Inside the Fairy Tail Guild hall, the fireplace crackled, illuminating the group gathered around it.
Ezreal sat at the end of the long table, his fingertips lightly tapping the surface, his brow furrowed.
Ikaruga stood behind him, arms crossed, her gaze serene.
"So, all the Eisenwald members you encountered in Bayar City managed to evade your pursuit beforehand?" Erza asked, her hands clasped under her chin, her armor gleaming coldly in the firelight.
"More than that," Ikaruga said flatly. "They even knew which direction we would attack from and set up ambushes in advance."
"This isn't right," Gray frowned. "Eisenwald's intelligence capabilities couldn't possibly be this strong."
"Unless..." Levy pushed up her glasses, flipping through the magic book in her hands, "someone is providing them with real-time intelligence."
Ezreal's gaze fell on the map spread out on the table—it marked the locations of Eisenwald's past operations.
His fingertip traced the routes, finally stopping on a familiar name.
"Phantom Lord," he whispered, his eyes suddenly sharp.
Everyone was stunned.
"Phantom?" Natsu tilted his head. "Those gloomy guys?"
"Eisenwald's movements almost all revolve around Phantom's strongholds," Ezreal drew a circle on the map. "And their Vice-Guild Master, Yorick, is a Necromancer."
"This guy, who only joined Eisenwald a year ago, Natsu and Happy barely managed to defeat him together."
Ezreal lightly tapped the table with his finger, saying meaningfully, "How could it be such a coincidence that such a powerful Necromancer appeared, and such a coincidence that he joined Eisenwald?"
"Undead Magic..." Gray narrowed his eyes. "Who is the most famous Necromancer in Fiore Kingdom?"
Everyone looked up, falling silent for a moment. They looked at each other, already having found the answer in their companions' eyes.
"Phantom's Guild Master, Jose," Erza said in a deep voice.
The hall instantly fell silent.
"Wait," Lucy couldn't help but interject. "Are you saying... Phantom is secretly helping Eisenwald?"
"No," Ezreal shook his head. "I'm saying that Eisenwald might just be pawns; the true orchestrator behind everything is Phantom."
Marcus gasped in disbelief, "Though those guys are really annoying, but... no way, right?"
Cana frowned, playing with cards between her hands. "A legal Guild associating with or providing aid to a Dark Guild, that's a serious crime..."
Just then, the Guild's main doors opened, and Makarov walked in with steady steps.
"Guild Master!" Everyone stood up.
"Yo, everyone's here," Makarov waved with a smile, a cigar still clutched in his hand. "Looks like I returned just in time."
Ezreal's gaze fell on the cigar in Makarov's hand, his pupils contracting slightly.
"Guild Master, is this...?"
"Oh, this?" Makarov wiggled the cigar. "Jose gave it to me, said it was a souvenir."
Ezreal quickly stepped forward, took the cigar, and examined it closely.
The cigar box was engraved with the emblems of two Guilds—Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord.
"Souvenir?" Ezreal sneered. "More like a surveillance device."
He suddenly pried open the cigar box, revealing a tiny purple crystal embedded inside, emitting a faint magical fluctuation.
"This is..." Makarov's expression changed.
"A communication Lacrima," Levy leaned in to observe. "And it's two-way."
"Which means..." Gray's face darkened. "Jose has been listening to our conversations all this time?"
"Not only that," Ezreal crushed the crystal, a cold light glinting in his eyes... Late at night, the streets of Magnolia were silent.
Ezreal stood alone on the Guild's rooftop, gazing into the distance, in the direction of Phantom Lord's headquarters.
A hundred miles away, that Gothic castle appeared eerie and oppressive under the moonlight, like a dormant beast.
"Are you going alone?" Ikaruga's voice came from behind him.
"Yes," Ezreal didn't turn around. "If Phantom is truly controlling everything, then we must find out their objective."
Ikaruga was silent for a moment, then said, "Be careful."
Ezreal curved his lips, snapped his fingers, and a golden light shimmered around him.
"Don't worry, I am a Punishment Knight."
Before his words finished, his figure had already transformed into a streak of light, disappearing into the night.
Ghost City! Phantom Headquarters!
The gates of Ghost City were tightly shut, but Ezreal did not enter through the main entrance.
He circled to the side wing of the castle, condensed magic at his fingertips, and lightly pressed it against the wall.
"Passage."
A golden magic circle bloomed in his palm, and the wall rippled like water. His body passed directly through it.
The interior of the castle was utterly silent.
The torches on both sides of the corridor had long been extinguished; only faint moonlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, casting mottled shadows on the ground.
"Something's not right..." Ezreal frowned.
It was too quiet.
As one of the top five Guilds in the Fiore Kingdom, Phantom had a large number of members; it was impossible for there to be no sound at all.
He advanced along the corridor and pushed open the door to the training ground—equipment was neatly arranged, but a thin layer of dust covered it, clearly unused for a long time.
On the dining tables in the cafeteria, cutlery was neatly stacked, and there was even a half-finished cup of coffee, the water droplets on the cup's rim not yet fully evaporated.
"It's like... a sudden evacuation?"
Ezreal quickly walked to the Guild Master's office and pushed open the door—
Jose's chair was empty, but on the map spread out on the desk, Eisenwald's operational routes were clearly marked!
"Sure enough..."
He reached out to touch the map. As his fingertips made contact with the paper, the entire map suddenly burst into flames, turning to ash.
"Tsk."
Ezreal's gaze darkened, and he turned to walk deeper into the castle.
The underground altar.
Phantom's Undead Magic research facility.
Pushing open the heavy stone door, a decaying scent immediately assaulted him.
The magic circle in the center of the altar was extinguished, but dark purple magical traces remained on the ground.
"This is..."
Ezreal crouched down, lightly touched the ground with his fingertips, and his magical perception instantly spread.
"The same source of magic as the City Hall ghost!"
He suddenly looked up, his gaze fixed on a corner behind the altar—several charred fragments of sheet music were scattered there.
Picking one up, he saw that notes were marked with times and locations. One line clearly read:
"February 25th, Magnolia, sacrifice ten people, unseal the cursed song."
"It really is them controlling Eisenwald..."
Ezreal clutched the sheet music, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
Just then, asphalt-like shadows suddenly seeped from the walls around the altar, and countless undead puppets crawled out of the shadows, their hollow eye sockets staring intently at him.
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