Chapter 53: Movement of Eisenwald

The day after Makarov, Zeldaris and Aversia went to the annual meeting, arrived Natsu, Happy and Lucy back from their job.

The three of them were welcomed by Vulcan, who was sitting at the bar.

"Looks like its time for the meeting again. Damnit, and here I thought that I could challenge Zeldaris or Aversia to a fight.", said Natsu.

"Natsu that´s impossible for you.", said Happy helplessly.

"What was that?", exclaimed Natsu.

"Uhm, what is the annual meeting?", asked Lucy, partly to make the two of them stop arguing.

Vulcan explained Lucy what the annual meeting was and the purpose it had and why Zeldaris and Aversia accompanied him.

To help him illustrate it, Mirajane began to make an illustration of the government structure of the council and guilds using one of Reedus´s light pens.

They also talked about the dark guilds, their activities and what they meant for the world.

But the explanation had to be kept short because the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard and everyone in the guild stopped what they were doing and looked at the doors, because they knew who that was.

It didn´t take long and Erza stepped into the guild, while carrying a giant horn over her shoulders.

The horn was multiple times bigger than her own body.

Erza put the horn down and inspected the guild and the members, before asking," Is the master present at the moment?"

"Welcome back, and to answer your question. No, he, Zeldaris and Aversia are attending the annual meeting right now.", said Mirajane with a bright smile.

"I see.", said Erza and started to call some of the members out on their bad behavior, even small things like dancing inside the guild.

"Now that you are back Erza, I can leave the rest to you and go back to my work.", said Vulcan and started to go back to his forge.

"I am sorry, but I am only here to get some people to help me and go deal with something.", said Erza apologetically to Vulcan

The other members were astounded since Erza only ever teamed up with Aversia and Zeldaris, two of the guild's strongest members.

"Oh? Then it must be something extremely important. I will continue to look after the guild, but could you please tell me what kind of problem you ran into?"

Erza only said one word," Eisenwald"

The second after hearing this name Vulcan, Mirajane, Natsu and most of the other members became serious.

Lucy on the other was didn´t understand anything, so Mirajane explained.

"Eisenwald was once a normal guild. But it accepted assassination requests, which the council forbid. The council warned them to stop multiple times, but Eisenwald ignored them and was shortly after disbanded. The council had captured the guild master and thought that that would be enough, but the guild reformed under the rule of the strongest member of the guild, Erigor the reaper. Now they are a dark guild that is operating at this area of Fiore, they still work as assassins, but also attack the local guilds and the council at every opportunity."

Shortly after Mirajane finished her explanation, had Vulcan and Erza planned their next steps of action.

Erza, Natsu, Gray, Happy and Lucy would go after the members of Eisenwald, while Vulcan and Mirajane would send a letter to Makarov.

Mirajane asked Lucy to tag along, to act as a mediator between Natsu and Gray.

At the evening in Clover Town, at the annual meeting of the guild masters.

Makarov, Zeldaris and Aversia were speaking with Master Bob, Goldmine, and their escorts.

Everyone was enjoying themselves, when they noticed a certain blue bird was flying toward them, while holding a letter.

It was Pii-chan.

Makarov gave the magic bird something to eat and received the letter.

As for Pii-chan, she just disappeared into thin air.

Makarov opened the letter and a projection of Mirajane appeared.

"Master something important happened and Vulcan and I thought that we should inform you as fast as possible. First, Erza teamed up with Natsu and Gray. This could verry well be the strongest team of the guild if you don´t count Zeldaris and Aversia. The second thing is the reason for this, it seems that Eisenwald is planning something and is moving with all of their members. Aversia and Zeldaris, if you hear this, please be careful and be prepared for anything.", said the projection of Mirajane and vanished afterwards.

Makarov was shacking profusely, the message of Eisenwlad´s movement was shocking since the guild had been notorious for attacking guilds and the council, but never at such a scale, but the thing that shocked him even more was that Erza teamed up with Natsu and Gray.

Those three could destroy an entire town and he really didn´t want to imagine what kind of chaos and destruction they could create.

Eisenwald was compared to that problem just an afterthought, they were not really that strong and the only problem for the group should be Erigor.

The reason why this was still a serious matter was because it involved a dark guild, and it was the duty and responsibility of every guild and mage to take care of the dark guilds and their members.

Not because of the council, but because of the danger that they represented for the world of magic and the people of Fiore.

Another reason was that the dark guilds were most of the times rather quiet and would only rarely show themselves, meaning that this was a rare chance to get them, and they had to make sure that they would not escape.

Aversia, Zeldaris and the other people, that heard the message took the situation serious as well, especially those that had been attacked or harassed by Eisenwald in the past, but even if they noticed their members, it was already too late.

The escorts decided that they would start patrolling the area, to make sure that Eisenwald won´t be able to come even close to the mansion and the guild masters.

Although the chance that the target were the masters in the first place, the chance still existed, so it was better to be careful.

Zeldaris and Aversia would try to find any enemy using their enhanced senses and abilities.

The next day, not much happened at the beginning.

The masters were holding their meeting, while the escorts and the guards were patrolling the area.

Zeldaris and Aversia were standing on top of the roof and were on guard.

But at the afternoon they noticed that someone and something sinister was heading toward the mansion at a fast speed.

The magic power of that person was not a threat at all, but the thing that he had with him was giving the two a dangerous feeling, so they decided to not let it get anywhere near the meeting.

But the second they wanted to fly into the sky, they noticed another person was getting closer to the first one.

No, it wasn´t just a single person, it was two people, and the two half dragons knew them pretty well.

"Natsu?... Happy?", said Zeldaris in confusion.

"That means that the first one is probably Erigor. What do you think Zel, should we let Natsu handle this or not?"

"I mean this should be a good challenge for Natsu and the stronger the opponent is, the stronger Natsu will grow in the fight. So, let us see if he will be able to handle Erigor or not. We can still save Natsu and stop Erigor if Natsu losses."

So, the two decided to give Natsu a chance in fighting Erigor.

And indeed, Erigor proved to be a good opponent for Natsu, during the fight Natsu´s magic power and the power of his flames were steadily increasing, and he was finally able to unleash the flames of emotion, the pride of all fire dragon slayers.

And in the end Natsu was victorious, Zeldaris and Aversia were proud about Natsu´s achievement.

But something unexpected happened, because shortly after Erigors defeat, four other people arrived and one of them grabbed the object and was heading toward this location.

Late at night, a person could be seen walking toward the mansion, where the annual meeting of the guild master was held.

His upper body was bare and rapped in bandages.

It took him quite a lot to just walk forward, but this didn´t matter, because his goal was finally in sight.

His name was Kage, and he was a member of Eisenwald, their plan was to use a flute called Lullaby, which had the ability to kill everyone that heard it´s melody and kill every single one of the guild masters as revenge.

Lullaby was a cursed tool that was sealed away by the magic council.

It is said that who ever hears the sound of Lullaby will die and that it was created by the dark mage Zeref himself.

The flute itself was wooden and the top looked like a skull with three eyes.

But they had almost failed thanks to some mages from Fairy Tail, but finally he had arrived and now he could enact the revenge of Eisenwald.

But the place was heavily guarded, and patrols were at every direction.

Normally, this wouldn´t be too much of a problem but in his current state he was not able to use his magic.

But before he could think about a plan, someone touched him by the cheeks, scaring the hell out of him.

Turning around, he saw a short old man laughing at him, confusing Kage even more.

The old man was of course Makarov and he remembered that he didn´t really had time for this kind of jokes since there was always the chance that a town would suddenly disappear.

"I should hurry and find out where they are, and you should go to a hospital those wounds look quite bad."

Kage recognized Makarov and at first, he was thinking why he was meeting all of these flies today, but that soon changed, because this was the best opportunity to get rid of Fairy Tail´s guild master.

"Before I go to the hospital would you like to listen to a song, the hospital won´t allow me to play there. But I really want someone to listen to it."

"That´s a creepy flute."

"It may seem so, but it sounds pretty decent."

"I am in a hurry. Only one song, okay?"

"Sure. Please listen carefully.", said Kage while smiling, he had won and all he had to do was play the flute and Makarov would die.

He started to think about everything that happened and the hate that he and his guild carried, but also the thinks that the members of Fairy Tail said and begun to hesitate.

It was around this time that Natsu and the others finally arrived at the mansion, only to see Kage about to play the flute to their master.

They wanted to stop Kage but were stopped themselves by Master Bob.

"SHHH! The best part is coming up. Just watch. Wait, you guys are cute.", the last part he told to Natsu and Gray, who in turn felt something running down their spin.

"Blue Pegasus Master, Master Bob!", exclaimed Erza as she realized who he was.

"My, Erza, you have grown."

"What´s going on? Hurry up already.", said Makarov.

Kage began to tremble, he didn´t know why he couldn´t do it.

"NO!!!", yelled Erza.

"Just stay quiet. This should be interesting.", said Goldmine, who came out of nowhere.

"NOW.", said Makarov with a demanding and serious tone, making Kage shake even more.

All he had to do was play the tune and everything will change.

"Nothing will change. You cannot change the fact that those who are weak will forever remain weak. But weakness isn´t necessarily bad. People are weak creatures by nature. People´s insecurities are why guilds exist. Why friends and comrades exist. They come together and move forward, to live life to the fullest. If you are clumsy, you might run into more obstacles and take a long way around, but as long as you step forward with the faith in tomorrow, you will find that your strength will emerge on it´s own. You will be able to smile and live life to the fullest. Without having to depend on such a flute, of course."

While Makarov gave his speech the guards and the escorts stopped and listened, and the other guild master were watching from the windows.

It took a few moments for Kage to digest everything that was said and when he did, he had lost.

Letting go of Lullaby he kneeled before Makarov and said," I give up."