Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Phantom’s Move and Conspiracies

Deep within the moving fortress that served as the headquarters of Phantom Lord, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere hung in the air.

Jose Porla sat slouched upon his elevated throne, gazing down at the S-Class mages of the Element 4 gathered below. In the darkest corner of the grand hall, a solitary figure sat in the shadows, the rhythmic, grating sound of teeth gnawing on solid iron echoing through the room.

“Guild Master, I just don’t get it,” Totomaru of the Great Fire complained, spreading his arms with an arrogant scoff. “A no-name, third-rate guild like Sabertooth probably doesn’t even have the firepower of one of our minor branch divisions. Is there really a need to bother cooperating with them?”

He couldn’t fathom why his Guild Master would seek out such an insignificant faction. If the goal was to annihilate Fairy Tail, Phantom Lord’s own overwhelming military might was more than enough.

“Jiemma’s Magic Power as a Guild Master is barely passable, true, but that is hardly the point,” Jose replied, propping his cheek against his knuckles. A sinister, calculating smile stretched across his face. “The incident at the ruins of Galuna Island recently gave Fairy Tail a massive wave of positive public reputation.”

Jose’s eyes darkened as he mapped out the political landscape. Large-scale, unprovoked conflicts between legitimate, Council-recognized guilds were strictly forbidden. His original master plan had been to provoke Makarov into throwing the first punch through a series of minor, escalating frictions. That would give Phantom Lord the moral high ground for a devastating counterattack.

Ultimately, his ambition was twofold: utterly annihilate Fairy Tail to settle their long-standing feud, and capture the runaway daughter of the Heartfilia Consortium. The resulting vast wealth would permanently solidify Phantom Lord’s position as the undisputed number one guild in Fiore.

Fairy Tail’s reputation had historically been a chaotic mess of property damage and noise complaints. If a war broke out, the outside world—and the Magic Council—would naturally assume the reckless fairies had broken the rules first. Phantom Lord could easily pin the blame on them, even if half a town got leveled in the crossfire. History is written by the victors, after all. Even if the Council was displeased afterward, they wouldn’t dare issue more than a slap on the wrist to Fiore’s strongest guild.

But now, the Galuna Island incident had been publicly reported, showering Fairy Tail in unexpected praise. Voices of support were echoing through the Council chambers, throwing unnecessary resistance into Jose’s otherwise perfect scheme.

Thus, Jiemma—who had openly clashed with Chase during the recent Guild Masters’ regular meeting—entered Jose’s sights. A small, desperate guild was the perfect pawn. They weren’t heavily involved in the political web, and they could be discarded without a second thought the moment their usefulness expired.

“Fighting for the sake of an ally’s safety… Monsieur Guild Master, you are truly overflowing with gentlemanly grace! Non, non, non!” Sol of the Earth twisted his lanky body in a bizarre, worm-like dance, muttering his signature catchphrase.

“The final curtain call of the fairies… oh, it sounds so terribly sad! Truly, deeply sad!” Aria of the Heavens clasped his massive hands together. Tears streamed endlessly from beneath his bandaged eyes, practically flooding the floor with crocodile tears.

“Drip, drop…” Juvia of the Deep stood perfectly still beneath a conjured, gloomy rain cloud. She held her umbrella close, her gaze downcast, showing absolutely no interest in joining the conversation.

“Mystogan, Laxus, Erza… and now this Chase.” Jose slowly dropped his smile, his fingers digging into the armrest of his throne. A venomous, intensely strong jealousy burned in his eyes. “Damn Makarov. Damn Fairy Tail! How much power do they need to hoard before they’re satisfied?!”

He took a slow breath, composing his malice, and glanced toward the shadows. “Gajeel. How did the task I assigned you go?”

Hearing his name, the towering man in the corner finally stopped chewing on his iron beam. He let out a harsh, metallic laugh.

“Gihihi. That shabby tavern looks like a steel hedgehog now,” Gajeel Redfox sneered, wiping iron shavings from his chin. “But it was late at night. I didn’t run into any lone fairies to crush.”

“Excellent work.” Jose leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs with a dark chuckle. “If Makarov can tolerate this… no, that old fool will definitely try to tolerate it to protect his precious guild’s standing. But when the time comes, you and the grunts from Sabertooth will deliver a second, much larger gift to Makarov.”

Jose’s grin widened into something demonic. “A gift that will absolutely make him lose his mind!”

Gajeel patted the dust from his heavy coat and stood up, his red eyes gleaming with violent arrogance. “I don’t need any help. If it’s just crushing a few trash fairies, I’m more than enough on my own!”

Jose’s mouth twitched in sheer annoyance. Did this muscle-brained idiot listen to a single word I just said?

“Ah… Gajeel… you are so sad!” Aria wailed, his tears flowing even more fiercely.

“Remember, Gajeel,” Jose instructed, his voice dropping to a cold, authoritative command. “Your primary objective is to divert Fairy Tail’s hatred entirely toward Sabertooth.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it. What a hassle,” Gajeel grunted, turning away.

Satisfied that the Dragon Slayer would at least follow the broad strokes of the plan, Jose turned his attention back to the Element 4.

“Aria, you will head to Sabertooth first to prepare the trap. Once Makarov makes his appearance on the battlefield, I will create an opening for you. You will drain his Magic Power completely.”

Jose then pointed toward the rain-soaked woman and the dancing gentleman. “While Fairy Tail and Sabertooth are tearing each other apart, Juvia, Sol—you two will find an opportunity to capture Lucy Heartfilia and bring her directly to me.”

“Understood… drip, drop…” Juvia murmured softly.

“Monsieur Guild Master, saying ‘capture’ is far too barbaric for a young mademoiselle! If it were me, I would invite her with a polite three-three-seven clapping rhythm! Non, non, non!” Sol cheered, striking a theatrical pose.

Jose ignored the blooming eccentricities of his subordinates. He narrowed his eyes, his gaze locking onto the magical projector glowing in the center of the room. It displayed a highly detailed map of the Fiore Kingdom.

“It is finally time,” Jose whispered to the empty air, “to erase Fairy Tail from this map forever.”

The next day.

After a simple, heartfelt farewell on the shores of Galuna Island, Ur followed her original plan, setting sail for the northern continent to visit old friends and relatives. Ultear, carrying a new resolve, returned to the Magic Council to begin her long path of atonement.

Meanwhile, Lyon—after enduring relentless persuasion from Sherry, Yuka, and Toby—finally made up his mind to officially join the Lamia Scale guild.

As for Chase and his chaotic group, they naturally began the long journey back home.

After a series of detours and train rides, it was already late afternoon by the time they finally set foot in Magnolia. The twilight of the setting sun cast long, heavy shadows over the usually vibrant streets, painting the town in a somber, muted tone.

Chase hadn’t summoned his Stone Giant to expedite the trip this time. As they walked through the cobblestone streets, his eyes narrowed. He keenly sensed the complex, nervous gazes of the townspeople. It was completely different from their usual warm greetings. People were whispering in hushed tones, quickly averting their eyes whenever the Fairy Tail mages walked past.

Combining this heavy atmosphere with his knowledge of the original timeline, the source of this anomaly was self-evident to Chase.

Phantom Lord had already made their move.

Natsu and the others, however, were completely oblivious to the shifting mood of the town. They were entirely absorbed in loudly bickering about the S-Class request they had just finished.

“Seven million Jewel! That was seven million Jewel!” Natsu groaned, pulling at his spiky pink hair in pure agony.

“Aye…” Happy drooled, staring blankly at the sky. “I can’t even count how many fish that much money could buy…”

It was one of the guild’s few absolute, unbreakable regulations: if a request was executed in violation of guild rules, the mages were strictly forbidden from collecting the client’s monetary reward, even if the job was completed perfectly.

Lucy, however, was skipping along with a bright, overjoyed smile, clutching her brand-new golden Celestial Spirit key—Sagittarius. It wasn’t technically a request reward, but rather a personal gift given by the Village Chief of the demon village to a ‘friend’, offered purely out of gratitude for saving their lives.

“Oh dear, we were the ones who broke the rules first anyway, so don’t worry too much about the reward!” Lucy said, waving her hand with an incredibly generous, entirely unsympathetic laugh.

Such a shameless, tone-deaf remark immediately drew the fiery condemnation of Natsu, Gray, and Happy.

“Easy for you to say! You got a super rare gift, so of course you don’t care about the money!” Gray snapped, crossing his arms.

“Exactly! We put in all our blood, sweat, and effort for absolutely nothing!” Natsu yelled, stomping his feet.

“Aye! I have an idea!” Happy raised a paw, his eyes gleaming with sudden mischief. “How about we just steal Lucy’s key and sell it for fish money!”

As soon as the blue cat suggested it, Natsu and Gray instantly perked up, turning toward the blonde mage with predatory grins.

“No! You absolutely cannot do that!” Lucy shrieked, hugging the Sagittarius key tightly to her chest and dropping into a defensive crouch. “This is a super rare golden Zodiac key! You can’t even buy these with money!”

Seeing the two boys and the cat slowly closing in on her, Lucy quickly scrambled behind Chase, grabbing the back of his coat and casting him a watery, desperate look for help.

Chase let out a dry sigh and raised a hand, effortlessly stopping Natsu and Gray in their tracks. “I don’t really have much of a concept of money myself,” Chase began, his tone casual before his expression suddenly darkened into something far more intimidating. “But before you three start plotting to fence Lucy’s keys on the black market to improve your living standards, shouldn’t you be worrying about a much bigger problem?”

The trio froze.

“The punishment for taking an S-Class request privately,” Chase said, his voice dropping to a dramatic, chilling whisper. “It will most likely be… that.”

In truth, Chase—as a transmigrator—had absolutely no idea what that punishment actually entailed, because the original story had never explicitly shown it. While he was certainly part of the guild’s more destructive, restless faction, his chaos was strictly limited to external combat requests. He had never actually violated a core regulation like stealing an S-Class job board flyer.

Logically, given Fairy Tail’s usual style, Makarov would probably just suspend them from taking jobs for a month and force them to do embarrassing community service. But watching them squirm was far too entertaining to pass up.

“Ahhhhhhh! It’s over! We’re totally dead!” Natsu screamed, grabbing his head in sheer terror. “That is not something ordinary humans can survive!”

“Damn it! Is it really going to be that?!” Gray paled, cold sweat dripping down his face. “I feel like I’m already dead just thinking about it!”

“Lucy…” Happy sniffled, pulling out a tiny white handkerchief. “After I pass away, please bury me by the sea… that way, my ghost can still eat fish…”

The more they hyped it up, the more terrifying the imaginary punishment became. Lucy’s face drained of all color. “Even Natsu and Gray are this terrified?! Just how barbaric is this punishment?!”

Gray’s eyes suddenly lit up with a desperate idea. He quickly shuffled over and stood firmly beside Chase, puffing out his chest. “Wait a minute! The ones who stole the S-Class request were you guys! Chase and I only went to the island to stop you!”

“H-How mean!” Lucy gasped, utterly betrayed. “Are you still part of the strongest team or not?!”

“Exactly, exactly! Unlike you criminals, Chase and I were violently threatened and dragged along by Natsu and Lucy!” Happy seized the opportunity, flying directly behind Chase’s head to claim the absolute moral high ground.

“You’re covered in mud, you traitorous dead cat! This is your second betrayal today!” Lucy cursed, shaking her fist at the feline.

Chase glanced over his shoulder at Gray and Happy, his eyes entirely devoid of mercy. “If my memory serves me correctly, you two actively joined Natsu and Lucy’s party halfway through the mission, didn’t you?”

Chase’s cold, ruthless statement instantly turned both the ice mage and the cat into crumbling stone statues on the spot.

“Don’t worry,” Chase added with a dry, amused smirk. “I will be sure to report the detailed situation, including your enthusiastic participation, truthfully to the Guild Master.”

The group continued to walk down the street, loudly arguing, pointing fingers, and making a chaotic scene in true Fairy Tail fashion.

That is, until they reached the final intersection.

As they turned the corner, the laughter and bickering instantly died in their throats. The group froze, their eyes widening in absolute horror.

There, standing at the end of the street, was their beloved Guild Hall. The building was completely shattered, its walls caved in, violently impaled from all sides by massive, jagged iron pillars that pierced straight through the heart of Fairy Tail.