Soon, the eight contestants were brought to the competition venue.
These were streets that had been prepared in advance.
The residents had already been evacuated, and the area had been arranged specifically for this competition.
"The first event of the main tournament, Hidden, officially begins! Time limit: one hour!"
After everyone had been taken to different positions across the streets, King Toma gave the order and declared the official start of the main tournament.
The originally empty streets immediately filled with illusions.
These illusions were no different from real people—at least on the surface. The only difference was that they did not move.
Countless illusions filled every street, making even walking through them somewhat difficult.
Trying to find seven opponents among so many illusions would indeed be troublesome. All of the illusions looked like members of the teams that had entered the main tournament.
Naturally, there were also illusions of the contestants taking part in this event, and those were the targets most likely to be attacked by mistake.
"As expected, none of them are living creatures. Looks like this round is mine!"
Bickslow removed his mask, looked at the illusions, and immediately made his judgment.
What came next was simple.
Fly into the sky, find the real people, attack, and keep scoring points.
"Yo!"
However, just as Bickslow stepped onto one of his wooden dolls and flew upward, a powerful melody carried across the streets.
"It's Hisui!"
Bickslow immediately realized where the sound was coming from.
As guildmates, they were naturally familiar with that music.
More importantly, the song Hisui was playing was Fairy Tail's own guild anthem—Masayume Chasing. Of course Bickslow could sing it too.
"What does this mean? Is she exposing her position?"
Bickslow looked toward the direction of the music.
It was very obvious.
The moment the music began, everyone had probably learned Hisui's current location.
"Sorry, Hisui. Since you exposed yourself first, I'm heading over."
Bickslow did not hesitate and immediately chose to move in that direction.
Anyone with confidence in their ability would probably go check it out now.
"Hisui? What is she doing?"
Elsewhere, Miki, known as the "Oni Princess" and wearing a pair of decorative oni horns on her head, also looked utterly confused.
She had already released her little bird, Pippi, into the sky to search for targets.
But before it could find anyone, Hisui had suddenly revealed herself.
Tall, healthy, and well-built, Miki did not think too much about it.
She immediately followed Pippi toward the sound of the music.
Miki's magic allowed her to control the little bird Pippi.
Pippi was a magical bird that could turn into a fireball or shield, deliver letters, and even speak.
However, Miki did not really rely on Pippi for combat.
She was a martial fighter who mainly depended on charging in and beating people down herself.
"Hisui? Did something happen? Do you need help?"
Warren placed his fingers against his temple and established a communication link with Hisui.
The street area was not especially large, and it was basically within the coverage of Warren's Telepathy Magic.
Because of that, he could quickly connect to everyone and accurately determine who was an illusion and who was real.
The illusions could not be reached through Telepathy Magic.
"I'm fine, Warren."
Hisui's calm voice came through.
She truly did not sound like she was in trouble.
"It's all of you who may need to be a little careful."
Warren had just breathed a sigh of relief when Hisui continued speaking.
Those words stunned him, and his eyes widened.
"W-Wait!"
Warren had only just shouted when, before he could react, his eyelids began fighting each other.
Then his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.
He had fallen asleep directly!
Thud!
Pippi fell onto Miki's body since the little bird had also fallen asleep.
On the other side, Bickslow crashed from the air and hit the ground hard, but even that did not wake him from his dream.
"This is... basically cheating..."
The moment Hibiki heard the melody, he realized what it was.
But he had no way to block out the sound of the music. Even covering his ears did not work since it only slowed the hypnosis slightly.
In the end, he was still put to sleep by the melody.
Millianna and Warcry, the "cat and dog" pair, were no exception. Neither of them even had time to react before they fell into a deep sleep.
"As expected of Marco-dono disciple..."
The one who lasted the longest was naturally Jura Neekis.
But even he failed to reach Hisui before finally falling asleep on the ground.
Hisui stood on the roof of a house, wearing the Lyra Cloth, her fingers playing the matching lyre.
And in front of the lyre was a specially made magical horn.
That's right.
If the lyre's sound was not loud enough, then external tools could be used to strengthen it.
With this magical amplifier horn, Hisui's music could spread across the entire arena.
The music carried her magic power outward and successfully hypnotized all seven of her opponents.
As for the illusions, they naturally were not affected by the music.
Hisui's melody had not caused any damage to those illusions at all.
"T-This is allowed?!"
Watching this scene through the broadcast lacrima, everyone was stunned.
Fairy Tail Team A had actually scored in this way.
And they had obtained fourteen points all at once.
That was full marks.
They had taken every available point from all their opponents!
"Now, the first-place winner of this competition has already been decided. With fourteen points, it is Hisui from Fairy Tail Team A!"
King Toma directly announced the news.
The highest score second place could obtain now was twelve points, because no one could score from Hisui anymore.
The remaining seven contestants could no longer earn points by attacking her.
On the broadcast screen, Hisui finished playing her piece, then elegantly bowed toward her surroundings, announcing the end of this performance.
"Amazing! As expected of Marco's disciple!"
Hisui's performance naturally received countless praises, and among those praises, Marco's name was subconsciously included.
After all, Hisui was using Marco's line of new Celestial Spirit Magic.
Her status as his "first disciple" had long since become widely known.
Now, her own reputation had truly been established as well.
"She really did well."
Facing everyone's compliments, Marco also smiled and praised her.
Hisui really had worked hard.
Although her magical talent could not be considered exceptional, her compatibility with Lyra was excellent. Because of that, she could bring out Lyra's power properly.
This was a constellation whose strength was in no way inferior to the Zodiac.
After bowing, Hisui released the effects of her magic.
She had already secured an invincible position. No one could score points from her anymore.
By releasing the magic now, she could allow the other guilds to continue fighting each other and gaining points, rather than making everyone sleep until the event ended.
"That girl is still too kind."
Seeing this, Marco smiled and shook his head.
In truth, Hisui could have kept all the contestants asleep until the end of the match.
In that case, Fairy Tail Team A would have had a fourteen-point lead, while every other team would still have zero.
But Hisui clearly did not intend to take things that far.
After scoring full marks herself, she still gave the other teams a chance to keep earning points.
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