Meanwhile, at the guild, Macao, Wakaba, Elfman, Lisanna, Romeo and Kinana as this was the name of Cubelios the partner of Cobra chose.
They started discussing various things until Mira and the thunder tribe returned with 3 idiots full of black bruises shocking everyone...
Makarov : Mira, how come Natsu, Gajeel and Laxus??
When they saw the state Laxus was they all gulped but at the same time, Makarov was shaken badly as he hadn't seen him for 7 years...
Being trapped in the Celestial world made them have close to zero contact except for the connective dreams of Macao...
Laxus : Ughg... Old man...
Makarov : It seems like you were quite active during those years we were...
Just before Makarov could speak he was cut off by Laxus who also groaned in pain from all the beating he got...
Laxus : GGrrrnnn... I was the strongest, who would protect this family in your absent??
Laxus : Although a few people managed to give me a surprise...
Hearing his words everyone was stunned and Makarov opened his eyes wide open, he also rubbed them and cleaned his ears as if he thought he lost his senses...
Letting out a sigh as he came back to his senses, he looked at him and couldn't help but become emotional as he welcomed Laxus back to the guild...
Everyone started cheering as they knew, what Laxus have done partially during those 7 years and welcomed him with tons of food and alcohol...
Of course many got drunk in their excitement and almost destroyed the Guild which earned them a beating from Mira...
Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains, Gray and Erza have located the bandits' hideout but unbeknownst to them, Juvia has followed them.
Gray and Erza try to get some sleep, but soon after, the bandits return, with Gray and Erza attempting to stop them.
Gray : Damn it and i wanted to rest...
Erza : No complaining...
Gray : I know...
Bang!!! BooM!!! Clang!!! Bang!!! BooM!!! Clang!!!
Erza : Re-Equip!!!
Gray : Ice-Make!!!!
Erza had done her Flame armour while Gray launched Ice arrows before they manage to hit their targets, two figures flash-forward along with their voice resounding...
??? : Flame Cooking!!!
??? : Ice Cooking!!!
When her flame attacks touched his weapon which was a frying pan, he used it vertically extended sidewards, with the bottom pointed towards the incoming flames and absorb them.
Then the man, spinning on himself, released it from the concave part of his pan, sending it back at Erza who dodged it easily in the first place...
However, what surprised Erza and Gray was that the flames discharged from Erza came back twice as strong...
If that wasn't enough, the other guy used a similar frying pan which was capable of absorbing ice and reflect the ice at double damage towards Gray.
While Gray easily avoided that, Erza used this chance and rushed forward while donning another armour and making 100 swords to appear as she shredded everything in her path...
Then Gray used his ice to bind them and complete the task as they took the money back and eventually return to their client's and handling them over...
Gray : Anyway who was those two??
Erza : I think they were called Vanishing Brothers...
Erza : Lucy and Natsu had encountered them in the past...
Gray : So since Lucy seemed to beat them no wonder they were so weak...
Erza : Well, we also didn't have a winner in our bout...
Gray : Sigh...
Erza : Let's go back...
Meanwhile, at Lucy's house, Levy manages to decipher the writing on the mechanical rod, informing them that the script is ancient Potamelian and reads "Time is etched and then chaos descends".
Lucy suddenly remembers the phrase and went to her shelf to retrieve a book before she started reading out a story about the strange destiny of a clock that had been passed on for centuries.
They then find out that the rod is actually the hand of a large pendulum clock.