Fairy Tail: All Magic Converges in One Body

Chapter 171 The Crow's Tail

Three days later, at dusk, Hope stood at the entrance to a desolate valley. Because it was Makarov's secret mission, he had come alone.

According to the coordinates, this valley is a stronghold of a dark guild, but apart from jagged rocks and withered vines, there is no trace of any building.

"It was hidden quite well."

Hope closed her eyes, and her magical perception spread out like ripples.

A few seconds later, he opened his golden "Heavenly Eye" and fixed his gaze on an inconspicuous gray rock half-buried in the soil. The surface of the rock was engraved with magical patterns that were imperceptible to the naked eye.

That's a kind of illusion technique.

This reminded Hope of the magical information Makarov had given him about Ivan.

With a father who is still strong and capable as one of the "Ten Wizard Saints" and a son who is already at the level of a "Ten Wizard Saint" at a young age, Ivan's strength should be quite good as well.

In reality, Ivan's direct combat strength is less than half that of Makarov and Laxus, but he is still not to be underestimated.

Ivan possessed the magic of "illusion" and had honed it to an unparalleled level. The illusions he created were so realistic that even Makarov was fooled.

A phantom mage capable of deceiving even the Ten Holy Warriors is practically unique on this continent.

Unfortunately, all illusions and phantoms will be exposed under the gaze of the "Heavenly Eye," which can see the flow of magic.

After shutting down the "Heavenly Eye" he had taken from Richard, Hope stretched out his right hand and quickly wrote golden magical characters on the gray rock with his index finger.

When the text completely disappeared into the rock, this exquisite illusion spell was thus silently broken.

In an instant, a cliff face in the canyon peeled away like a faded oil painting, revealing an inconspicuous cave entrance.

Hope made no attempt to conceal his arrival, instead swaggering into the cave entrance, where he was immediately spotted by the two guarding mages.

"Halt! Who goes there?" shouted a man with a scar on his face.

Too lazy to answer, Hope snapped her fingers, and two gusts of wind instantly knocked the two unconscious. "I'll handle the reporting myself."

Behind the cave, there was a staircase leading downwards. The cold, damp air, mixed with the smell of cheap tobacco and alcohol, wafted out, and the faint sound of noisy people could be heard from the end of the staircase.

Hope walked down the stairs.

The passage was narrow at first, but it soon opened up, revealing a simple yet sizable underground space that had been hollowed out of the mountain.

Dozens of people dressed in haphazard clothes and with fierce expressions gathered around a rough long table, drinking and playing cards. A guild flag with a crow-like pattern hung on the wall.

According to known information, after Ivan was expelled from the guild by Makarov, he created a dark guild called "Raven's Tail" in order to fight against and take revenge on Fairy Tail.

However, the level of the "Raven's Tail" mage is really...

It's hard to say.

Hey! Where did you come from, kid?!

A burly man with a face full of scars spotted Hope, grabbed the battle axe next to his seat, and then a dozen or so Raven Tail Mages surged out and surrounded him.

Feeling the unfriendly gazes focused on him, Hope calmly glanced around and realized that even calling these people ugly and deformed was too kind.

"I'm looking for Ivan."

Hope calmly began, "Call him out, and you'll suffer less."

"Arrogant brat!" The burly man roared as he charged forward, his battle axe imbued with earth magic as he slammed it toward Hope.

Hope simply raised his hand and caught the seemingly sharp battle axe blade. As for the magic surrounding it, he didn't even bother to look at it because it was too weak.

Hope casually tossed it, and the burly man and his battle axe were smashed against the stone wall.

This move intimidated the others, but most of the mages who could join the Dark Guild were fierce. After a brief hesitation, they launched their attack simultaneously.

Fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades, rock spikes... all sorts of magic attacked Hope from all directions.

Hope sighed, "Why are you bunch of small fry so clueless? You have to keep shouting and fighting in front of me. Don't you know I'm part of the main characters?"

As soon as the words fell, several stone walls suddenly rose from the ground, blocking all the incoming magic.

Immediately afterwards, the stone wall deformed and extended, transforming into giant rock hands that grabbed the surrounding mages one by one and pinned them to the ground.

The battle ended in less than thirty seconds.

Around Hope lay scattered raven-tail mages, imprisoned by rocks, struggling but unable to break free from their powerful restraints.

Just then, a secret room slowly opened, and a man of medium build with a medium-length beard walked out. He looked to be in his forties, and his features bore some resemblance to Makarov, but his eyes were sinister and cunning.

Ivan clapped his hands, a fake smile on his face.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant."

"Fairy Tail Hope, I've heard of you. That old bastard actually sent you to capture me. It seems Gajeel betrayed me after all."

Is Gajeel involved in this?

Hope was somewhat surprised, but didn't pay much attention. Instead, he looked at Makarov's son and said, "Since you know that I was sent by the chairman, you should also know that there is no point in resisting. Just come back with me to see the chairman."

Ivan scoffed, "Go back? Why would I go back? I'm the guild master of the Dark Guild Raven's Tail now. Even the Balam Alliance, which controls 90% of the Dark Guilds, wouldn't dare lay a finger on my guild!"

"Oh?"

Hope scoffed, "Isn't it because the Raven's tail is so trash that the Balam Alliance filtered you out like garbage?"

Ivan's face immediately turned ugly after being exposed in public.

In fact, Hope could tell from the moment he walked in that although Ivan had established the Dark Guild, it wasn't doing very well. Not only was the guild's base in a terrible state, but all the members of the guild were also scoundrels.

Currently, only Ivan can watch "The Crow's Tail".

The awkward thing is that he is a phantom mage who is not strong in direct combat. After all, no matter how realistic the illusion is, the damage it can cause is extremely effective.

Hope twisted her wrist. "Ivan, are you going to tie yourself up, or should I help you?"

"Hmph! You underestimate me!"

Ivan drew his short wand. "Today I'll show you what happens when you underestimate me, Ivan Dolear!"

Dozens of purple magical threads shot out from the wand, attacking Hope like living creatures. These threads intertwined in the air, forming a large net that carried away a lot of spikes, instantly trapping Hope.

However, the next second, Hope, who was caught in the net, turned into a piece of wood.

At the same time, at the entrance of the cave.

Hope himself, leaning against the cave entrance idly tossing pebbles, smiled at Ivan, who was using illusions to conceal his whereabouts and trying to escape in front of him.

Then... a blank card fell down.

Chapter 172 The Severely Injured Drunkard

Ivan never expected that he would be captured so easily.

Hope hadn't expected that Ivan's first thought when the fight started would be to run away; the spiderweb-like magic was just a smokescreen for his escape.

With her magical wings spread, Hope prepared to fly to the nearest town.

After passing through a few clouds, feeling bored, his playful side kicked in. He waved the card in his hand, looked at the dizzy Ivan inside, and laughed, "Are you really the chairman's son? Laxus is so unlucky to have a father like you."

When confronted with accusations that he was not like his father and even less like his son, Ivan was filled with grief and indignation.

But that's just the way it is.

If he had half the power of Makarov or Laxus, he wouldn't need to recruit a bunch of trash into the guild and then have to do all the work himself for the guild's funds.

But a true man can bend and stretch. Ivan's change of expression was incredibly swift. He said to Hope in a fawning voice, "Um... Lord Hope, how about we make a deal? As long as you release me, I can offer very high terms."

"trade?"

Hope stopped, turned the card over so Ivan could see the ground at least a kilometer away. "Look," he said, "we're in the sky now. Can your offer be higher than the sky?"

Ivan remained silent.

But he knew he could never go back. He knew the secret: Makarov's expulsion of him from the guild was actually an act of kinship.

If they're sending someone to arrest him now, they must have come up with a way to deal with him without letting him reveal the secret.

No matter what, we must not let them be taken back.

Ivan gritted his teeth, then put on a smile again. "Lord Hope, Lord Hope, let's discuss this some more."

Seeing that Hope ignored him, Ivan had no choice but to continue, "Fairy Tail is not as righteous as you think. Behind Fairy Tail's bright appearance lies a dark secret that can overturn your understanding of that guild."

"If you release me, I will do everything in my power to help you obtain that secret, and from then on, I will be at your beck and call..."

"What? You dare call me a horse head?"

"I don't play solo lane!"

Hope, with a wicked sense of humor, shook the cards until Ivan passed out. As for the dark secret he spoke of that could overthrow the guild, Makarov would naturally tell him when they returned.

After all, compared to Ivan, Makarov's reputation score was far superior.

Hope flew all the way to the nearest town.

Because of a stream that is said to originate from Lingfeng Snow Mountain, the town is called "Yinxi Town".

The townspeople were not surprised at all to see a strange mage descending from the sky, after all, Silver Creek Town was a famous production site for magical prosthetics.

Just as Hope was strolling around and heading to the train station, an old man with a white beard and wearing a white coat called out to him, "Young man, are you here to pick up your companion?"

Hope looked left and right, then finally pointed to himself. "Old sir, were you calling me just now?"

"Otherwise what? Aren't you a mage from Fairy Tail?"

The old man pointed to the guild emblem on Hope's left forearm.

Before Hope could even finish his thought, the old man grabbed his hand and pulled him in one direction, saying as they walked, "Come with me to find someone. Your guild's mage is probably hiding somewhere, secretly drinking again."

"His internal organs are severely damaged, and he only recently had a magical prosthetic limb replaced. He's such a worry. I'm afraid I'll be retiring soon, and all I've managed to save is this drunkard..."

The old man's words startled Hope.

A guild member was injured, and quite seriously so, to the point of losing an arm or a leg, which made him very worried.

The old man, Hope, described the Fairy Tail mage as a man around forty years old, with orange hair, unkempt appearance, and an extreme fondness for alcohol.

Unfortunately, Hope didn't have such a person in her memory. So she could only follow the old man like a headless fly, searching for the person in various taverns throughout the town.

After searching around, they still couldn't find the person. Hope looked at the old man speechlessly, "Sir, as a doctor, didn't you even ask the patient's name?"