Your Title, Claimed by Me!

At Oshibana Station, atop the largest building.

"Heh heh, everything is ready. Now all we have to do is wait for those Fairy Tail maggots to arrive!" Erigor hovered in midair as he instructed the crowd of subordinates waiting behind him, "When they get here, make sure you have a good time playing with them! And take care of those bugs for me while you're at it! Got that?!"

"OOOH!!!" At that, all the Eisenwald members let out wicked cheers.

"Tch, just a bunch of insignificant trash, yet they're this arrogant?" In a shadowy corner unnoticed by the Eisenwald members, Achill slowly poked his head out. Looking at the jubilant Eisenwald members, a trace of disdain flashed through his eyes.

He had followed them all the way here from Gunuki Station. But because he was worried that following too closely might expose him, he had remained far behind them in the air. Only after they entered this building did he use Flower Frenzy Bones' ability to sneak inside.

However, after listening to them for half the day, Achill still could not figure out what they were trying to do. From the sound of it, they seemed to be plotting something.

"Could they really just be planning to use that Lullaby thing's mass curse-killing ability to murder everyone around this station?" After carefully considering what he had overheard and connecting it with Lullaby's terrifying power, Achill came to that conclusion. Yet for some reason, he instinctively felt that things were far from that simple. What exactly are they trying to do? Even if they use Lullaby to kill a bunch of ordinary people and intimidate the Magic Council and the Light Alliance, it doesn't seem like that would bring them any real benefit. It would only make them die faster!

The truth was indeed as Achill had guessed. Killing a great many ordinary people would certainly intimidate many parties, such as the Magic Council and the Light Alliance guilds. But it would also deepen their hatred for Eisenwald! Once those groups got serious and everyone joined forces, no matter how well Eisenwald's people hid, they would probably be unable to escape utter destruction!

By all rights, Erigor should not have been such an idiot! Since he had earned the title of "Bleach," he surely had some real skill! And even if that guy truly was stupid, it was impossible for everyone in his entire guild to be idiots too, right?!!

Therefore, Achill was convinced that they had another, truly primary objective! Hijacking the train and taking control of this station should merely have been a smokescreen!

Yet no matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not figure it out. Just then, Erza and the others caught up!

Battle was about to erupt!

"Have fun playing with them!!" Throwing down those words, Erigor flashed away, intending to leave alone!

"Requip!!! The Armor of the Wheel—" Having finally found him, Erza naturally did not want to let him escape. Besides, he was still holding the terrifying mass curse-killing flute, Lullaby! Thinking of that, Erza immediately Requipped without hesitation. A flash of light passed, and Erza appeared before everyone in a beautiful suit of bright silver armor!

"Wheel, Sword Dance—The Sword of Lamentation!"

After using an area attack to instantly take down a whole swath of people, Erza swiftly chased after Erigor! As for the remaining small fry, Natsu and the others could handle them!

From the shadows, Achill also let out a strange chuckle before quietly following after them.

Lullaby, that terrifying thing, was still in Erigor's hands! Achill could not trust Erza to pursue him alone!

"Whoa! What the hell is this? A tornado?!" The moment Achill emerged from the huge building, he found the situation rather troublesome. The entire building was completely surrounded by an enormous tornado that towered into the clouds!

"Ha ha, stay nicely trapped in there! This Demon Wind Barrier can only be breached from the outside—it can never be broken through from within!!" Erigor hovered overhead, looking down smugly at Erza below as she continuously tried to break through the wall of tornadoes. After saying that, he turned and flew away!

"Damn it! I was still too careless!" Erza could only watch Erigor fly away with an angry expression.

"Demon Wind Barrier? Heh heh, is it really that impressive?" Smiling playfully, Achill avoided Erza and quietly came around to the other side of the Demon Wind Barrier. He directly extended his left hand into the rapidly spinning wall of wind and effortlessly passed it through! Pulling his hand back, he looked at his left sleeve, which had been completely shredded into powder by the sharp wind blades. Achill smiled indifferently, then deliberately muttered in surprise, "It really is impressive!! It even shredded my sleeve to bits!!! But that means the reason Erza can't break out from the inside—" Shaking his now bare left arm, Achill chuckled softly.

"In the end, it's because driving that magic four-wheeler earlier consumed too much of her magic power..."

With another soft laugh, Achill did not hesitate again. He directly slashed open a gap in the Demon Wind Barrier just wide enough for one person to pass through, then slipped straight outside!

"Heh heh, looks like this thing isn't completely useless..." He glanced back and saw that the gap he had just cut had already rapidly restored itself. After tossing out that casual assessment, Achill rose into the air and leisurely pursued Erigor in the direction he had gone! He had already locked onto that guy's magical signature, so there was no fear of losing him.

Moreover, Erigor's remarks before leaving had answered Achill's earlier doubts. That guy's target was actually the presidents of the Light Alliance guilds, who were holding their regular meeting in Clover!!!

Honestly, that guy had some seriously huge balls.

The reason Achill was not in a hurry was that, in his view, it was enough as long as he caught up before Erigor used Lullaby to kill those guild masters! With his flying speed, even a leisurely pace would be far faster than Erigor's half-baked wind magic!!

"Fire Dragon's Roar!!!" Before he had even reached the halfway point, Achill had already caught up with Erigor. But what he had not expected was that Natsu was there too?!!

"No, no way?! He got here before I did?" Achill watched Natsu, who was fighting Erigor fiercely below, with some surprise. His mind did not react at first. Then his gaze shifted toward a cat-like unidentified flying object sprawled somewhere below, seemingly exhausted. He could not help clicking his tongue inwardly. Could it have been that cat? Heh heh, I never expected this guy could burst out with that kind of speed! Looks like I might have underestimated him before...

Fine, I admitted it—I had been ignoring him the whole time. Achill thought innocently.

"But this guy's situation is getting worse and worse~" After watching for a while, Achill found that Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer Magic was being completely suppressed by Erigor's wind magic?! The Dragon Slayer flames that had originally burned fiercely around Natsu were now being forcibly blown apart by an incredibly violent gale!!

That was not all. Even the Dragon Slayer flames inside Natsu's body were being tightly suppressed by Erigor's powerful wind magic, unable to burst forth!!!

He could not let this guy die here like this!

In the instant his thoughts turned, he had already made his decision.

"Ha ha ha, brat! Stop this pointless resistance and struggle! You can never defeat me, the great Bleach!! So—" Erigor hovered in the air, looking down with arrogant contempt at Natsu, who was struggling bitterly within his wind magic. He laughed mockingly, "Just obediently let my magic tear you into pieces!! Ah ha ha ha—"

"Damn it—" Natsu immediately flew into a rage at that! But just as Erigor had said, his situation was indeed extremely dire! Just as he was about to throw everything aside and gather all his magic power for a desperate last stand, a faintly amused voice full of utter disdain suddenly rang in everyone's ears—

"Oh? Is that really so..." With a light chuckle, Achill's figure abruptly appeared in the air opposite Erigor, hovering even higher than him. He first swept Erigor with an extremely disdainful and mocking glance, then said lightly, "You are that so-called Bleach..."

The breeze stirred, revealing only half his face. His entire body was enveloped in a wide moon-white robe, and he had even put on the hood attached to it—something he rarely did. It was all to keep Natsu and that cat from seeing his true appearance!

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?!!" Erigor yelled in annoyance as he stared at the white-robed youth who had suddenly appeared before him, floating in the air just like him. He was especially irritated that the other person had deliberately flown higher than him. "You dare act so presumptuously before me, the great Bleach?! Are you tired of living?! Someone who doesn't even dare let others see his face is nothing more than a coward!!!"

"Heh heh, since you truly call yourself Bleach, then I'm sorry, because starting today, your title..." Ignoring his mocking words, Achill's lips curled slightly into a faintly sarcastic smile as he softly said, "...will be claimed by me—Reap it!!"

"Wind Death—"

The moment his words fell, two long black chains abruptly burst from his hands! At the same time, two rapidly spinning double-edged blades exploded forth along with the chains!

"Pfft! Pfft!" With two sharp sounds of blades piercing flesh, Wind Death's twin blades instantly arrived before Erigor along strange flight paths! Before he could react, they plunged deep into the sockets of both his shoulders!!!

"Ah—" Intense pain shot from the ends of his nerves to his brain, barely pulling him back from his stupor! He instinctively let out a scream, but Erigor's reaction was not slow. The moment he felt pain, he fiercely kicked off empty air, intending to use his magic to pull away and escape!

However—

"It's over..." His right hand rested gently upon the moon-white longsword at his left hip. At some unknown point, Achill had already appeared behind Erigor. Gazing at the extreme terror in his opponent's eyes, Achill said in an emotionless tone, "Former Bleach..." With that, the longsword in his hand suddenly left its sheath and slashed mercilessly forward!

"What?!!" Erigor's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints as his eyes locked onto the white figure that had suddenly appeared behind him! His eyes were filled with overwhelming horror and deep disbelief!

"Pfft—" With a crisp sound of blood spraying, Erigor's body slowly split into two large halves from top to bottom, his eyes still filled with terror and unwillingness!!! Then he slowly fell into the endless abyss below!

"Jingle~ Clang—" Amid the crisp chimes of the wind bell on the sword hilt, the longsword slowly returned to the sheath hanging at his left hip! After releasing Wind Death and tossing it back into his Requip space, Achill glanced lightly at the dumbfounded Natsu and Happy below, then flew away without looking back.

Before leaving, however, he took the mass curse-killing flute Erigor had left behind—Lullaby!

"Phew—" Seeing that, Natsu and Happy both let out huge sighs of relief. When that white-robed man had looked at them just now, he had truly scared them half to death! They had thought he wanted to attack them as well! Both of them silently rejoiced now that he had merely glanced at them before leaving. Otherwise, things would have been terribly troublesome...

Remembering how that guy had mercilessly chopped the wind-user into two halves like a watermelon, even someone as thick-nerved and simple-minded as Natsu felt waves of coldness run through his heart! That was seriously terrifying—

"Huh? That guy's scent... I feel like I've smelled it somewhere before?" Casting aside the chill in his heart, Natsu became confused again. He had detected a familiar scent from that murderous demon king just now! He seemed to have smelled that scent somewhere before.

As he pondered, calls from Erza and the others suddenly came from the distance—

"Hey! Natsu! Happy!" Lucy called out as she drove over from the distance. Gray, Erza, and Eisenwald's Kageyama were beside her.

"Are you two okay?" Lucy asked with concern. "Where's Lullaby?"

"Lullaby? Waaahhh!!!" Natsu froze for a moment before flying into a furious rage and shouting, "It was taken! Taken!! Lullaby was taken by that murderous demon king from before!!!"

"No way?! You mean that terrifying guy who sliced Bleach Erigor in half with one strike?!!" Achill had killed Erigor high in the air, so everyone in the vehicle had seen it too! At Natsu's words, everyone showed troubled expressions. Lucy looked on the verge of tears as she said, "If that guy really took it, then we're in serious trouble!! He's a terrifying existence far stronger than Bleach Erigor!!!"

"Damn it! Damn it—" Gray also wore a helpless, unwilling expression. They had all seen that guy's strength just now. Though he was deeply unwilling, he knew he was no match for him!

"Big Brother Erigor... he, he died—" Kageyama fell to his knees, muttering in disbelief, "Big Brother Erigor, known as Bleach, was killed so simply, so easily... This, this..." His expression had already gone blank.

"Erza! What should we do?! Huh? Erza? Erza?!" Lucy asked Erza, the strongest among them, for advice. Yet Erza did not answer as expected. Confused, Lucy and the others—including Natsu and Gray, who had also sensed that something was wrong—turned to look at Erza. The moment they did, their souls nearly fled their bodies in terror! Because they saw that Erza Scarlet, the incredibly powerful woman who usually carried herself like a queen, was actually—crying?!!!

"Erza?!! Wh-what's wrong?!" Natsu stared at the silently crying Erza in shock, then said something that nearly made everyone present collapse. "Could it be your period?!! Hey, Lucy, do you cry from pain when you're on your period too?" After saying that, he even remembered to ask Lucy beside him.

"Go die!!!" Enraged, Lucy mercilessly kicked Natsu to the ground!

"There's no mistake. That person, that person just now—" Recalling the face she had seen, though it had only been a fleeting glimpse from afar, though she had only seen half of his face, Erza had instantly recognized the hooded man! Silent tears covered her resolute face. Ignoring Natsu and Lucy's questions, Erza roared endlessly in her heart, It was Big Brother Nameless!!!

Chen Wuming—a name belonging to someone long dead, a name that often appeared in her dreams, a name forever branded into her heart and impossible to erase...

Big Brother Nameless was not dead at all!!!

Her hands clenched into tight fists, and she did not even notice her fingernails digging into her flesh. Suppressing the boundless excitement and joy in her heart, ignoring everyone's puzzled gazes, Erza happily announced in a loud voice, "The mission is over! We're going back to Fairy Tail!" With that, she took the lead toward the vehicle.

"Huh? We're not going after Lullaby?" Lucy said in surprise before running after her. Natsu and the others followed as well, climbing into the magic four-wheeler with puzzled expressions.

"Don't worry, it's fine!" An incomparably happy smile hung on her lips. Though she tried hard to restrain herself, she could not help explaining in a voice filled with excitement and exhilaration, "If it's that person, then it doesn't matter even if he took Lullaby!" Ignoring the increasingly intense questioning looks in Natsu and the others' eyes, Erza silently thought:

If it was Big Brother Nameless, he would never use Lullaby to commit evil!!! Erza believed that without the slightest doubt!

Meanwhile, what was our protagonist Achill—Erza's Big Brother Nameless—doing?

"So this is that supposedly ultra-powerful curse-killing flute, Lullaby?" Achill held the three-eyed skull flute before his eyes and examined it carefully. He even put it in his mouth and bit down on it hard. Finally, he muttered in confusion, "It doesn't seem all that special..."

In response, silent tears streamed from all three of Lullaby's eyes. Inside the skull flute, Lullaby cried out with tears pouring down its face, A demon!!! Great Master Zeref, where are you?! Please come save your poor servant—

Someone, hurry up and take me away from this terrifying demon's hands!!! Anyone will do!!!

Lullaby's silent cries spread through the entire tragic sky...