Hearing Kaien's emotionless words, everyone involuntarily shivered.
It felt like they were being targeted by a terrifying monster.
"Get him! He's alone! There's no way we can't take him down with so many of us!!"
"That's right! Daring to mess with Eisenwald? He has to pay in blood!!"
"Kill him!!"
A mob of people charged at Kaien, weapons drawn.
A smirk crept up Kaien's lips.
"That's more like it!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, his figure vanished.
"Where is he?!"
Slash! Slash!
One after another, wounds appeared on their bodies.
"Aaaaahhh!"
"Uwaaahhh!!" ...
Screams filled the air. They could hear someone moving around them, but they couldn't see anyone—only their comrades dropping one by one.
A nameless terror took hold of them all. None of them knew if they would be next.
Whoosh!
Kaien reappeared.
"So weak. Is this really the level of a dark guild? How boring."
He sounded disappointed.
"You bastard! I'll fight you!!"
Unable to take it any longer, Piado roared, stomping hard with both feet as he leapt into the air. Golden light gathered in his fists as he charged toward Kaien.
"What an idiot."
Kaien curled his lips into a sneer and threw the blade in his hand at Piado.
"What?!"
Panicked, Piado quickly swung his fist and knocked the blade away.
But the very moment he did, Kaien's figure appeared right in front of him. His right hand clamped down on Piado's face, and the next thing he knew, an overwhelming force surged through him.
With one hand pressing against his face, Kaien drove Piado forward.
BOOM—!!
"Aaaaaaaaahhh!!"
Piado smashed into the side of a train car, crashing a giant hole through the metal. His body tumbled inside, eyes rolling back as he fell unconscious.
"W-What?!"
"He took down Piado in one hit?!"
The Eisenwald members were shaken. Piado was among the top five in their guild—and yet, he was eliminated that easily? Who was this guy?
At that moment, the overweight Karaka stared at Kaien's appearance and suddenly seemed to realize something. His face turned pale, cold sweat pouring down uncontrollably.
"Black hair… black T-shirt… gray pants and black sneakers… a body like a monster… N-No way!!"
Rayul, standing beside him, frowned. "What? Karaka, you know him?!"
Karaka didn't respond, only muttered in terror, "It's him! It has to be him!"
"We're done for! We're dead!!"
"What do you mean?! Who the hell is he?!"
"Don't you remember what happened two months ago?"
"Huh? What about it?"
That country had once been ordinary, but due to rampant banditry—stealing food and money from villagers—those same villagers eventually became bandits themselves. As more bandits flocked in, the country became a den of thieves.
Then two months ago, the largest bandit gang in the region—the Lokas Bandit Crew, over ten thousand strong—was wiped out overnight.
The incident sent shockwaves across the continent. That gang was so large that even the military had failed to deal with it.
And the man who took them down was called the Tyrant.
Because his methods were so brutally violent—over ten thousand men, all either dead or crippled—when the military finally arrived, the scene was described as hell itself.
Karaka pointed a trembling finger at Kaien.
"It's him… he's the one who destroyed the Lokas Bandit Crew… he's the Tyrant!!"
"The Tyrant!!!"
Everyone froze in shock.
The Tyrant was one of the most infamous names on the Ishgar continent, alongside the Black-Winged Demon, the Flame Emperor, and the Sword Saint who had slain a dragon half a year ago.
These four were living legends of the West.
"H-How can this be?!"
"W-Why would someone like that come after a small-time guild like Eisenwald?!"
Panic overtook the survivors.
This was the man who had crushed a force of ten thousand—many of whom were Mages—and some reports said there were over a thousand magic users in that group.
He wasn't just a Mage.
He was a Great Mage—and even without the official title from the Magic Council, his power was on par with the Ten Wizard Saints.
Even Erigor's face had gone grim. He'd heard the rumors of the Tyrant too.
"Tyrant… our Eisenwald has no quarrel with you! Why are you attacking us? Did someone hire you?!"
"Hire me?"
Kaien shook his head and then raised his right hand, showing the emblem on the back of it.
"Is that… Fairy Tail?!"
"The Tyrant is a member of Fairy Tail?!"
The entire Eisenwald was stunned.
Up until now, people assumed the Tyrant was either a lone rogue or part of a dark guild—especially given his brutal methods, which didn't match the style of any legal guild.
Who would've thought he was part of Fairy Tail?
Their faces turned ashen.
Fairy Tail… and the Tyrant… they were one and the same.
Now it made sense why he had come.
They had targeted Makarov, the Guild Master of Fairy Tail.
Of course they'd be hunted down.
But what they didn't understand was—how had their plan been leaked?
Erigor's face darkened. "Attack! Kill him! If we don't take him down, we're finished! We have no way out!!"
The rest of Eisenwald realized the same thing. This man—this Tyrant—would never let them live, now that he knew their goal.
Their only chance at survival…
…was to kill him.
"Shadow Magic!!"
Suddenly, a shadow crept along the ground, silently slinking toward Kaien. In the next instant, it solidified into a pair of hands and grabbed his ankles tight.
"I've got him!" shouted Kageyama.
Kaien's speed had been their biggest problem. But if they could lock down his feet—stop him from moving—they might actually have a chance.