"Master! Ankh-san!"
The wall on the west side of the guild had collapsed, burying a large part of the hall beneath broken stone and splintered beams.
Many guild members were sitting weakly on the ground, while Wendy hurried from person to person, treating their injuries.
The moment she saw Makarov and Ankh, Wendy visibly relaxed and ran over, looking a little wronged.
"What happened here? Why is everyone hurt?"
Makarov's face flushed red with anger as he puffed out his chest, barely suppressing the fury in his voice.
Carla's little face twisted with disgust. "Three members of a dark guild calling themselves Carbuncle attacked while we weren't paying attention. They took Éclair!"
Ankh's heart jumped.
Then Wendy handed over the stone in her hand and said, "Éclair-san threw the Phoenix Stone to us. Those dark guild members only took her. Natsu-san, Gajeel-san, and the others already chased after them."
Makarov frowned. "Carbuncle is currently one of the most dangerous dark guilds below Tartaros. Looks like they're after the Phoenix Stone too."
Carbuncle's timing had been painfully precise.
The guild's strongest fighters happened to be scattered. Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe had not returned from work yet.
Mirajane was out with her younger siblings, helping them look for houses.
Among the higher-end fighters still at the guild, only Juvia had been left to hold things together.
Fortunately, Gajeel returned from his own mission soon after, and the strongest team, who had just finished investigating Boundary Forest with Éclair, also came back to help.
Only then did the four members of Carbuncle start getting pushed back.
Even so, they still refused to give up and kidnapped Éclair at the last moment.
Aside from Juvia, Lucy, and Wendy, who stayed behind to guard the guild, everyone else chased after them and had yet to return.
Momon curled up sadly in Lucy's arms, tears starting to fall again from worry.
Lucy stroked his head and comforted him. "Don't worry. Erza and the others will save Éclair."
"Master!"
At that moment, Panther Lily, in his battle form, ran to Makarov's side with a grim expression.
"You asked Gajeel and me to monitor the Principality of Veronica. Something major has happened there."
This was something Ankh had asked the master to investigate before he left, and Makarov had specifically sent Gajeel to look into Veronica.
"King Cream of Veronica… has been assassinated…"
Lily's voice grew heavy as he delivered even more explosive news.
"And right now, Veronica has been occupied by demons!"
"What?!"
...
"Stop! Put Éclair down!"
Dist, the leader of Carbuncle, was carrying the unconscious Éclair over his shoulder as he ran ahead in silence, his mouth firmly shut.
Behind him, Natsu was being carried through the air by Happy and chasing him down with furious momentum.
A vicious light flashed through Dist's eyes. He tossed Éclair aside, spun around, and fired magic at Natsu.
Natsu was flying too fast to react properly. In the next instant, it felt as if an invisible hammer had smashed into his face, and he crashed down hard.
Dist raised his hand, his expression cold.
"I am Carbuncle's strongest assassin. Picking me as your opponent was truly unfortunate for you."
The four members of Carbuncle had each fled in a different direction to split up their pursuers, and the one responsible for chasing their strongest member, Dist, was Natsu.
That made Dist feel insulted.
As the strongest member of Carbuncle, a mage who had advanced high-level Gravity Magic into a specialty in attraction and repulsion, he could have accepted facing Titania.
But instead, they had sent some stupid-looking kid after him?
Disdain flashed through Dist's eyes. White light flared in his hand, and invisible force hurled Natsu away.
Natsu landed on all fours like a wild beast, shedding the impact before lifting his head with an excited grin.
"The strongest, huh? Now that's interesting."
"You really don't know when to quit."
Dist snorted coldly and reached out across the distance. Natsu immediately felt his body being pulled forward against his will. His reaction was extremely quick.
He activated Dragon Force, roared, gathered flames, and threw a punch.
But the moment Dist pulled Natsu in front of him, he switched attraction to repulsion.
A powerful rejecting force burst outward again and collided with Natsu's flaming fist.
The blazing heat of Dragon Force scattered in every direction.
Dist smiled in contempt, then extended his other hand and lifted Natsu through the air once more, slamming him into the ground several times.
"Some Fire Dragon you are… all reputation and nothing else."
Dist looked at Natsu, who had been smashed into a deep pit and seemed unable to move as he panted heavily.
With a cold snort, he turned and prepared to leave.
He had no time to waste on a small fry.
The immortality brought by the Phoenix Stone was the true goal of this operation.
As for the reward promised by the king of Veronica…
'Hmph. Laughable.'
Once he gained immortality, he could simply kill the king, and all that wealth would be his anyway.
As for his teammates… that did not matter either. If they survived, they could continue serving under him.
If they died, then so be it.
"You really hit hard."
Just as Dist was thinking about how to betray the king after returning to Veronica, Natsu's relaxed voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Along with it came a heat unlike anything he had felt before.
Dist whipped his head around.
The sturdy trees in the surrounding forest had already burst into flames from the terrifying heat in the air alone.
Even the clothes on his body seemed to be on the verge of melting.
Natsu gave an easy grin and leapt out of the pit.
But the form he had taken made Dist's eyes tremble.
Golden vertical pupils belonging to a dragon. Dark red dragon wings spread behind him.
Dragon-scale skin covered half his body, completely different from his usual Dragon Force form, and thick horns rose from his head.
He looked like a living red dragonman, and the pressure he gave off was more than ten times stronger than before.
Natsu raised one hand and looked at his strong, hard, dark red dragon claws.
He clenched his fist, then flashed Dist a bright, healthy smile.
"Perfect! I just got the hang of this power, so you can be my first opponent."
The wings on Natsu's back spread wide, and the flames burning wildly around him lowered all at once, as if bowing before their king.
Fire Dragon King Mode!
On the path of developing Dragon Force, aside from full dragonification, this was Natsu's strongest form.
...
On a whim, Natsu had pulled out his trump card.
Whether Dist could withstand the pressure of facing it head-on was another matter, but the other members of Carbuncle had also already met their own opponents.
Gray lay collapsed on the ground, his eyes bloodshot. One hand clutched his arm as he glared in frustration at the lifelike ice sculpture in front of him.
Cannon, Carbuncle's big idiot, used gun magic similar to Bisca's.
Gray had also spent a great deal of effort before finally freezing him.
"Damn it… You're not my power. Go back!"
Gray gritted his teeth and roared, forcefully pouring Magic Power into his arm.
His right arm had been dyed pitch-black, and the darkness was even beginning to creep toward his face.
Only through Gray's desperate resistance did that strange blackening force finally begin to fade.
Gray fell back to the ground and looked at Cannon, who had been frozen inside pale purple ice, with a complicated expression.
A bitter smile rose in his heart.
Originally, there was no need for him to struggle this much against an enemy like that.
This time, the problem had started with his own body.
During the fight, that extreme purple cold had slipped out of his control.
And just now, his arm had begun changing as if something inside him was trying to seize his body and turn him into a demon.
A demon, huh…