Fairy Tail: The Dark Swordsman

47 - Conclusions

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...

[X784, Magnolia, A week later]

— Mavis Vermillion —

"So what do you think, Master Mavis?" Levy asked.

The First Master of Fairy Tail stood with her gaze fixed on the wooden flute that held Lullaby. It rested inside a glass box, surrounded by dull red runes. From their investigations, they had determined that Lullaby wasn't truly dead. When Dannis defeated him, he merely forced Lullaby to deplete all his power to the point it was forced to turn back to its flute form.

However, Mavis had noticed something troubling. Since Erza's team brought the flute back, its energy had slowly begun to recover. It was absorbing the ambient ethernano from the air. Which means that if left unchecked, Lullaby could eventually regain its full strength.

That was when Mystogan had an idea. The anima itself was a magical phenomenon meant to absorb magic. All he needed to do was tweak the specifics a little bit to isolate the effects. Rather than absorbing a specific target, it would instead absorb magic from the idle ethernano in the air.

After a day of research, and with Levy's assistance, Mystogan successfully created a rune capable of achieving this effect. The red runes now surrounding the glass box were the result of that work.

"Dannis was right," Mavis said at last. "It seems Lullaby's core power was the curse of death, which is delivered through his use of Sound Magic. A Mass Murder Curse Magic. It's truly frightening."

"To think such a spell exists..." Mystogan shook his head. "This Zeref truly was twisted indeed, to have created magic like this."

Mavis remained quiet, despite feeling dejected. She knew the truth of the matter. Zeref created these beings to find a way to kill himself. It was an attempt made by a desperate man who was forced to walk the Earth alone for centuries. However, the Curse of Ankhseram isn't so easily broken.

"Then I suppose we should be grateful that Dannis took Lullaby down," Levy added. "I can't imagine the destruction Erigor would have unleashed if his plan had succeeded."

"According to the rest of Eisenwald's members, Erigor's plan was to go to Clover Town and use Lullaby during the Guild Master meeting." Mavis mentioned. "Had that plan worked, it would have crippled the entirety of the Light Guilds in one strike. As cruel as the plan was, I won't deny that it was a bad plan." Her eyes narrowed. "What concerns me, however, is how Eisenwald knew about the meeting in the first place.That information is supposed to be restricted to the Council and a few high-ranking guild members."

"Then I believe our theory of the council being infiltrated by dark mages is a certainty at this point." Mystogan said.

Mavis sighed. "I'm afraid so. I'll speak with Makarov soon—we'll need to adjust our plans accordingly."

Levy crossed her arms, glancing back at the flute. "So what exactly are we going to do with this thing? Dannis wanted us to study it and learn more about Zeref's demons, but how are we supposed to do that without risking Lullaby's return? We can't exactly research it in depth while it's locked in that glass box."