“Natsu!
Lullaby doesn’t matter right now!
Something way worse is about to hit us!” Gray quickly cut in.
Just thinking about that terrifying figure sent cold sweat pouring down his cheeks.
Even Natsu, who had been limp the whole time, reflexively sat up straight.
Just imagining that person was enough to make his whole body shiver in terror.
Even though his power right now was many times greater than before, his body’s physical memory couldn’t lie.
That woman’s punches really hurt!
Even though the current Natsu possessed a much higher pain tolerance than the old Natsu, his instinctual fear still couldn’t be contained.
Remembering his recent lazy behavior at the guild, cold sweat began to drip down Natsu’s temples as well.
Lucy, who was also getting goosebumps, hurriedly asked, “W-what’s actually going on?” Natsu—a ridiculous guy who wouldn’t even be afraid to challenge the heavens—suddenly put on an incredibly tense expression just from Gray’s single warning.
Whatever was coming had to be incredibly, absolutely terrifying!
“Erza…
she’s coming back!” Gray said in a gloomy tone.
Happy’s face suddenly turned gloomy as well.
He slowly turned his head to stare at Lucy.
“Lucy’s fate will definitely be far more tragic than ours if Erza finds out she was the one who broke Natsu.” “What’s going to happen to Lucy…” “Uwaaa!!
I can’t even bear to imagine it!” Lucy grabbed her head in frustration and screamed, “I told you I didn’t break Natsu!” “Besides!
Why does it feel like every time someone says ‘I broke Natsu’, my mind immediately drifts to ambiguous and dirty things?!” “Aaaaargh!
Why am I even stressing over that right now?!” “Who exactly is Erza, huh?!” “Lucy’s mind is seriously unhealthy!” Natsu and Happy chimed in simultaneously while rolling their tongues mockingly.
“Don’t mock me like that!” Lucy roared, glaring at the human and the cat.
“Running is useless, we still have to face Erza in the end!” Natsu stood up with a resigned expression, looking like a hero preparing to fall on the battlefield.
“Sigh…
It’s a natural disaster that we simply cannot avoid!” Gray added with an equally gloomy expression.
Instantly, Lucy’s wild imagination started spinning again: an image of Natsu and Gray being trampled flat into the ground by a giant gorilla monster named Erza.
“What kind of creature is Erza, anyway?!” It was true, the unknown was the most terrifying thing of all!
Magnolia Town!
The Fairy Tail guild hall felt incredibly dead silent today.
A super rare sight where not a single guild member was brawling.
Everyone sat peacefully side by side, smiling kindly and acting affectionately toward one another, as if their personalities had all been forcibly altered by brainwashing magic.
Aside from Natsu, who was still sprawled out limply like a jellyfish on the table, everyone looked completely sane and productive.
Even Nab—whose only job every day was to wander back and forth in front of the request board without ever taking a single one—now appeared to be analyzing the contents of a mission flyer very meticulously.
The Fairy Tail guild, which was usually always noisy and chaotic, was truly peaceful and harmonious today.
However, to Lucy, all this peace was nothing more than the calm before the storm.
The quieter the atmosphere was right now, the more terrifying the disaster that would erupt later.
She screamed in frustration in her heart, “Will someone please tell me what Erza looks like!” Even though she hadn’t been a member for long, Lucy already understood the true nature of this place well enough.
A Fairy Tail guild that wasn’t being torn apart by a brawl several times a day was incredibly abnormal.
There was only one reason why the atmosphere could be this quiet.
Erza had returned!
Mirajane walked over to Lucy, bringing her a glass of fresh juice.
“Don’t mind their weird behavior.
Actually, Erza is a very easygoing person, you know!” Lucy accepted the juice glass with trembling hands.
“Seeing everyone in the guild scared half to death like this, she clearly isn’t someone who’s easy to get along with, Mira-san!” Mirajane smiled gently and reassuringly.
“My, my!
Don’t worry too much.
In the past, they all used to get beaten to a pulp by Erza, which is why they’re traumatized and scared of her.
It’s no big deal!” Lucy instantly shuddered in horror.
The glass of juice she was just holding slipped from her grasp, its contents spilling all over the floor.
Sweeping her gaze across the entire guild, Lucy’s imagination once again painted the silhouette of a savage monster mercilessly torturing and crushing the bones of all the men in this room.
“Everyone in this guild has apparently been wiped out by Erza before!!!” Glancing at Natsu, who was sprawled out next to her, the blonde girl’s body trembled even more violently.
Natsu had turned into a slacker like this, and the entire guild had already agreed to make Lucy the scapegoat.
If Erza found out, that terrifying woman would definitely vent all her fury on Lucy!!
“Oh noooo!” “I’m so scareeeed!” Meanwhile, on the streets of Magnolia Town…
A woman wearing shining silver armor was seen walking slowly through the town.
On one of her shoulders, she carried a giant object.
Seeing the woman’s arrival, all the pedestrians immediately stepped aside and stood frozen.
They stared with a mix of awe and reverence as her footsteps strode steadily toward the Fairy Tail guild.
Thud!
The echoing sound of footsteps clad in iron armor seemed to beat in sync within the hearts of all the Fairy Tail members.
Their hearts raced faster as the footsteps drew closer!
Thud!
Hearing those deadly footsteps, Natsu tried to force himself to sit upright, but his severely growling stomach left him with absolutely no remaining energy to get up.
Lucy immediately crouched and curled up under the table, shivering in fear.
Even so, her curiosity about what the true form of this figure named Erza looked like still couldn’t be contained.
She peeked out slightly from behind the table.
A giant dark shadow appeared in the doorway, blocking the sunlight streaming in from outside.
The shadow looked so massive, tense, and terrifying!
Lucy swallowed hard, her heart pounding crazily in her chest.
“That…
that is clearly not the silhouette of a normal human body!” However, when Erza stepped fully into the hall, only then could Lucy see her true form clearly.
She was an incredibly beautiful young woman with captivating long red hair.
The terrifying shadow from earlier actually came from a giant monster horn she was casually carrying in one hand—a horn that was many times larger than her own petite body.
BAM!
The floor’s surface trembled violently like a small-scale earthquake when the base of the giant horn was carelessly slammed onto the ground.
Seeing the woman’s true form, Lucy secretly breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, “Thank goodness…
she’s not a monster after all.”