my song."
"Gray punched enough of holes in you to render your song useless," Natsu said fiercely.
"NOOO!" he ranted, using his size and strength to tear down the terrain around him.
"Gray you up for more."
"You know it, ICE DEVIL SOCCER," he shouts, devil slayer variant of soccer spell flying straight to the Lullaby.
"If I'm to die, then so be, HERE ME, MY BROTHER AND SISTER THE STRONGEST OF US THOUGH SEALED AWAY WALKS AMONG ONCE MORE THE NEW ERA OF DARKNESS COMES AT LAST!" So he shouts on both the verbal, mental connection shared by his demon brethren.
That's all he managed to say before being slain but many devil slayer spells.
Lullaby's words visibly shook Natsu, and with all his willpower, hid it from everyone but not without trading glances with Ultear, Makarov, and Happy.
When all was said and one, the lullaby flute was destroyed, leaving behind a massive creator.
"Hey, Ultear mind doing us a favor," Makarov said in a pleading voice.
"I AM NOT A MAID," she shouts.
Like you'd expect, all the guild masters floored themselves; also, all color drained away from Makarov's face.
"Natsu, please convince your wife to fix this mess," Makarov pleaded
"Sorry she made her decision," he said with a smirk.
"Your only saying that cause you had nothing to do with it," he said, pointing to the creator.
"Well, you better start running," He said as he picked up Ultear bridal style, getting a squeal from the woman with Happy not far behind.
"RUN!" Makarov shouts as the rest of fairy tail followed suit.
The train ride back to Magnolia
Like always, Natsu had his head on Ultear's lap, but he was in his mindscape.
Natsu mindscape
"Mind telling how the fuck Lullaby knew about me," he shouts, eyeing down E.N.D resting against volcanic rocks.
Natsu goes to punch him only for his first phase right through.
"How many times do I have to tell since we merged that you can't harm me" he deadpanned
"But still how."
"EXPLAIN," Igneel roared.
"Fine, Lullaby is the most perceptive of the family being a musical demon. He can broadcast on a frequency only the other etherious can hear," he said, not caring in the slightest.
"Wait, did he know about me the first time I fought him."
"Yes and no."
"Indulge us."
"Last time around, he sensed my power but couldn't recognize me. That is why he referred to you as a monster, but since we merged, he knew that you are the strongest demon right away yo-we are zeref's strongest demon.
"And you just now brought this up!"
"Lullaby is the runt of the litter if it makes you feel any better."
"What's that supposed to mean."
With a sigh, "I doubt the other will take him seriously."
"How so?"
"You're forgetting the Balam alliance."
"What does that have to do with this"
"You are an idiot."
"Just get on with it."
"Fine, Tartarus is just gonna wait out the other two branches to fail by your hands before putting their plan into action."
"I'll bite. What's their plan."
"From what I've heard, they're waiting for an opportune time to activate the face bombs."
"What's a face bomb."
"You're the wizard saint. You would have a better chance knowing what it is than me."
"You the one who's been keeping tabs on them, not me, so spill."
"Hehehe, for me to know you to find out," he said with a demonic grin.
Natsu and Igneel could only sweat drops at this.
With a sigh," guess that will have to do, for now, see you."
"By," he said before disappearing.
Makarov office
"Mind explaining what the hell Lullaby was telling to the world," Makarov said, eyeing Natsu with Happy and Ultear by his side.
"It's nothing to worry about."
"LIKE HELL IT IS! That demon just broadcasted to the world an age of darkness is coming"
"One, he said, an era of darkness, and two, are you trying to tell the whole guild my secret."
"Don't worry, I put the silencing runes up the moment we entered," she said
"Thanks, honey."
After holding it in as long as he can, "WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!"
"Well, you just calm the fuck down and let me explain."
"Fine"
"E.N.D said Tartarus won't make a move till after the other two branches of the Balam alliance fall that all I'm gonna say now can we move on."
Makarov let out a sigh of relief "that all I needed to know you may go."
"See ya, gramps."
The next day Era
As you'd expect, the magic council is going over the recent development of the lullaby flute.
"The Eisenwald guild was defeated, but how did they get a hold of the lullaby flute."
"Let not forget the foreboding message of the lullaby flute dying words."
"That does raise some concern. We can't let this reach the public eye."
"Agreed," many said in unison."
"What should we do about the lullaby words."
"I don't know we're walking around in the dark here," Org said
"All we can do now is tighten security on the books of zeref. However, we do have an increase in our search effort for the ones we don't," Yajima said.
"That we can do," Leiji said
"Agreed, but what about this strongest demon? He spoke what can we do about that" one member said
"Nothing until we have more information. I just hope it's not too late."
"That all we can do about Zeref's books. Let get back to Fairy Tail," Veronica said
"They're usually a thorn in our side, but fairy tail has proved quite useful."
"They manage to take out an entire guild with only a hand full of members," Veronica informed
"Don't forget one of them was the wizard saint Natsu dragneel-"
"Is a member of their guild."
"And they have Ultear Dragneel, wife of Natsu Dragneel she been instrumental in keeping their destruction down to near tolerable levels," she said
"But she refused to repair ground zero of the lullaby fight."
"You can't expect one wizard to clean up after an entire guild."
"Veronica's right and attack on the guild masters were prevented."
"Enough fairy tail's good deeds are overshadowed by their reckless destruction regardless of Ultear Dragneels assistants."
"Then why don't we take the opportunity to discuss the matter with them."
Fairy Tail
Lucy had just finished writing her letter to her mother when she notices Gray without any clothes on.
"Intruder alert," she shouts before kicking him. "No stripping in my house, buddy."
"Hey, I was naked when I got here. You didn't forget about today, did you."
"About what?"
Fairy Tail guildhall
front area
"Isn't this going the tear our team apart?"
"Who told you that?" he questioned, only to see the crying form of Mira "oh, your not an idiot Mira."
"Smooth move, Gray."
Things went along these lines for the past couple of minutes.
The two female powerhouses stare each other down as the crowd goes wild.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time."
"Same, I will prove I'm the stronger wizard."
"Can't you guys get along" Natsu pleaded.
"Not until we find out who is stronger," they said in unison.
"Ultear VS, Erza, place your bets on who gonna win," Cana shout with chalkboard by her side.
"Put me down on Ultear," Happy said
"Round one, start," Makarov shouts.
Erza requiped into her flight armor and bolt toward Ultear.
"Parallel worlds," she shouts, sending a barrage of lacrima orbs toward Erza.
Thanks to her flight armor, she could dodge the lacrimas one after another before pulling out her sword, ready to strike Ultear from behind.
Right as she strikes Ultear, the unexpected happened. Her sword phased right through her before she dissipated in a flash of light.
"Thought projection," Erza whispered as she turns to her back only to see Ultear standing overhead.
Preying on the opportunity, she used her lacrima to bash Erza in the back of the head, knocking her out cold.
"I win," she said with a devious smirk "looks like I'm the strongest female in fairy tail."
Half the crowd went nuts, and the other half only booed as they lost the bet.
Ultear casually walks over to Natsu standing by his side.
"Knew you'd win" this got a smile from her.
A gong noise is suddenly heard, getting everyone's attention to a humanoid frog creature.
"May I have your attention, please I have come here on behalf of the magic council," Murmures were heard all around the crowned as the frog lady went on.
"Why do I have a feeling."
"Natsu Dragneel you are under arrest."
"Yep, that it, hmm could this be a good thing or a bad thing," he thought to himself as he held his hand out for magic restraint cuffs.
that's it for this chapter
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