"Huh?"
But the warning came a moment too late.
Their eyes met, and an eerie light flashed in Evergreen's eyes.
As the light faded, the shock on Lucy's face froze in place. From head to toe, she had turned into a stone statue.
An uproar immediately swept through the audience.
"She turned into a statue?"
"Is this part of the show too?"
"L-Lucy!?"
Max's microphone hand froze in midair, his face deathly pale.
He had no idea what had gotten into Evergreen, but the situation was looking bad. He hurriedly shouted to the audience in alarm, "Everyone, run!! Get out of the guild! Hurry!!"
Then he jumped off the stage as well, keeping his guard up against Evergreen.
The visitors finally realized this was no performance-something had gone wrong. Screams erupted through the crowd as everyone shoved and jostled, scrambling toward the doors.
In the blink of an eye, the crowd poured out through the guild doors, leaving only Fairy Tail's members in the enormous hall.
"Evergreen!!" Guild Master Makarov pushed through the crowd to the front and demanded sternly, "What exactly are you trying to do!? Are you trying to ruin the festival?"
"Hey! Turn Lucy back right now!!" Veins bulged on Natsu's forehead as he glared at her.
Evergreen put her glasses back on, opened her folding fan, and leisurely fanned herself twice, as though the angry stares below the stage did not exist:
"What am I trying to do? Why, of course... make the festival a little more interesting."
She lightly tapped the air with the tip of her fan. A tiny speck of light drifted from it and floated down onto the curtain at the back of the stage.
Boom!
Flames surged up, swallowing the entire curtain in an instant. Charred scraps of cloth fluttered down,