"W-Wait!" Erza immediately straightened up.
A magic circle flashed, and out tumbled a mountain of facial cleansers, foundations, makeup sponges, vanity mirrors, and other cosmetic supplies.
"Since when did your Requip Magic have all that stuff in it?!"
Lucy pointed at the pile and couldn't help but make a snide remark.
Back when they went on missions together, Erza had brought these things along too, but she'd always just stuffed them haphazardly into the magic four-wheeler. Lucy had never seen her pull them out of thin air like this.
Since her Requip space was limited, Erza even had to rent five rooms in the girls' dormitory just to store her excess armor.
"W-Well, things are different now..." Erza's face flushed as she stole a glance at Chase.
"Oh my, so this is the brand of lipstick and skincare lotion Erza uses."
Mirajane picked up a few delicately crafted items from the "mini mountain" and examined them with interest.
"They're a bit pricey, but they do work well," Erza said with a smile.
The two women who had been at each other's throats moments ago were now chatting away like best friends.
"Hey Natsu, Erza got really weird as soon as she heard she was going out with Chase." Happy had never seen anything like this before.
Natsu didn't answer. He was currently locked in an embrace with naked Gray, both of them wearing expressions of pure terror.
"S-So scary! Monsters putting on makeup!" x2
Lucy: "You guys are being incredibly rude!!"
"Amazing... Erza-san and Mira-san..." Wendy's big eyes sparkled with admiration.
"You're still too young for that, Wendy—whether it's makeup or boyfriends." Carla said with utter seriousness.
"Young..."
Triggered by the keyword, Wendy crouched down with her arms around her knees, tears streaming down her face.
"That's not what I meant!" Carla groaned.
"You don't need to go all out. You're beautiful even without makeup."
Chase stepped forward and patted Erza and Mirajane on the shoulders, steering the conversation back on track. His tone turned serious. "That place I mentioned—it's connected to the dragons of this world."
At those words, Natsu and Wendy froze. Even Gajeel, who had been squatting nearby gnawing on iron, jerked his head up to look over.
Erza, who had been blushing from the "beautiful without makeup" comment a second ago, furrowed her brow. "Connected to the dragons of this world?"
"There are clues like that inside the Grand Magic Games venue?" Mirajane rested her chin on her hand, her expression growing serious as she realized the importance of the matter.
"You'll understand when we get there."
Chase didn't answer directly. Instead, he waved at Gajeel in the corner. "Gajeel, you guys come too."
"Guys" meant Future Natsu and the others inside the cards, who were also visibly excited.
Under the puzzled gazes of Future Levy and the others, the group left the tavern.
After walking through the brightly lit, still lively streets and taking a few photos with excited fans, they soon arrived at Domus Flau—the Grand Magic Games venue.
Unlike the bustling daytime crowds, the venue standing high above was now shrouded in the darkness of night, eerily quiet.
But they didn't enter the arena itself. Chase led them deep underground.
As far as the eye could see, the dim, gloomy enclosed space was littered with dragon skeletons everywhere.
Enormous bones and skulls were piled in heaps, as if still voicing the resentment and fury they felt before death, radiating a bone-chilling cold.
"No way, seriously?"
"This place could serve as absolute proof that dragons once existed!"
"What happened to cause so many dragons to fall here?!"
"Could Igneel be among them..."
The group was stunned. No one had expected such a horrifying sight beneath the Grand Magic Games venue.
Since there were no outsiders, Future Lucy, Future Natsu, and the others were also present.
"No—Igneel and the others are definitely still alive!" Natsu shot back at Future Happy's guess.
On Tenrou Island, he had clearly heard Igneel's voice.
That familiar warmth was definitely not an illusion!
"And the timing doesn't match up either," Future Gajeel said grimly.
From his other self, he had learned everything that happened on Tenrou Island in that other world.
"Regardless, these numbers are staggering." Erza surveyed the surrounding dragon skeletons with a grave expression.
The sheer terror of a dragon's power had already been made abundantly clear through Acnologia and Gandora the Dragon of Destruction.
It was hard to imagine what could have killed them—judging from the condition of the bones, this was definitely not natural death.
"Could there have been some large-scale civil war?" Mirajane speculated.
Chase, walking at the front, remained silent.
Beyond the visual shock of the "Dragon Graveyard," something else felt off to him—a faint, barely distinguishable presence lingering here.
The feeling was nothing like Acnologia. It felt more like... a god.
Was it his imagination? Or had it always been there, simply never mentioned in the original story?
He'd made the right call coming here. He'd have Wendy pull out the Emerald Dragon's soul and ask some questions.
Just as Chase was thinking this, Future Wendy, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly stopped in her tracks as if she'd noticed something.
"What's wrong, Wendy?" Future Lucy asked.
"It's the Dragon Slayer Secret Art that Porlyusica gave me," Future Wendy said softly.
"Keep listening to the dragon souls echoing across the River of Heaven... now that I think about it, 'Milky Way' really doesn't seem like an offensive spell."
Wendy, whose thoughts were synchronized with her counterpart, came to the same conclusion. "Maybe we can use it to communicate with the souls of deceased dragons!"
Everyone's eyes lit up.
Without hesitation, following Chase's suggestion of "give it a try," Future Wendy began sketching an ancient magic circle on the open ground, following the instructions from Grandeeney's book.
Because time had been so short, and Wendy's training priority had been Divine Power Enchantment, she wasn't yet capable of using the Secret Art herself.
But she could still offer simple coordination and assistance to Future Wendy.
With the guiding magic circle complete, the two Wendys joined hands and stepped inside, unleashing their magic power without reservation.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Milky Way!" x2
A green pillar of light shot skyward, blooming into a vortex of magic power at the cavern's ceiling.
Countless motes of fluorescent light, like a brilliant starry sky, illuminated the entire underground space, drawing gasps from Lucy and the others.
The lingering dragon souls here were extremely faint. After waiting for what felt like a long while, Future Wendy suddenly snapped her eyes open. "I found it!"
BOOM!!
The floating fluorescent lights rapidly converged on a single point, erupting into a blinding flash.
Then—claws extended, dragon wings trembled, and a coalesced emerald-colored dragon opened its massive maw, letting out a ferocious roar at the group!
***
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