At the highest observation deck of the Nirvana's tower.
"Chase, what happened to the bump on your head and the shoe print on your face?" Makarov asked suspiciously, looking at Chase's rather disheveled appearance.
He clearly remembered that after the fight with Hades, Chase hadn't had any strange injuries like that.
So, were these new?
Mira and Erza had ultimately been soft-hearted. They hadn't beaten the weakened Chase until he collapsed, only giving him a small lesson.
Chase scratched his head and gave an awkward, perfunctory explanation. "Ahem, I tripped and fell on the way here."
Ultear glanced at Mira and Erza standing behind Chase, their expressions unfriendly, and immediately guessed the reason. She teased him with a smile, "As expected of you. Tripping and getting a shoe print on your face."
Having witnessed the evil Grimoire Heart be destroyed, she didn't feel a sense of relief or redemption. Instead, she was plunged into deep sorrow and confusion, unsure of which path to take from now on.
After all, in a sense, Grimoire Heart had also been her "home."
Makarov had noticed her distress, so he had brought her here alone to offer guidance.
In his words: "Guiding young people who have lost their way back onto the right path is the duty of us old-timers from a bygone era."
After some persuasion, Ultear had finally found her reason for being. That was why she could now act as relaxed as this.
Hearing Ultear's words, Makarov belatedly realized what was going on. His deep gaze kept shifting between Chase, Mira, and Erza.
So, these three have finally laid their cards on the table?
As a dedicated master of Fairy Tail, aside from quietly following the growth and changes of his guild members, he also paid considerable attention to their daily gossip, love affairs, and squabbles. He had even specially compiled photo albums of Natsu and the others as kids.
So, a long time ago, his sharp eye had already noticed the special feelings Mira and Erza had for Chase.
Under the old man's ambiguous gaze, Mira and Erza suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Their faces immediately turned red.
But Chase, with his thick skin, wasn't bothered at all. He just stared back at Makarov.
"Hmm..." With a heavy sigh from Makarov, the strange atmosphere was broken.
He had actually wanted to say, "How did two flowers of the guild end up on the same pile of cow dung?" But on second thought, this was a matter between the children, so he decided not to get involved. He would just let things take their natural course.
"Tell me, Chase. After we left, what did Precht—Hades—and the others plan to do?"
Makarov withdrew his scrutinizing gaze and returned to the topic with a serious tone.
Hearing this, Chase was momentarily stunned, then sighed. "As expected, you noticed, old man."
"Isn't that only natural? Your little trick of secretly summoning Dark Magician might fool the others, but it can't fool me!"
That said, the fact that Makarov hadn't stopped him showed that he actually approved of Chase's cautious approach to eliminate potential threats to the guild. And for that, he was relieved.
This was a quality a guild master should possess, beyond strength, experience, and character.
In this regard, Chase really was the perfect candidate for the next guild master!
He secretly summoned Dark Magician to monitor Hades?
Mira, Erza, and Ultear all looked at Chase simultaneously, obviously surprised he had held something back.
Under their gaze, Chase slowly opened his mouth and dropped a bombshell. "Hades and the remnants of Grimoire Heart were completely wiped out. No survivors."
The reason he had come to Makarov was precisely to tell him this, and to reveal the existence of the Black Dragon, Acnologia.
His calm words exploded like a depth charge. Including Makarov, everyone's pupils suddenly contracted, their faces filled with disbelief.
"Completely wiped out... meaning..." Mira asked tentatively.
"That's right. They've all disappeared from this world," Chase confirmed.
"How could this be..." Ultear murmured, covering her mouth.
Although they were evil and deserved to die, she had still grown up under Hades's teachings. He had done her an undeniable favor.
Hearing that Hades, who should have been "spared," had died, she was momentarily lost.
"That shouldn't be! The emotions that bastard showed at the end... they couldn't have been fake!" Makarov was also visibly shaken, his hand hidden within his sleeve trembling slightly.
Because he trusted his own judgment, he had decided to spare Hades. Because he trusted that Chase wouldn't kill someone who showed genuine remorse, he had allowed Chase to leave Dark Magician behind as a precaution.
And now, Hades was dead?
Had Dark Magician killed him?!
"Chase, what really happened?" Makarov asked anxiously, unable to figure it out.
"Not long after we left, a black dragon appeared," Chase said, pulling out a card with image-storage capabilities from the void. "If I'm not mistaken, it's the one responsible for Gildarts's failed 100 Years Quest. The Black Dragon, Acnologia."
BOOM.
Light patterns wove across the card's surface, constructing a magical holographic projection screen.
The scene unfolded from Dark Magician's perspective, fully presenting the entire sequence of the Black Dragon's descent and its massacre of Hades and the others.
After watching the entire event with pounding hearts, Makarov and the others' expressions had become extremely solemn. They stood frozen, unable to speak for a long time.
Hades's power had been evident to all in the previous battle. If Chase hadn't summoned Gandora to destroy his heart, even the entire Fairy Tail guild combined might not have been able to defeat him.
And yet, Hades had been as insignificant as an insect before the Black Dragon. Even burning his life force, he had only managed to leave a barely noticeable scratch on its palm!
Even through a holographic projection, the overwhelming spill despaired out, subverting Makarov and the others' definition of a "creature," constantly impacting their mental fortitude.
Especially the Black Dragon's final enraged roar—when it couldn't find the dragon it sought—which had literally shattered everything around it, including the holographic projection!
"Acnologia... the world-ending demon dragon recorded in the apocalypse..." Makarov was the first to regain his composure, his voice extremely solemn.
Beyond the faint heartache from the second master's death and the intense despair the Black Dragon had displayed, he mostly felt relief.
If he and the children of his guild had encountered that monster, they would have fared no better than Hades.
"I never imagined the 'Evil of Nature' the Magic Council has been searching for actually exists..." Ultear's face was pale.
As a councilor, she had obviously had access to much more detailed information about Acnologia than Makarov.
For ages, the Magic Council had been secretly searching for traces of this monster capable of destroying the world. But they had never made any progress. None of the investigators they sent out had survived.
"Master, we should speed up and leave. That monster is far too dangerous," Erza said with concern.
"Absolutely. We cannot encounter it!" Mira shared the same opinion.
With Gandora the Dragon of Destruction fresh in their memories, they were relatively accepting of the fact that "great dragons exist truly." They weren't so shocked that they couldn't speak.
"It should be fine. That thing is only interested in dragons. If it were heading in our direction, the Nirvana's good and evil detection system would give us a warning," Chase, who understood the depths of Acnologia's madness, offered a different view. "Rashly increasing our magic output would only make us more likely to be noticed."
"I'm sorry. I was too impatient," Erza admitted, realizing her impulsiveness.
"Having a heart that cares for your comrades is not wrong." Makarov offered words of comfort, then solemnly confessed, "Don't tell anyone about Acnologia's appearance yet, especially Natsu."
Without any means to counter it, the existence of Acnologia would only cause unnecessary panic and severely hinder the children's progress.
"I understand." Aware of the significance, Erza and Mira nodded firmly.
***
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