"W-wait! Weren't we supposed to be competing for the final blow? Why did you all go all out from the start?!"
"The way you're acting, I feel like WE'RE the brutal demons here..."
Watching the demon's body engulfed in thick flames and smoke, Lucy stood frozen, silently mourning for the poor thing for a second.
As she spoke, four figures rushed beside her, stirring up gale winds as they charged straight at Lullaby.
Chase, Erza, Natsu, and Gray—none yielding to the others—unleashed their magical power to the fullest.
Magic arrays flickered across Lullaby's body, each appearance unleashing immense power, the shockwaves violently violent.
"Of course, because the early bird gets the worm~"
A pink streak of light hovered beside Lucy as Dark Magician Girl sat on her magical staff, playfully flashing a peace sign. "Speaking of which, Lucy, aren't you joining in?"
"...Ah, aha. I'm all out of usable Celestial Spirits for today." Lucy, laughing, scratching her head.
"I see. Then I'll head off—can't hold Master back."
With that, Dark Magician Girl shot forward, magic swirling around her as she flew toward Lullaby's head.
The next second, a thunderous "BOOM" echoed as an explosion followed.
"Dark Magician Girl really is a monster too..." Lucy couldn't help but marvel.
As fellow blonde girls, this simple comparison made rookie Lucy feel deeply ashamed.
"Hey hey, Lucy! You look really excited—you must want to join them too, right?"
Happy fished a small fish from the bag behind him and tempted her. "If you don't have any magic power, you can eat this!"
Lucy took the grilled fish with a smile. After a moment of silence, she slammed it onto Happy's head.
"Join my ass!"
She pointed toward the continuous explosions up ahead and laid into Happy. "If you want me to die, just say so! No need to beat around the bush!"
"Also, since when does grilled fish replenish magic power?!"
"Wow, how strange! Lucy suddenly got smart. I really thought you'd take a bite."
Happy rubbed his head, grinning as he sighed. "Too bad I secretly added some perverted chili sauce inside."
"...That's enough, you damn cat!"
Just as an enraged Lucy picked up the grilled fish, ready to let Happy properly taste his own masterpiece, a blinding purple light suddenly flashed before her eyes.
Looking up, she saw Lullaby—who had been thoroughly beaten since the start—now completely furious. After repelling Chase and the others with a burst of energy, it threw its head back and let out a shrill cry.
The cry seemed to carry an invisible poison. Wherever it passed, plants withered and yellow leaves scattered.
"This is bad! Cover your ears! That thing's about to unleash its soul-reaping curse!" Goldmine, the Mermaid Heel master, warned sharply.
Hearing this, everyone immediately clamped their hands tightly over their ears.
Lucy and Happy, standing at the front of the group, were the first to be affected. The piercing, shrill sound penetrated through their palms, making their eardrums ache.
The aura of death instantly swept across the scene!
"Hehehe! Annoying flies, guild masters, all of you—turn to bones under my flute's melody!"
Lullaby let out an incredibly arrogant, weird laugh, raising its two thick arms to its mouth, posing as if playing a flute.
And then...
"Pfft, pfft pfft pfft, pfft."
A series of constipated sounds echoed through the entire forest.
Nothing happened.
"What's going on?! Where's my proud cursed sound?!!"
Lullaby's three eyes widened in disbelief. Holes all over its body leaked sound, sputtering out notes like diarrhea.
"Look! The holes in its body!"
"Of course. The very source of its flute sound was shattered by the earlier magic. Naturally, it can't unleash the curse now."
The sharp-eyed guild masters immediately spotted the problem.
"Huh? So it built up all that oppressive atmosphere, made a huge fuss, and THAT'S what we get?"
Lucy spread her hands, seizing the opportunity to complain hard.
"Lucy, I'm hungry. When are we going back to eat..."
Happy's words were even more vicious, piercing Lullaby's heart like a sharp sword.
"AAAAH!! Damn it! Damn it!!!"
Lullaby froze for two and a half seconds. The moment it snapped out of it, it instantly reddened with rage, angrily kicking away surrounding mountain peaks one after another.
"Not only is it huge, it's got a terrible temper! Are all the demons in Zeref's books like this?!"
Someone—a guild master from who knows which guild—from the crowd.
Hearing this, Lullaby, already furious from publicly embarrassing itself, immediately shifted targets. Magic savings in its maw, it unceremoniously spat an extremely compressed light cannon at the area where Lucy and the guild masters stood.
The attack came so suddenly that Lucy didn't even have time to react before the light cannon, carrying an aura of destruction, rushed toward her, filling her entire field of vision!
"This is bad!"
Gray startled, about to use his modeling magic—which could be formed instantly—to block it, but Dark Magician Girl, striking a cute pose beside him, called out to stop him.
"Don't worry, Gray. Master already planted a trap card there earlier."
In the brief moment of their exchange, Lullaby's attack had already arrived, roaring forth as it ground the ground beneath it into foam-like fragments.
At that instant, two paces in front of Lucy, the spot where Chase had been standing suddenly lit up with the glow of a magic array.
An enlarged trap card slowly unfolded from the center of the array.
The impactful barrier card face revealed itself—it was the trap card [Mirror Force]!
Under the stunned gaze of the terrified Lucy and the assembled guild masters, a blinding white light spread everywhere, instantly condensing into an impenetrable holy barrier.
BOOM!!!
Lullaby's magic cannon slammed into the barrier. In an instant, a fierce gale raged, the earth trembled.
Countless surrounding rocks were swept into the air, then crushed into dust by the terrifying energy storm!
Lucy's eyes widened involuntarily, her breath catching.
The scene before her was so thrilling, yet she, standing inside the barrier, felt absolutely nothing!
And that wasn't all. As Lullaby's attack gradually dissipated, the holy barrier's surface suddenly rippled with ever-intensifying ripples.
After a brief pause, the ripples transformed into white light, counterattacking with irresistible force, raining down like a furious storm upon Lullaby's massive body!
"What is this..."
Lucy was too shocked to speak.
"This is the true terror of Chase's Card Magic — Duelist Soul."
Happy gazed calmly ahead, acting as commentator. "Predicting the enemy's movements in advance and laying down cards. When the enemy recklessly attacks, the effect can be instantly activated, severely wounding them."
"Mirror Force is a trap card that can completely rebound attacks—provided, of course, they don't exceed Chase's magical power limit."
"Wait, this is really card magic?!" Lucy exclaimed.
In her understanding, card mages should be more like Cana.
Sure, cards could come in many varieties, but laying traps before the battle even started...
Lucy unconsciously imagined Chase as an enemy, then immediately backed down: Absolutely no chance of winning!
"That's why fighting Chase is such a headache. You not only have to watch out for monster cards with various abilities and magic cards with diverse effects, but traps that could activate at any moment are an especially headache point."
Having said that, Happy looked at Lucy with an extremely serious expression. "Lucy, you need to be especially careful about this!"
"Why are you reminding me so seriously?"
"Because I thought you might need it someday when you challenge Chase."
"Thanks a lot. So in your mind, I'm actually that ambitious and brave..."
Lucy pointed incredulously at her useless self with her pale finger.
Imagining it in her head was already the limit of her courage. Actually challenging that monster Chase?
What kind of international joke was that?!
On the other side, the guild masters were equally shocked by the Mirror Force they had just witnessed.
Watching Chase, Erza, and the others firmly suppress the demon from Zeref's book, they murmured among themselves, their words filled with envy and jealousy toward Fairy Tail.
Makarov listened and let out gleeful cackles.
On the battlefield...
Rolling smoke and dust dissipated, revealing Lullaby's body, covered in holes.
After the initial wave of magical bombardment, followed by various flames, ice, and swords, and now having taken its own full-power blast head-on...
Its aura was now chaotic. It stood there swaying, in pretty bad condition.
"Damn it! Damn it! Mere humans! How dare you do this to me!!"
Endless and humiliation surged within. Lullaby roared in rage, raising its shattered fist high.
But before it could attack, a heavy crashing sound came from behind as something landed on the ground.
Comparable in size, Rock Giant Soldier gazed coldly, slowly drawing the giant sword slung over its shoulder.
At the same time, Natsu, Gray, and Erza attacked from three directions.
Magical power surged around them, none yielding, each brewing their most powerful spell.
Lullaby was already critically wounded. The next strike would decide who was the ultimate winner of this impromptu showdown!
'No matter what, I can't lose to Chase!' x3
If Lullaby had known what these people were really thinking at that moment, it would probably regret everything: Why didn't I just stay dead in the flute? What was I thinking, coming out and playing the big shot?!
BOOM!
Amidst Lullaby's despair scream, four attacks collided and pushed against each other as they descended, exploding with a thunderous roar!
By the time the flames and thick smoke gradually cleared, the demon's massive body had vanished entirely, leaving only a bottomless huge pit in its place.
"Ah, aha... just as expected..."
Lucy stared blankly at the huge pit before her. Coming to her senses, she murmured, "So... in a situation like this, who actually wins?"
Just as she muttered this, a faint scraping sound came from near her feet.
It was Lullaby, forcibly beaten back into its flute form!
Hearing the noise, Lucy looked down and accidentally met the three eyes at the end of the cursed flute, still glowing with crimson dots.
"AAAAH! It's still alive! Lucy Flying Kick!!"
Every hair on Lucy's body stood on end. Almost instinctively, she launched a flying kick, slamming right into it.
CRACK.
The cursed flute, already at its limit, shattered into several pieces. The red light in its eyes flickered twice, then completely extinguished.
In an instant, the entire scene fell into deathly silence.
"Damn it! Lucy stole it!"
Natsu, rushing over, pounded the ground with his fists, his face filled with unwillingness.
"I should've used Ice Lancers and frozen her along with the flute..."
Gray hung his head and sighed in dismay. His casual remark made Lucy shiver.
"Miscalculation. I focused entirely on Chase and the others and overlooked Lucy. A A truly unforgettable lesson."
Erza rested her chin on her hand, earnestly summarizing her "failure."
"Huh? Huh?"
Lucy looked utterly bewildered, still not understanding what had happened.
Whoosh~
A pink streak of light flew over from the distance. Dark Magician Girl retracted the magic wand from beneath her knees and landed steadily.
"It's obvious. You landed the final blow on that big guy."
She smiled at Lucy. "It's frustrating, but Lucy, you're the ultimate winner!"
"Wha—? Winner? ME?!" Lucy's eyes widened.
"Lucy's heart really is dark. You kept saying you didn't want to join, but you were secretly waiting for the chance to cut off ." Happy commented sadly.
Lucy retorted angrily: "Damn cat! Don't make me sound so evil! I'm completely not interested in being the winner, okay!"
This scheming cat was definitely getting back at her for hitting him with the grilled fish!
"Come on, Happy. Stop teasing Lucy."
Chase raised a hand to dust himself off and chuckled lightly. "Landing the final blow on Lullaby in that situation? I'd say Lucy's luck is just too good."
Come to think of it, Lucy's name came from "Lucky"—her father Jude and mother Layla had drawn inspiration from "Love & Lucky," the trading guild where they first met. The name itself represented luck.
This luck had manifested many times in the original work too.
Though most of the time, Lucy was usually the one who suffered the most.
Chase mused silently.
"Waaah, Chase..."
Hearing such a rare, considerate explanation, Lucy was instantly moved to tears.
Chase really was super gentle!
"I see. Luck is also part of one's strength." Erza nodded vigorously in sudden understanding.
Lucy: Wait, you actually believed Happy's nonsense just now?!
"So Lucy, how about we find a chance to spar sometime?" Chase suddenly shifted gears.
He stood there, cracking his knuckles, and his expression was so serious that it didn't look like he was in joking.
Based on that analysis of luck just now, maybe Lucy could yield some unexpectedly good cards?
Hehehe~
"Bro Chase... your eyes are so scary..."
Terrified by this terrifying aura, Lucy quickly backed away, instantly retracting her "super gentle" comment.
"Hahaha!"
Laughter and playful banter filled the air, permeating the scene.
Over there, Makarov gazed at the meeting mansion, now blown to smithereens without a trace. Two streams of hot tears uncontrollably flowed from his aged eyes.
He'd finally managed to stand tall for once, and now this happened again!
***
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