By the time Ankh arrived to help, Natsu and the others had already finished the chase.
Carbuncle might be one of the most infamous dark guilds in the current magical world, but after everything Natsu's group had been through, they were no longer anywhere close to the same level they used to be.
Aside from Gray running into some unexpected trouble with his own body during the fight, everyone else handled their opponents cleanly.
Gajeel's opponent had been the masked man in black, the same one who had chased Lucy and Éclair through the night before.
The masked man used Shadow Magic and was skilled in all kinds of assassination techniques involving cold weapons.
His most troublesome ability allowed him to turn into an intangible shadow, slip into an opponent's body, and then extend claws from the inside, tearing the target apart in the bloodiest way possible.
Unfortunately for him, he had run straight into Gajeel.
The countless claws that burst out from inside Gajeel's body failed to hurt him at all. Instead, Gajeel chewed on them like potato chips.
When the masked man realized the fight was going badly and tried to escape, Gajeel used the experience he had gained from fighting Rogue, grabbed him straight out of the shadows, and then beat his face into something no one would recognize.
As for Erza, her opponent was a female mage named Cotonea, who used Dispel Magic and was also skilled in Requip and Transformation Magic.
Cotonea could dispel any kind of transformation or Requip-type magic, which made her a natural counter to a mage like Erza.
Erza quickly realized that her Requips were being dispelled because her will was not strong enough, so she focused her mind and tried several different armor sets.
None of them worked.
Then Erza thought of the treasure she had kept tucked away at the bottom of her collection.
The Bridal Gown.
Technically, it was just her strongest weapon, Crimson Bride, paired with a beautiful and extravagant wedding dress that offered no real combat bonuses besides looking gorgeous.
Yet with that outfit, Erza completely ignored Cotonea's Dispel Magic and defeated her in an instant with Crimson Bride in hand.
Yes.
Contrary to her public image as the undefeated queen of battle, Erza's willpower toward marriage was far stronger than her willpower toward fighting.
Cotonea fell without ever understanding why she had lost.
Even before passing out, she could not help complaining about Erza's terrifying obsession with wedding dresses.
Erza ignored the complaint and simply stored Crimson Bride back into her Requip space with a slightly pained look.
If not for such a special situation, Erza truly would not have been willing to use her favorite sword in battle, even if keeping it in her Requip space meant it gathered dust forever.
Crimson Bride's special ability erased all destructive attacks.
Wherever its blade passed, it left no wounds behind and could gently transform any substance from the inside out.
Honestly, a strange concept-level ability like that was being completely wasted in Erza's collection.
Then again, only Erza's soft, sentimental heart could have created a weapon that was both "unwilling to kill" and "unwilling to lose."
...
By the time Ankh arrived, the forest was already a wreck, with huge flames roaring into the sky. Amid the chaos, he saw a familiar figure.
Natsu had returned with Éclair on his back.
Dist, Carbuncle's strongest member, had ultimately been defeated by the might of Natsu's Fire Dragon King Mode.
Seeing Dist, who had previously caused havoc in the guild all by himself, now burned black from Natsu's flaming fist, Ankh could not help giving Natsu a few extra looks.
Natsu's basic mastery of Fire Dragon King Mode told Ankh something important.
The younger generation in the guild had already crossed another bottleneck and was advancing toward an even stronger realm.
Back when Lucy first joined the guild, Fairy Tail's golden generation had been at a staged "peak." They were strong, but stuck at a bottleneck they could not break through.
Later, after the Tenrou Island incident, the dragon kids evolved through Dragon Force, Gray through learning black ice, Cana through Crash Magic, Erza and Mira through more forms, and many other guildmates through their own methods.
And now, with Natsu learning Fire Dragon King Mode as the clearest sign, the average combat strength of the guild's little fairies would probably soon experience another explosive rise.
After rescuing Éclair, the pursuit team regrouped with Ankh and returned to the guild to discuss what came next.
The members of Carbuncle had been brought back by Natsu and the others.
After a certain purple-haired girl in the guild, who had a suspiciously strong passion for interrogation, finished questioning them, Ankh's side obtained a great deal of information.
Carbuncle had been hired by King Cream of the Principality of Veronica to seize both the Phoenix Stone and Éclair.
More accurately, Cream had learned through his royal inheritance that the secret of immortality came from "Phoenix Blood," which was why he had set his sights on that stone.
He wanted to combine the two halves of the Phoenix Stone during the celebration of Veronica's four hundredth founding anniversary and summon the Phoenix.
Then, with the Phoenix Blood granted to him, he would obtain eternal life.
As for the disaster the Phoenix would bring afterward, or what happened to his citizens…
That had nothing to do with him.
He could simply hide somewhere, and since he would not die, who cared?
Unfortunately for Cream, the very first step of his plan had gone wrong.
The leader of Carbuncle, whom he had hired to steal the stone, was already planning to betray him.
Even funnier, that traitorous leader had not even gotten the chance to stab Cream in the back.
He merely came to Fairy Tail to show off and was immediately taken down by a bunch of monsters.
What Cream expected even less was that other forces had also set their sights on the Phoenix Stone.
Above ground, the guild members were hammering and clattering away as they repaired the outer wall of the guild.
Meanwhile, in the soundproofed basement, Gajeel was sharing the information he had gathered after infiltrating Veronica.
At the round table, Gajeel pulled several photos from a bag and slapped them onto the tabletop.
Ankh and the others sitting around the table immediately leaned in to look.
"The master asked me to keep an eye on King Cream, but by the time I entered the country, a riot had already broken out."
"This woman!"
Mirajane looked at one of Gajeel's blurry photos and suddenly cried out in surprise.
"Isn't she the woman who attacked Ankh and me a few years ago?"
"That's right. Seilah of Tartaros, the one called the Cold Moon. She has a strange ability that lets her control humans. The chaos in Veronica right now is her doing."
Gajeel spoke with a grave expression, and Lily immediately added, "Veronica sealed off its capital at the time. The humans in the entire city were killing each other. And even after people died… their corpses stood back up and kept attacking everyone around them without tiring."
Thinking back to that bloody, cruel scene, even Lily could not stop himself from shuddering.
Gritting his teeth, he said in a low voice, "If we want to resolve the chaos in Veronica, our first target has to be that woman."
Everyone nodded seriously.
Ankh looked at Gajeel and asked, "The members of Tartaros all seem to be demons. What are they after?"
Gajeel glanced toward Éclair, who had been sitting silently with a dazed look on her face, and said, "They're using the lives of Veronica's citizens, as well as King Cream, as hostages. They want to exchange them for the other half of the Phoenix Stone."