Chapter 23

Itachi POV

The Annual Guild Masters Meeting went as it usually did.

The various guild masters across Fiore all attend and give updates about the current situation in their guilds and the surrounding area of where the guild was established.

Of course, everyone subtlely bragged about their guild's achievements as well.

Several hours later as night approached, Makarov excused himself under the guise of going to the bathroom and exited the building, heading up into the forest.

With my eyes... I saw through everything.

...He was hiding an ero-magazine in his jacket.

---

Jokes aside, Kageyama, stood atop the hill overlooking the Guild Master's building and was about to play Lullaby; a flute that was capable of killing everyone that heard its Sound Magic.

Kageyama belonged to a dark guild Eisenwald which had the purpose of killing all the Guild Masters at the Annual Meeting.

However, he encountered Makarov right before he did and was about to kill Makarov with the flute but grew hesitant.

Then came Makarov's speech about weakness not necessarily being bad. And guilds--a gathering of comrades and where happiness and bright futures belong.

Kageyama was touched by the speech and fell on his knees in shame, surrendering the flute.

And as I had expected, the flute's ominously shined purple before transforming into a giant wooden monster with multiple holes throughout its body.

...Time to earn badass points.

---

Third Person POV

"I grow tired of all you gutless wizards!"

Team Natsu stared in shock as the creepy-looking flute seemed to talk as it shined in purple light, blinding them.

A purple fog seemed to spiral from the flute as it was slowly sucked into a magic circle that had begun forming above,

They looked up in awe to see the purple mountain-sized magic circle appear directly above the Guild Master's building.

BOOM! BOOM!

A large rumble followed by another in quick succession signified a huge being had come into existence.

Lucy stared eyes wide open as she shouted in shock, "That's way too big!"

It was an extremely tall beast, larger than a mountain that had three eyes, two legs, and one head. There were many cutouts in its body.

It looked down upon the members of Fairy Tail and the guild masters that had fled the building.

"I shall devour your souls all myself!" it roared.

Lucy backed away in fear as she looked at Master Goldmine and Master Bob beside her.

"W-What is that? Why did that monster come out of the flute?!"

Goldmine glanced up at the monster through his sunglasses.

"Living magic. A demon from the Book of Zeref, Lullaby."

Erza heard what Goldmine said and looked at the tall beast in disbelief,

"Living magic?"

"Zeref? The ancient wizard?" echoed Gray.

"Why does everybody keep talking about him?" said Gajeel, irritated.

The tall wooden beast looked downwards at the wizards as it yelled,

"Now, then, whose soul shall I dine on first?!"

Erza turned to look and Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel.

"You three, evacuate everyone from the vicinity-"

Erza paused as she suddenly sensed slow but steady footsteps gradually approach from behind.

---

Lucy stared on slack-jawed, rubbing her eyes as she saw the sudden appearance of the cloaked dark-haired man in front of her.

She then whispered to Master Goldmine beside her,

"Woah, how'd he get here? I just blinked! He came out of nowhere!" (AN: This takes place AFTER the Badass Teaser so she knows of Itachi).

Master Goldmine simply shrugged his shoulders, now excited to see how this situation would turn out with a Saint's interference.

Itachi slowly walked forward as the four mages parted ways for him to pass.

No one said a word.

He then looked up, indifferent towards the mountain-sized beast.

Lullaby glared down at him, feeling more powerful magic reside within him as compared to the other mages.

"So it seems you are the strongest!"

Itachi didn't respond as he eyed Lullaby up and down.

"And it seems... you are flammable."

Lullaby roared in anger as it opened in its mouth, a large magic circle materializing in front of it.

Its sharp rise in power sent out shockwaves of wind and dust.

Itachi stood there calmly as if he wasn't going to defend himself.

He then turned towards Erza, his scarlet eyes glowing.

"Erza, get everyone else out of here."

Erza nodded without hesitation, knowing that if Itachi were to handle the situation, he would do so effectively and wouldn't destroy everything as they did.

"Come, let's go. Let Itachi handle this."

Natsu raised his hand up, indignified,

"Hey! How come he-"

He immediately shut up against Erza's glare.

"O-Ok!"

---

Lullaby's magic circle gradually grew as its blast began to finish its build-up.

Itachi then held up his right hand, palm facing the beast.

And suddenly, an orange magic circle, just as big--if not bigger than Lullaby's rapidly grew and revolved.

Lucy looked on from afar with wide-eyes as she couldn't believe he could produce such a large magic circle so quickly. She asked Erza,

"How! Are all the Ten Wizard Saints like this?"

Erza nodded, arms crossed.

"Yes. All current and former Saints have insane amounts of magic power and prodigious efficiency in using it."

Lucy then asked naively, "Well, is this is his strongest move?"

Erza looked at her as if she was stupid as she slowly said,

"This would be... one of his weaker moves."

"What?!"

---

Lullaby spread its arms wide as it stepped forward, looking downwards at Itachi.

"ROAAAR!"

A huge beam of purple light entwined by dark fog erupted from its mouth.

On the other side, Itachi's magic circle began to pause its revolution.

"...Fire Magic: Great Fire Annihilation."

Suddenly, a burst of flames spanning dozens of meters erupted upwards towards Lullaby, encompassing the incoming purple blast.

Lullaby stared in shock as the magic power in its purple beam was completely scattered into atoms.

It stepped back in fear for being hit and ducked down, barely avoiding the sea of flames.

The surrounding mages and guild masters couldn't help but nervously chuckle as they saw how easily Itachi fended off that attack.

Natsu, still wanting to fight roared, "I can do better than that!"

The sea of flames gradually diminished several hundred of feet above Lullaby, producing clouds.

Lullaby looked up, glaring at the dark-haired mage in anger.

However, it grew even more furious as it saw the mage stare at it for a moment before turning around and walking away.

"COME BACK! HERE-"

*Storm SFX*

It was interrupted as it suddenly heard the rumbling above.

Lullaby looked up to see flashes of lightning within the clouds that spanned hundreds of meters above.

"Don't you think that a little storm will scare me off! I will end you!"

---

Everyone stared at Itachi in wonder and curiosity as he began to walk back towards the group after his first and last attack.

They couldn't help but fearfully admire that his scarlet eyes were glowing red and the black pupil was shaped in a three-pronged spiral curve.

Master Goldmine, stepped forward intending to ask a question that everyone was curious about.

"Itachi, Lullaby isn't dead yet why-"

He was then rudely interrupted by the rumble of thunder from above. Everyone looked up instinctively to the sky.

However, when they looked up, they were speechless.

The lightning from the clouds seemed to have begun materializing into some creature!

Lucy couldn't help but exclaim in shock,

"The lightning! It's-"

Everyone then suddenly gained a realization that this was Itachi's doing and then looked at him in awe.

He gazed back at them with his Mangekyou Sharingan, completely unfazed.

Itachi calmly looked on as he glanced across the crowd of mages.

The roar of the thunder and the flash of blue light seemed to further enshroud him in mystery.

The mages looked up once more and could only stare with wide eyes as the rumbling of the thunder began to evolve into the roar of a lightning dragon.

Gajeel and Natsu looked back at Itachi in shock.

'A Dragon Slayer...?'

And then he closed his eyes.

---