26

Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?

Beta Reader: volfwildman

I couldn't help but stare at the man in front of me with a rather dry look. His huge grin and shadowy aura would have been scary had it not been for the fact that I had done worse with my own illusions. I'd give him an A for effort but other than that I just found his act boring.

"Judging from your words I guess you're a mage of a dark guild." At my words, the man's expression became one of surprise, either from my dry look or boring words I'm not sure, "You wouldn't happen to be a member of the Eisenwald Guild?"

The mage stood there for a second, probably processing my words in his surprise. Eventually, he put a smirk on his face and spoke, "I am Kageyama, an Eisenwald member guild kitties. Now, what are you going to do about it?" The now named Kageyama held his hand out to goad me into fighting.

I just continued to stare with a dry look for a second before I talked, "You wouldn't happen to know about the artifact Lullaby, would you?" Kageyama seemed to get annoyed at my lack of fear or anger, but his face did twist back into a grin when I said the word Lullaby.

He reached into his shirt before pulling out a flute made of dark wood, a three-eyed skull at one end and spiky roots at the other. My eyes widened at the sight which seemed to please the dark mage as his grin widened, "Neat little thing isn't? Scary too."

My eyes despite his words did not widen in fear but in surprise. In surprise at how stupid the man in front of me was. Not only had he picked a fight when he didn't need to but he had just taken out and shown me a highly dangerous artifact like it was nothing. Well, one man's stupidity was another gain I suppose.

Just was Kageyama was about to start talking again I held out my right hand and activated my Ring of Telekinesis which I then promptly used my Ring magic to empower. The flute was ripped out of the dark mages and quickly flew over to me where it stopped, floating to my right.

Kageyama's eyes widened to near comical levels as he stared at the flute that had been taken right out of his hands. "What the-." He started slowly but I didn't let him finish. "Thanks for making my job easier" I spoke out as I prepared and swiftly cast an illusion.

"A Nightmare Cometh"

(3rd Person POV)

For a second nothing happened but then Kageyama found his world consumed by darkness. It seemed to leak into the train car and cover everything and before long he found himself surrounded by the unnatural darkness as it made a cylinder around him. Dozens of hushed whispers came from all around him as the darkness loomed over him as it unnaturally rose into a never-ending ceiling.

Kageyama himself had to fight off the urge to hyperventilate as he tried and failed to control the darkness with his Shadow magic. Before long black arms started to reach from the abyss and reach out for the scared mage.

At that moment Kageyama's fight or flight response activated. He chooses flight.

He ran forward while flaring his magic to the best of his ability. When he ran through the darkness and nothing happened, he started to hope that he had somehow fended it off with his magic. But just as his grin was twisting itself back on to his face, something happened.

He ran face-first into the side of the train car.

The impact causes him falls backward and his head quickly impacted the floor and the combined force of the two impacts was enough for him to blackout. For a second the darkness stayed before vanishing within a moment to reveal a very confused Lucy and a surprised Bishop.

Bishop let out a sigh before palming his face and mumbling out "That absolute idiot."

(Bishop's POV)

Really? Really!? I had a full-blown Greater Illusion preparing for when he broke through A Nightmare Cometh and he just knocks himself out! Why was I worried?!

I let out a sigh as I put the flute into my hammerspace and step over the unconscious body of the dark mage and head for the emergency stop. "What just happened?" Ask a very visibly confused Lucy.

"I put an illusion on him and apparently his response to that was knocking himself out. To be fair it got him out of the illusion. Even if he's going to have a massive headache when he wakes up now." As I say these words, I pull the lever and the train comes to a jarring stop causing Lucy to grab on to one of the seats to keep from falling, the stupid mage though just impacts the metal poles holding the chairs and lets out a groan.

"Come on. We have what we need now we just got to get back to the others and get the flute to a safe place." With that said I jump off the train and proceed to start walking back the way along the train came with a still somewhat confused Lucy quickly catching up and following me.

After about 10 minutes of walking, we see a vehicle speeding along beside the tracks. Said vehicle starts to slow down before stopping right by us. Erza who had been driving the thing quickly get off and approaches us.

"Are you two okay!?" I wave a hand at her concern. "We're fine but we need to get someplace safe." At Erza odd look I continue, "An Esienwald mage was on the train and had Lullaby with him. Said mage now no longer has it and I do. It is my hammerspace and we need to get it away from here and someplace safe before something bad happens."

Erza looks rather surprised by what I said and before she could speak up Cana's voice started up as she exited the vehicle. "You got the flute? Cool. We should probably get it to a rune knight station."

Erza shook her head at Cana's words, "No the closest rune knight station is in the city of Bleakwatch. It's about two hours away from here. We should head to the guild, it'll only take a little under an hour and we'll have the entire guild to help us protect the flute."

I nodded my head in agreement with Erza, "I know you have a communications lacrima in you hammerspace. While we're heading back to the guild you should call them and have some rune knights come to Magnolia to pick the flute up."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," Erza says as she starts to pull out said lacrima. "Does that mean we're not going to fight some baddies?" Ask a somewhat sick looking Natsu from inside the transportation. "No," I replied much to Natsu sadness if the ahhhh from him was any indication.

I just roll my eyes before getting into the car along with Cana and Lucy as Erza finishes up her call and gets ready to drive.

"I'm just saying that this job would have been more fun if we got to beat up some dark mages," Natsu whines out much to my annoyance. He has been complaining for the last 15 minutes and it was really starting to get on my nerves, I was starting to contemplate removing the illusion that was keeping Natsu's motion sickness at bay.

"I'm not saying you're wrong Natsu but it's better if we have little to no problems or trouble with this job," Gray replied as he rubbed his forehead in frustration at his little brother.

Natsu just crosses his arms and pouts, "Still wish we had gotten a fight in." I roll my eyes at his comment before trying to go back to my reading.

The keyword here was trying.

"Guys we have a problem!" Shouts Erza from the front of the vehicle. "What kind of trouble?" Cana asks as she's already pulling out some cards. "We got company." Erza paused before quickly shouting "Brace for impact!"

At her words, we all quickly brace and not a moment later a loud explosion rings out from the right as the car is tossed to the side. As the car is in mid-air all I could think was 'Goddammit Natsu." Before the card promptly lands on its sides and skids a little before stopping.

For a few seconds, I stop the spinning in my head and push the unblocked door open and get out. As the other follow my example I look up in the air to see several dozen people all just floating in the air. In front of them all, I see two figures, the first being some shirtless guy with a scythe and the other being the Shadow mage that knocked himself out. The guy still had a red mark on his forehead.

"Well, well, well, it looks like the little fairies didn't fly fast enough. You sure it's them Kageyama?" Said man nodded his head as he glared at me. "Ya, it's them. It was that well-dressed guy that knocked me out and took Lullaby."

Scythe guy chuckles at his fellow mages words, "Well then you'll be the one to get it back. And if you don't. Well, then you'll wish you were still knocked out on that train car." With that said the man swings his arm out causing a large gust of wind to pick up around him, guess he was using Wind magic to have him and the others all fly.

"Now then guys." Scythe guy shouts this out, "I want all of you to have some fun with these fairies and be sure to show them that just because they're apart of a legal guild doesn't mean that there better than us. Got it!" At his words, the rest of the dark mages let out a cheer much to the Wind mage's pleasure.

"Good! Now then, let's have some fun!" and with that, they all start to drop down and attack. Unfortunately for them. We were more than ready.

(3rd person battle POV)

Chaotic fighting broke out the somewhat barren plain that the members of Eisenwald and the Fairy Tail Team found themselves on. Natsu and Happy had quickly taken to the air where they were having an intense battle with Erigor. The sky was all but filled with fire and turbulence.

Down on the ground, the rest of the mages were all fighting. Erza and Cana were tearing through the cannon fodder like nothing as many were blown away by either Erza's powerful slashes or Cana's elemental cards. Said fodder was putting up a decent fight if only by the fact they keep getting back up and throwing themselves at the two but that was a losing battle there.

Gray and Lucy found themselves in the middle of the chaos as Gray used his Ice-make magic to protect both him and Lucy while what looked like a bipedal bull with an ax was taking down those unlucky enough to try and fight him. Lucy herself was regretting not having any weapons as she watched Gray keep several mages at bay.

As for Bishop? Well, he found himself on the side of the battlefield as Kageyama and a few other dark mages were surrounding him. "Well, it looks like I'll be paying you back for what you did, you damn Illusionist."

Bishop just rolled his eyes as he pulled his saber out from his hammerspace. "You did that to yourself. Your forehead looks ridiculous by the way." Bishop's words cause the Shadow mage to scowl as a shadowy aura appeared all around him.

"I'm going to enjoy this. Now then guys! Let's get back Lullaby!" The words caused the other mages around Bishop to charge forward, their magic ready.

"Fear" As Bishop says the word an aura of red shouts out from him and spread out a few feet around Bishop before dissipating. As the red wave hits the charging mages their eyes roll up into the back of their head as they lightly foam at the mouth and fall to the ground.

Kageyama found himself doubled over when the wave hit him. A feeling of intense fear spread through his body and it was only his will and magic defense that kept it from overwhelming him. "What… Was that?!" The dark mage says while panting, head still reeling from the short mental fight.

"Fear, a simple short-range spell that causes the affected to experience a sense of fear like A Nightmare Cometh only it's been dialed up a tab bit. Meant to take out small fry, kinda surprised that you're still standing actually." Kageyama scowl once more at the last part of the Illusionist words before steeling himself and preparing to cast a spell.

"Knuckle Shadow" Several long shadow arms form around Kageyama before throwing themselves at Bishop. However, when they hit the Illusionist, they simply go through him as the "Mirror Image" fades.

Kageyama looks on in surprise for a second before letting out a pained yell and falls forward when he feels a blade slash across his back. Bishop had positioned himself behind the Shadow mage after using "Vanish" to hide and placing a Mirror image to keep up appearances.

"Well, that was easier the-" Bishop stopped his sentence when he saw Kageyama get back up to his feet. The shadow mage looks like he was having some trouble standing which would be the result of the decent amount of Blue Waltz now in his body now but it wasn't enough to fully bring down the mage.

"Not going to be that easy you damn Illusionist." With that said the Shadow mage prepares his magic once more. "Shadow Form" Kageyama quickly sunk into his shadow as said shadow quickly made its way around to Bishop.

Bishop ready himself for when the mage popped back up as the shadow circles around him like a shark in the ocean. The shadow after a few seconds rushes toward the Fairy Tail mage said mage attempted to stab the shadow when it got to his feet but it was too fast and got behind him.

Kageyama quickly pulled himself out from his shadow behind Bishop and readied a spell. However, before he could cast a spell Bishop turned around and beat him to the punch. "Shattering Light"

A blinding light and loud noise filled the air and forced Kageyama to hold his hands out in front of him to keep from being blinded. Bishop took the opportunity to attempt a stab at the Shadow mage but before he could make the cut Kageyama acted.

"Guard Shadow" Several long shadow arms sprouted out from nowhere and formed a barrier in front of Kageyama. Bishop stopped for a second before moving once again and slashing at the barrier. The slash did end up destroying a few of the arms but the rest stayed. Just as Bishop was about to make about swing the arms unfurled themselves swung themselves at the Illusionist.

The fists impacted Bishop who was sent back a little bit but was able to land on his feet and readied himself for another attack. Kageyama, however, decided that now would be a great time for some mid-fight banter, "Those little tricks of yours won't last forever. Eventually, I'll bring you down."

Bishop found himself once again rolling his eyes at the Shadow mage. He still had plenty left in his arsenal and that wasn't including his Greater Illusions. But if the Red Forehead wanted to give him some time to set something up then he wasn't going to say no.

"Says the guy who uses Shadow magic. How does that saying go again? Oh right 'While other mages do the work, Shadow mages just hide in the shadows and the claim they helped." Shadow magic wasn't as badly stereotyped as Illusions but every common type of magic had some negative stereotypes associated with them. Like Fire mages being hot-headed or Earth mages being constantly high. Shadow mages were stereotyped has cowards, kinda like the French of this world.

Kageyama's anger exploded at the statement as he pulled from his magic and prepared to cast a spell. "Knuckle Shadow" Once again several dozens of long shadow arms formed around him and throw themselves at Bishop. And once again they simply passed through a "Mirror Image" that Bishop had set up during the banter.

Kageyama's eyes widened in surprise before whirling around preparing for a spell for an attack from behind. An attack did come from behind but that only happened because Kageyama ended up turning his back to Bishop who had been in front and slightly off to the side of the Shadow mage under a "Vanish".

Bishop didn't hesitate when his opponent when he gave him an opening. Kageyama let out a pained yell once again as Bishop slashed at his back once again and sent the Shadow mage tumbling to the ground.

This time though when Kageyama tried to get up he found little strength in his muscles as the Blue Waltz poison was truly starting to kick in after a second application of said poison. Kageyama found he could only slightly lift himself from the ground and proceeded to glare at the Illusionist who was standing in front of him.

"Damn it! Fine, even if you beat me you won't beat Erigor. I bet he's killing one of your friends right now and he'll b-" Kageyama found himself interrupted when someone else's words rang out across the battlefield.

"Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist"

From the sky, Natsu unleashed a barrage of flaming fist at Erigor who found he could do nothing against the onslaught of fist. Once the spell ended a bruised Erigor fell out of the sky and impacted the ground creating a crater where he landed as he just laid their unconscious.

Silence found itself upon the battlefield as all the Esienwald guild members who hadn't been defeated yet stared in shock at their defeated ace. The only sound was of Bishop's dry voice as he said: "You were saying."

Just as several of the dark mages started to make a run for it Erza acted. "Heaven's Wheel Armor" Wearing her new winged armor, Erza flew up into the sky and threw blunt weapons at the retreating mages who were all hit and knocked unconscious.

She then proceeds to summon up several more weapons that surround her as she glared down at all the members of Esenwald who were starting up fearfully at the Requip mage. "It over! All of you on your knees and surround!" For a second the dark mages did nothing until one of them, some guy that had some Egyptian headdress, stepped forward and spoke "Oh ya! And what ar-" And that was about as far as he made it until his face was introduced to the top of a war hammer.

"Anyone else?" At Erza's words, all the mages got on their knees and started to surrender as Gray got to work creating ice handcuffs for them all.

"Well looks like things are over." Stated Bishop as he looked at the surrendering mages. Kageyama was behind him as he ground his teeth in frustration at the current events. The Shadow mage decided to try one last thing.

"Shadow Oroc-" Before Kageyama could finish his spell Bishop whirled around with his speed enhanced by his Ring of Haste and landed a sucker punch on the side of the Shadow mages face. Said mage flew for a few feet before landing on the ground unconscious.

"Should have just stayed down," Bishop says as he held his fist to the side for a second, before hissing in pain as he waved his fist to get it to stop the stinging.

He really should get a punching bag or something if he was going to punch people.

(Bishop's POV)

I watched as the members of Eisenwald were rounded up and put into a prison transport vehicle. After the battle ended Erza ended up calling the rune knights again and had them come to our current location instead. They got here a few minutes ago and we're almost ready to transport all the Dark mages to jail.

Off to the side, I saw Lucy and Gray talking about something. From the looks of it, Lucy was thanking Gray for something and Gray was trying his best to not turn into a tomato.

Natsu was currently laying on the ground with a big bump on his head. After the rune knights had shown up Cana had promptly smacked him on the head and went off mumbling about idiotic younger brothers and jinxes.

Erza was standing right next to me as we overlooked the mages being prepped for transport and making sure none of them tried anything. Luckily it seemed like most of the fight had been taken out of them and there were no incidents. Eventually when everything looked ready one of the rune knights, a captain from the looks of it, came up to me and spoke.

"I'd like to thank you for help with the Eisenwald matter. While I'm sure the magic council will be annoyed that you all fought a dark guild without permission, I'm sure they will look the other way for this incident. Now I believe one of you have Lullaby in your hammerspace?"

I nodded at his question but before I pulled the demon flute out, I had a thought, "Do you have any anti-magic or curse containers do you?" The captain looked up for a moment in thought before nodding his head and calling for one of his fellow knights to grab something. After a minute a knight came up with what looked like a clear rectangular box made of reinforced glass that had a purple glow around it.

Once the thing was opened, I reached into my hammerspace and used my Ring of Telekinesis to pull out the flute while making sure I didn't touch the thing. Just as I was about to put the thing into the container it spoke.

"Foooooooools! I am the demon flute Lullaby and I shal-" and that's as far as it got before I shoved it into the box and used my ring to close the door. The flute looked on in surprise before trying to say something but it was muted by the box. This went on for a few seconds before the flute was carried away as it still seemed to shout out aimlessly.

"Welp. Glad that's over." And with that said I turned around and headed for Erza's now upward turned car, all the while ignoring the shocked looks I was getting.

I was enjoying a rather nice glass of grape juice and magic lore book at the bar in the guild when the guild master sat next to me. "Those meetings sure are a pain I tell ya, lad."

He quickly downed the beer that Mira gave him before leaning back and letting out a relaxed sigh. "So, lad, did anything interesting happen while I was away?"

"Nope," I told him while not taking my eyes off my book as I turned the page and took a sip from my drink.

AN: Wow, I knew that the Lullaby arc would be short but I thought it would be at least three chapters but it just didn't work out that way, oh well at least that means we can get to more important arcs faster. I ended up not using any greater illusions since Bishop didn't right any opponents that would require them. Guess it shows were he his in terms of readiness for canon at least.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. This chapter's shoutout is going to Reptil for his review and suggestions for Illusions.

...Sooooooo... Kinda don't have a joke planned for this section...Don't give me that look! You try coming up with an original joke about fanfiction and leaving reviews every week...You could? Well, that's no surprise you're clearly an awesome person who's great at everything and leaves reviews on fanfictions they read...You know what I'm hungry I'm going to go get something to eat.

Have a great day.

P a treon . com (slash) BETAsatchel