Chaos

"Rumble..."

Chunks of rubble came crashing down from above. In the blink of an eye, the tycoons who had been flaunting their wealth moments ago were dead or badly injured.

"Ahhh!"

"Someone's dead!"

"Help! Somebody save me! I'll pay you!"

In an instant, the entire auction hall filled with cries of pain, and panicked screams echoed everywhere.

At that moment,

so-called "money," "power," and "status" had all lost their meaning.

When an individual's strength was limited, these things could indeed serve a great purpose. But if one person's strength could reach the point of wiping out a nation, or even destroying a world, then those things were nothing but illusions.

Ul's figure flickered as he dodged several rocks crashing down from above.

Looking at the many tycoons wailing in terror throughout the auction hall, Ul gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

He just couldn't understand what these rich people were thinking.

Wouldn't it be better for you rich folks to stay put in the territory of the light faction or the neutral faction?

Why on earth would you go out of your way to run to a country belonging to the dark faction?

Did you really think this was somewhere you could stay?

If you were in the territory of the light faction or a neutral country, at least the Mages there wouldn't threaten your lives, out of basic humanitarian principles!

But you just had to run to a country belonging to the dark faction. Weren't you asking to get yourselves killed?

Rich people sure knew how to have fun!

In the world of Fairy Tail, Mages and ordinary people might seem to live in completely separate worlds, but in reality, Mages were the ones who held all the power.

Ordinary guilds were overseen by the Magic Council, so they wouldn't use magic to threaten ordinary people.

But Dark Guilds weren't bound by nearly so many restrictions.

In Ul's eyes, all the tycoons gathered here today were probably nothing more than walking treasure troves to the Black Mages...

When things were quiet,

they could let these tycoons eat, drink, and make merry.

But the moment they needed them, those tycoons would probably have no control over their own actions.

"Rumble..."

The first tremor hadn't even ended when the auction hall was struck a second time.

And compared to the first,

the second impact was clearly much more violent. Half the auction hall collapsed outright, and huge chunks of rubble and broken lights kept falling from overhead. In an instant, another wave of people inside the hall were dead or injured!

Seeing the scene, the corner of Ul's eye twitched uncontrollably.

Just as he thought!

Anime had all been lies.

How could there be a war without anyone dying?

This was only the aftershock of the war, and already a huge number of people were dead!

What would it be like at the center of the battlefield?

The sudden sight of a pile of bodies was a serious shock to Ul...

Still,

he hadn't forgotten his mission.

The Angel Wings' arrival so soon had taken Ul by surprise, but the chaos was actually a good thing for him. At least now, he didn't have to worry about the auction organizers' rules.

The sudden disaster had caught the organizers off guard, too.

Although the auction organizers immediately sent people out to stabilize the situation, their men had barely said a couple of words before a huge rock fell from above and crushed them to death.

And then...the chaos only got worse.

Taking advantage of the confusion,

Ul sneaked off toward the auction's backstage area...

He had barely reached the backstage area when he spotted someone in a black robe, the fabric bulging around them, sneaking about and preparing to slip outside.

Wrapped in the robe, the figure's true appearance was hidden, so Ul couldn't identify them right away.

Just as the figure was about to slip out through the back door,

suddenly,

Ul's eyes flicked around, and he shouted, "Jeris!"

"Hm?" The shadow stopped and looked back at Ul in confusion.

But the moment he saw that the person who had called out was a complete stranger, he knew something was wrong. He hurriedly turned and sprinted away without looking back...

Seeing this, Ul's lips curled into a faint smile.

It had only been a brief glance, but Ul had clearly seen the deformed face beneath the black robe. It was exactly like Jericho's face on the mission sheet.

"I finally found you, you bastard!"

Thinking of how this guy had gotten him dragged into such a dangerous war, Ul felt his anger flare up.

"If I don't beat the shit out of you this time, I'll stop being an Ul!"

Ul moved, quickly chasing after Jericho.

The moment Ul rushed out of the auction hall,

all he saw was chaos.

Since the battlefield was centered around the Devil's Fang guild, the residents of Moya City who lived near the guild began fleeing in every direction...

Ul glanced casually around.

Soon,

he spotted Jericho in the panicked crowd.

Without the slightest hesitation,

Ul immediately chased after him.

As a thief, Jericho had managed to evade capture for so long, so he obviously wasn't completely without skill.

In Ul's eyes, Jericho wasn't very fast, but he was good at hiding his tracks. Whenever he fled to a place, he would instinctively use nearby cover to conceal himself...

Once or twice might not have mattered.

But given enough time, an ordinary person would have found it very difficult to keep up with Jericho.

Unfortunately for him, this time he had run into Ul.

Never mind that Ul could run nearly twice as fast as he could. Even the basic techniques Ul had honed through the Guga Combat Arts were more than enough to see through Jericho's little tricks and catch up with him.

Perhaps because Ul was putting too much pressure on him, Jericho grew more and more panicked as he fled.

Without realizing it,

neither Ul nor Jericho noticed that their route was taking them in the exact opposite direction from the one Moya City's residents were fleeing...