Lullaby

Ye Yang and Makarov looked at Jellal, who had fainted on the ground, and immediately stopped arguing.

"Huh? Why did this guy pass out?"

"How should I know? Maybe you, brat, didn't know your own strength."

"How could that be? I held back. Otherwise, he'd have been dead already."

"Could he be trying to scam us? How about you lie down too, old man? That would make it easier to explain."

"Bang! I'm not as shameless as you!"

Just then, Erza's voice came from the distance.

"Master! Master!"

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

"Boss! Boss!"

The two turned around and saw Erza and the others.

Seeing that Makarov was unharmed, Erza immediately slammed him into her chest.

"That hurts!"

Natsu looked at the unconscious Jellal with an unhappy expression.

"Damn it! We were still too late! Ye Yang beat him again!"

Ye Yang spread his hands. "I didn't knock him out. He fainted on his own, so it has nothing to do with me!"

"Trash! Useless trash! You're completely worthless! I have to step in personally!"

The sudden voice instantly silenced the chattering group.

Lucy said fearfully, "Wh... who's talking? Could this place be haunted or something?"

Erza and the others looked around seriously, but they found no one.

Just then, the Flute floated into the air.

"I am the one speaking."

Σ(?д?|||)?? "The Flute became a spirit?!!" Lucy cried in shock.

A massive amount of black smoke suddenly poured out of the Flute, and a gigantic Tree Monster appeared outside the meeting grounds.

Lucy: "The Flute turned into a monster!!"

Happy: "Lucy, you leaked lots of juice again."

"I told you, that's sweat—!!"

Curse Song looked down at the group below and let out a sinister cackle. "I'm so hungry. Let me taste your souls!"

Natsu looked at Lucy excitedly. "Are souls tasty?"

ヽ(｀д′)ノ "How would I know?! Can you stop looking at me when you say that?!"

Erza hurriedly shielded Makarov behind her.

"Master, run! Leave this to us."

Just then, a magic circle spread open at Curse Song's mouth, aimed at the meeting grounds.

Makarov hurriedly said, "Brat, what are you standing around for? Go stop it!"

"Yeah, yeah."

With a flash of golden light, Ye Yang appeared directly in front of the guild masters. They all watched him eagerly. They had heard of Ye Yang's reputation, but they had never seen him fight.

At that moment, the magic fluctuations in Curse Song's mouth grew stronger and stronger. The surrounding plants were drained of energy and withered away.

Seeing such powerful magic fluctuations, Lucy could not help worrying.

"Can Ye Yang really stop it?"

Gray looked at Lucy in confusion.

"Huh? Isn't that normal? He's Ye Yang."

Natsu was even more displeased. "Aah! I want to fight that monster too!!"

Erza explained, "Don't worry, Lucy."

"Aye~ Boss is the strongest."

Lucy saw that no one else was the least bit panicked, but she still looked ahead anxiously.

A powerful beam of light suddenly shot out from Curse Song's mouth.

Ye Yang raised his index finger and gathered golden light, forming a large shining golden cross.

"Cero!"

Just as the energy wave was about to reach him, an even larger blast of energy shot from Ye Yang's fingertip.

Curse Song's energy wave was instantly forced back, and the energy directly engulfed Curse Song.

When the golden light slowly faded, only two legs remained standing where the enormous monster had been. Even more exaggeratedly, a massive hole had appeared in the mountain ahead.

Lucy was so shocked that her jaw nearly dropped. She never could have imagined that this harmless-looking person possessed such terrifying strength.

Erza looked at Ye Yang with fighting spirit blazing in her eyes.

"This guy has gotten a lot stronger again."

Natsu said excitedly, "One day, I'll destroy a mountain with a single attack too!"

Lucy complained, "Is that really the part you're focusing on?"

Makarov froze solid. He had already imagined what he would soon have to face.

The masters of the other guilds were also too shocked to say a word. Such strength was simply too unfair.

Suddenly, a large force of soldiers marched toward the meeting grounds. When the Fairy Tail members saw the Magic Council troops, they immediately ran for it. Erza carried the petrified Makarov away.

Only Lucy, who had no idea what was happening, remained standing there in utter confusion.

"Huh?"

Inside the Magic Council.

Because news of Eisenwald hijacking the station and intending to use Curse Song to kill the masters of the major guilds spread overnight.

Og said angrily, "Those people are becoming more and more lawless!"

"If they had succeeded, the entire Light Magic World would have been thrown into turmoil!"

Crawford said, "Everyone, tell me how we should handle this matter. If we deal with it poorly, the authority we have built among the people will be lost again."

Og said, "Should we launch another campaign to wipe out the Dark Guilds?"

"The specifics still need to be discussed."

Zikrein spoke up. "Everyone, I think we can set this matter aside for now. The Dark Guild could obtain Zeref's magic so easily. Don't you think something is suspicious here?"

"If we investigate this further, none of you here will be able to escape responsibility."

Zikrein's words immediately silenced the members of the Magic Council. If someone with ulterior motives spun the story, all of them would be pushed into the spotlight.

"Therefore, I propose that we commend Fairy Tail."

Hearing this, everyone fell into thought. Indeed, rather than picking someone to take the blame, it would be better to place all the blame on the Dark Guild and commend Fairy Tail. The Magic Council would not suffer any loss.

But when they thought about commending the guild they usually despised, they hesitated.

Og said, "I think Zikrein's proposal is very good, but we cannot merely commend them. There have also been many complaints against them this time, especially since that brat directly destroyed a mountain. Although there were no casualties, the villagers at the foot of the mountain suffered considerable losses."

"That damn brat, couldn't he go a little easier? Every time, we have to clean up after him!"

Yakima said, "Oh-ho-ho, little Ye Yang already held back. Otherwise, with his strength, that entire mountain range would have vanished."

No one objected to Yakima's words, because Ye Yang had truly done it before. News of that incident had been completely suppressed. The only people who knew everything about it were these old men and the soldiers who had participated in the cleanup.

Outsiders only knew that a village had been massacred and that the Magic Council had failed in its duties.

The moment Councilor Reggie heard that they were going to commend Fairy Tail, he immediately roared, "Why commend them at all?! I say we should just disband Fairy Tail!"

The reason Councilor Reggie reacted this way was because his precious granddaughter had been lured away by someone from Fairy Tail, so he deeply hated them.

Everyone looked at Reggie as though he were an idiot.

Crawford tapped the table, signaling everyone to quiet down.

"Enough. We will proceed as Zikrein suggested. Commend Fairy Tail, and arrest the culprit in this incident, Ye Yang."

When they heard that Ye Yang was to be arrested, everyone looked at the Council Chairman in shock.

"All right, everyone. Meeting adjourned."