Chapter 231
What Oración Seis didn’t know was that Marshall had secretly started a "livestream" from the moment they appeared.
More than ten minutes earlier, almost everyone in the Fairy Tail guild hall who had accepted the Oración Seis subjugation mission had remained there waiting for Marshall’s signal.
Most of them had assumed they might be waiting a day or two.
At the very least, they expected it to take half a day before any news came back, and they had already prepared to take turns keeping watch.
Instead, Marshall had been gone for less than an hour when the projection of Oración Seis suddenly appeared on the guild’s giant screen.
Marshall’s instructions had been simple: the moment the main screen showed a projection, everyone was to assemble for teleportation immediately.
The teleportation array could only be activated once.
Anyone who missed it would lose their chance to participate.
"Eh?! Already?!"
"Everyone, attention! Assemble at the teleportation array!"
"Teleportation starts in ten minutes! Hurry up and call back anyone who just left!"
Everyone still inside the guild could now clearly see the members of Oración Seis on the screen.
"Oh?"
Someone immediately noticed Sorano.
"Angel’s already been captured? So there are only five opponents left to choose from?"
"Then I’m taking the strongest one! Nobody steal him!"
Laxus glanced at the impatient Natsu and spoke calmly.
"Leave Oración Seis to the Thunder God Tribe. The rest of you can clean up the small fry."
"What did you say?!"
Natsu immediately exploded.
"Damn you, Laxus! Don’t look down on us!"
Gildarts was watching the screen too, happily drinking while laughing.
"Hahaha! Marshall’s crazy plan actually worked."
He looked at the younger Mages crowding around the projection.
"You kids sure are fired up. Fine, I’ll leave this one to you. I won’t get involved."
Cana, standing beside him, immediately frowned.
"No."
Gildarts froze.
"You’re not allowed to slack off."
"What if something happens to Marshall and the others? You’re going too!"
"Eeeeeeh? But they obviously don’t need me..."
"I don’t care!"
Cana pointed at the screen.
"If Marshall gets hurt, I’m blaming you! You’re supposed to be ridiculously strong anyway, so Brain is yours."
Then she raised her voice toward everyone else.
"Nobody steal him!"
"..."
Gildarts’s face turned green.
Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing he could do.
Cana grabbed him and dragged him toward the teleportation array.
Laxus took one look at Gildarts and realized there was no point competing for Brain, so he settled for the next best thing.
"Then Midnight belongs to the Thunder God Tribe."
He looked around.
"The rest of you can divide up whoever’s left."
With that, Laxus led his team toward the array.
Erza studied the members of Oración Seis on the screen.
"These people do look strangely familiar..."
Her gaze stopped on Hoteye.
"One of them seems to use bladed weapons. I’ll deal with that group and anything involving swords."
"Damn it!"
Natsu saw the available opponents disappearing one by one and immediately panicked.
"Everyone’s choosing too fast!"
Then his eyes locked onto Cobra.
"Wait! That Cobra guy is a Dragon Slayer, right?!"
Natsu pointed at the screen.
"Then he’s mine! Nobody touch him!"
Gajeel had a different opinion.
"Move, Salamander."
He cracked his neck.
"That snake belongs to me."
"What did you say?! Like I care what you want!"
Natsu immediately shoved his forehead against Gajeel’s.
"First one there gets him!"
The two walked toward the teleportation array while still headbutting each other.
Mira rested one hand against her cheek and smiled sweetly.
"My, my~ It looks like everyone has already chosen an opponent."
She glanced around.
"I’m S-Class too, so it would feel strange if I didn’t do anything."
Her eyes settled on Racer.
"Then I suppose I’ll take the last one, Racer."
"Big Sis! I’ll help you!"
Elfman immediately followed.
"Damn it! They took all the good opponents!"
"Forget it! Let’s compete to see who can beat the most small fry!"
Seeing every member of Oración Seis get "claimed" by the S-Class Mages one after another, the rest of Fairy Tail could only swallow their complaints and direct their enthusiasm elsewhere.
"Master, we’re leaving the guild to you!"
"BOOOYYSSS! CHARGE!"
"OOOOOOHHHH! MANLY!!!"
"Prepare to receive Fairy Tail’s judgment!"
"..."
Before long, the once-crowded guild hall contained only a lonely Makarov and a handful of unusually peaceful members who genuinely had no interest in fighting.
"Youth sure is wonderful..."
Makarov sighed.
...
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield—
After Natsu dropped from the sky and blocked Oración Seis’s escape route, the remaining five members found themselves completely surrounded.
At first, Brain wasn’t particularly concerned.
Marshall sealing the surrounding space and preventing teleportation had made him nervous, but he still believed the five of them could sacrifice the Dark Guild cannon fodder outside and force their way out.
Unfortunately...
Fairy Tail’s reinforcements arrived much faster than he expected.
And they were much stronger.
Brain’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat.
"Gildarts..."
His expression darkened.
"When did you return to Fairy Tail?"
The Magic Power pouring from Fairy Tail’s younger generation was already ridiculous enough. Brain had barely possessed any desire to fight them in the first place.
𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
And then someone even worse arrived.
Gildarts.
Rumors had circulated for years that this man had already surpassed Makarov.
Brain had absolutely no desire to test whether those rumors were true.
’What the hell is wrong with Fairy Tail?!’
’Seriously?!’
’We’re just one small Dark Guild! Was it really necessary to send this many people to jump us?!’
’Do these people have absolutely no sense of fair play?!’
"Hahaha!"
Gildarts scratched his head.
"Director Brain. Last time I saw you was... well, the last time I saw you i guess."
His grin widened.
"Didn’t notice you’d fallen so far that you were running a Dark Guild now."
Gildarts sighed dramatically.
"I honestly didn’t want to come. The stage should belong to the younger generation, right?"
He shrugged.
"But my daughter asked me to help, so what could I do?"
Then he gave Brain a cheerful smile.
"Sorry about this."
"Why don’t you just surrender? It’ll save me some trouble."
Brain’s already dark expression somehow became even darker.
"Arrogant bastard!"
At the same time, Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe surrounded Midnight.
Laxus casually waved his hand.
"You three stand back."
He cracked his knuckles.
"Make sure nobody interferes."
Natsu blasted forward like a launched rocket and charged directly toward Cobra.
"A Dragon Slayer?!"
His grin stretched across his face.
"Let’s see whose dragon is stronger!"
Gajeel immediately rushed after him.
"Get lost, Salamander! He’s mine!"
Erza intercepted Hoteye, while Mira stepped directly in front of the rooster-haired Racer.
Seeing Oración Seis get matched with opponents so efficiently, Marshall gave a satisfied whistle, dismissed the teleportation array, and descended back to the ground.
He still hadn’t developed a true Domain technique.
What he had developed was a method of constructing magic arrays in advance inside his Origin space.
The principle was somewhat similar to D&D spell slots.
A Mage could prepare the complete magic array inside their body beforehand, then externalize the internal space during battle and deploy the stored spell instantly.
That was how Marshall had activated such a complicated large-scale teleportation array in almost no time at all.
By the time he reached the ground, Gray, Lyon, and the others had already rushed toward Oración Seis in the hope of stealing an opponent for themselves.
Blue Pegasus’s four-man pretty-boy squad headed out to clear the surrounding small fry.
That left Lucy and Sherry guarding the captured Angel.
After wiping out an entire group of Dark Guild Mages, Jura actually returned to Marshall in a remarkably good mood.
"Sir Marshall, your strategy is truly impressive."
Jura gave him an earnest look.
"I never imagined you had already anticipated that the Dark Guilds might prepare an ambush and made preparations in advance."
He sighed.
"I’m older than you by many years, yet I nearly walked directly into their trap. I’m ashamed."
"Hahaha. It was nothing, really..."
"This victory owes much to Fairy Tail’s assistance."
Jura smiled.
"I’ll save the proper thanks until afterward. For now, I’m going back to help."
"Good luck~"
Marshall casually waved him off.
Then he turned toward Angel, who was still tied up in a bundle nearby.
A mischievous smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Hehehe."
"So..."
Marshall looked toward Lucy.
"What should we do with our prisoner?"
"Lucy, what do you think?"