"And one last thing before we start-pabo!" The pumpkin cut off the guilds that were ready to take off.
"Um... as you see, this... this round is dedicated to Lucy Heartfilia, a former mage of Fairy Tail who perished on this day, three years ago-pabo." Mato sneaked a glance at Winged Fate, but it didn't go unnoticed by the Eternalis.
'Oh,' Lucy thought. 'He must me making sure that they don't blow up the city upon hearing our names, since they hate us so much.' She channeled her thoughts to their little 'mind messaging' group chat and got 'yeah's and 'yup's in return.
Except for one. Mavis seemed to think differently, but her thoughts weren't exactly organized and clear, either.
'Lu-chan, I think that might not be the case...'
The elemental goddess mentally shrugged, cutely, and suggested. 'It's always out there, Mavis-nee!' She finished off with a mental cute smile, at which the Eternalis melted.
'Hey,' Levy ended their little conversation. 'Listen.'
"This year's Grand Magic Games in general is dedicated to the five girls who were murdered on this day, five years ago. Lucy Heartfilia, Levy McGarden, Mirajane Strauss, Kagura Milkovich, and Yukino Aguria-pabo. And Mavis Vermillon-pabo." The pumpkin muttered the last part under his breath, but all the gods/goddesses and most dragon/god/devil slayers caught it.
"And so, since this is dedicated to Lucy Heartfilia, there will be twelve fake zodiac keys scattered around the Labyrinth-pabo. There will also be eight fake silver keys and one fake black key-pabo. Each gold key is worth 5 points, the black key 10, and each silver key 3-pabo."
"Ready...
Set...
GOO!!!"
--
Faster than the speed of light, Lucy opened a swirling golden portal and they uniformly jumped through. Since Lucy -- Yukino had given her all her keys -- had a connection with all the keys, finding them was easy. They had gone for the gold keys first, knowing that since they would add up to the most points. They found all but two; somebody had probably gotten to them first.
She didn't sense any silver keys, nor the black one. They headed straight for the exit, but then Lucy just teleported them out of there.
Unsurprisingly, they were the first guild to arrive. A second later, Winged Fate showed up with the keys they had collected.
"Hmm... ok, so 10 gold keys from you-pabo," He said pointing at Eternal Destiny. "Totaling to-" The pumpkin was cut off by Makarov.
"50 points."
"Yes-pabo. And you," He pointed at Winged Fate. "8 silver keys, 2 gold keys, and the black key-pabo. Totaling to-" Once again, Mato was cut off by Makarov.
"44 points."
"Yes! Thank you, you may leave now...pabo...!"
Before he had even finished his sentence, the ten had already disappeared through swirling gold/red portals -- Eternal Destiny and Winged Fate, respectively.
--
Three hours later, the next six guilds showed up.
"No keys." They all groaned, tired and agitated.
"Don't worry-pabo! The first two guilds arrived three hours ago with all the keys-pabo!" Mato yelled, cheerfully. "Though I'm kinda disappointed there wasn't any fighting between them, the next four days will have to suffice-pabo!"
Their jaws were literally on the ground -- not just from the hidden creepiness of their host that they had yet to get used to -- but also from the shocking difference in powers.
"T-Three hours ago?" Jura Neekis stuttered out. Their jaws were now digging holes in the ground. No one have ever heard the Jura Neekis, stutter.
"Yes-pabo. Now, go get some sleep; I'll see you tomorrow-pabo!"
'Shocking, so shocking.' Was running through their heads.
'Look's like we have some competition, eh?' Was running through Natsu's mind.