Chapter 431: What Have You Done?!
"But why?" Lucy asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. "To the humans of this world, the Exceeds are treated like angels, or even gods, right? Isn't attacking them an act of sheer rebellion against their own faith?"
"Yeah! What are they trying to do?!" Happy demanded, his voice trembling slightly at the thought of his entire race being targeted by this massive army.
"It's simple, really," Noah replied calmly, his eyes scanning the furious expressions of the Edolas Captains. "If the King of this world is willing to launch cross-dimensional attacks against our world just to harvest magic power—turning living, magic-wielding creatures into Lacrima batteries to extract their energy—why wouldn't he target the Exceeds? They are a race composed entirely of beings with internal magic power, living right above his head. Gods? Angels? Do you honestly think a man like that cares about titles or faith when unlimited power is on the line?"
"You mean..." Lucy gasped, her eyes widening in horror as the realization hit her. She instinctively covered her mouth.
"Just like what they did to Magnolia and our friends," Ultear finished the thought, her voice cold and hard. "Their ultimate goal is likely to turn the entire Exceed race into a massive Lacrima to secure a permanent source of magic power for the kingdom."
"How could they..." Meredy whispered, her hands flying to her mouth, mirroring Lucy's shock. Yukino and Wendy looked equally horrified.
Happy and Carla visibly shuddered, pure terror flashing in their eyes.
"However, I doubt they're shortsighted enough to treat the only magic-bearing race in their world as a one-time consumable battery," Noah continued, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Knightwalker and the others. "Using them all up at once would be incredibly stupid. A King capable of orchestrating a cross-dimensional invasion surely has a more complex, long-term plan in motion."
"Hmph!" Knightwalker scoffed, refusing to answer. She merely glared at Noah with undisguised venom.
But Laxus and the older Mages didn't miss the fleeting flicker of shock in her eyes. It was confirmation enough. Noah's deduction was terrifyingly accurate; the Royal Army definitely had a deeper, more sinister plan regarding the Exceeds.
"It's a shame, really. Whatever your grand plan was, your fancy little toys are all broken now," Mirajane said, her signature sweet smile returning, though it held a sharp, mocking edge. "I doubt you have many of those machines lying around, which means executing your plan just became a whole lot harder."
"Exactly! Just thinking about how we ruined your precious, genocidal scheme makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!" Sorano cheered, practically glowing with smug satisfaction.
"What nonsense are you spouting? Did the blast from the ETD damage your brains? How pitiful," Knightwalker retorted coldly, shaking her head in feigned pity.
"Refusing to admit it? It doesn't make a difference," Erza said, utterly unbothered by her counterpart's denial.
Whether Noah's exact theory was correct or not didn't matter. The Royal Army was their enemy, and whatever their enemy was trying to achieve, Fairy Tail would destroy it. It was that simple.
A tense stalemate settled over the plaza. Neither side possessed the immediate desire to launch a fresh assault. Both were seizing this precious window of opportunity to desperately recover their drained stamina and magic power.
Despite the massive buffs Noah had placed on them, the Fairy Tail Mages had just carved their way through a sea of thousands of soldiers and destroyed an entire battery of anti-magic artillery. The exertion was immense. However, thanks to those very same buffs, their recovery rate was exponentially faster than a normal Mage's. Seeing the enemy hesitating, they gladly held their ground, letting their reserves rapidly refill.
Knightwalker, Sugarboy, and Hughes were in far worse shape. They had expended massive amounts of energy and sustained significant damage trying to hold the line. Furthermore, their army had been utterly decimated. They needed time to catch their breath and, more importantly, they needed time for the King to deploy heavier reinforcements and heavier weaponry to the plaza.
They had an entire kingdom's military might backing them up. Time was on their side. As long as the Fairy Tail Mages weren't attacking, they were more than happy to stand and wait.
As Knightwalker regulated her breathing, her eyes swept across the battlefield, assessing the remaining combat strength of her forces.
Suddenly, her brow furrowed. Something was wrong. She scanned the plaza more carefully, and her eyes widened in sheer disbelief. She whipped her head around, glaring furiously at Noah.
"What have you done?! Where are my soldiers?!" she screamed.
Hearing her outburst, Sugarboy and Hughes quickly surveyed the plaza. They instantly realized what had horrified their colleague: the Royal Army's numbers had inexplicably dwindled to a fraction of what they had been just moments ago.
The plaza had been packed shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of troops. Now, massive swaths of the battlefield were entirely empty.
It wasn't a matter of casualties being evacuated; the medical corps couldn't possibly move thousands of incapacitated men that quickly, especially not in the middle of a chaotic firefight.
So where did they all go?
The three Captains simultaneously zeroed in on Noah. He was standing perfectly still in the center of the Fairy Tail formation, his hands clasped together, the golden magic circle continuously rotating beneath him. He had maintained that exact posture since the battle began.
Aside from his autonomous Light Funnels occasionally swatting away incoming attacks and erecting a shield against the ETD beams, he hadn't actively participated in the offensive.
Given his bizarre inactivity and the inexplicable disappearance of thousands of soldiers, he was the prime suspect.
"Finally noticed?" Noah asked with a calm smile.
"Where did you send them?!" Knightwalker demanded, her voice cracking with barely contained panic.
Sugarboy and Hughes tightened their grips on their weapons, glaring at Noah with murderous intent. A horrifying possibility had bloomed in their minds, and it chilled them to the bone.
"Relax. We aren't like you. We actually value human life," Noah replied, easily reading the dark conclusions they were jumping to.
Hearing this, Knightwalker and the Captains exhaled sharply, an involuntary wave of relief washing over them.
The worst-case scenario—that this monster had silently vaporized thousands of their men while they weren't looking—was off the table. If they had lost that many soldiers in a single engagement, the blame would fall entirely on their shoulders.
"However, don't expect to see them again until this war is over," Noah added, his tone shifting into something cold and absolute.
The Captains' hearts sank once more. The missing soldiers hadn't been killed, but they were permanently removed from the board. Their numerical advantage, their one remaining trump card, was being systematically dismantled right under their noses.
Seeing the despair and fury painting the Captains' faces, the Fairy Tail Mages couldn't help but smile.
Before launching their assault on the capital, the guild had held a serious discussion regarding how to handle the Edolas Royal Army.
They were fully justified in retaliating—Edolas had struck first, kidnapping their family. However, if they truly fought with lethal intent, the death toll would be catastrophic.
Fairy Tail cherished life above all else. They were not butchers. Slaughtering thousands of men who were simply following orders went against everything they stood for.
Furthermore, Mystogan—their guildmate—was the prince of this kingdom. Forcing him to watch his friends slaughter his people would place him in an agonizing position.
They had learned of Mystogan's true identity from Noah during their strategy meetings.
Thus, they had agreed upon a clear primary objective: they had to defeat the King. As the mastermind behind the Anima project and the attack on Magnolia, he had to be stopped, regardless of his relation to Mystogan.
Since Mystogan had already left to confront his father personally, Noah's Thought Projection had relayed the guild's plan to him. Mystogan had agreed; his father had to be stopped. However, as a son, he pleaded with them to spare his father's life, unable to completely sever the bond of family. The guild, respecting Mystogan immensely for his solo crusade to save both worlds, readily agreed.
Their secondary objective was absolute: the permanent destruction of the Anima system. A magic capable of cross-dimensional bombardment and turning living beings into Lacrima was too dangerous to exist. Noah had personally guaranteed he would handle the system's destruction.
As for the Royal Army soldiers, the strategy was simple: the Mages would use overwhelming, non-lethal force to incapacitate them.
Once a soldier was knocked out or severely injured, Noah utilized a highly complex, large-scale spatial displacement spell to instantly teleport them away from the battlefield.
The destination was a secure, isolated location chosen by Mystogan himself, ensuring the soldiers couldn't rejoin the fight but were safe from the crossfire.
Executing this mass-teleportation while simultaneously maintaining the massive buff enchantments on the entire guild was the reason Noah had remained stationary.
Mystogan had expressed profound gratitude for this approach, thankful that his guildmates were willing to go to such extreme lengths to spare his people while still fighting to save their own.
Knowing their plan was working perfectly, and seeing the absolute frustration on the Edolas Captains' faces, the Fairy Tail Mages felt a surge of vindication.
Knightwalker's teeth ground together audibly. The fact that Fairy Tail was fighting a non-lethal war against them proved one agonizing truth: they were holding back.
And even while holding back, they were completely dismantling the kingdom's elite forces. The power gap was an insurmountable chasm.
They were the pride of Edolas, the elite vanguard of a militarized nation, yet they were being humiliated by a single guild—a guild that brought children to the frontline.
The shame was suffocating. Their faces burned hot with humiliation.
Add to that the catastrophic failure and destruction of the ETD system, and their fury reached a boiling point. They glared at the Fairy Tail Mages, their eyes practically shooting fire.
"You look really upset. That makes me really happy," Sorano giggled, her smile impossibly bright.
"Exactly. Ruining our enemy's day is just good business," Noah agreed casually.
The others nodded in firm agreement.
Knightwalker's breathing became ragged. Hughes's face twisted into a mask of pure savagery. He took a step forward, raising his baton, ready to charge blindly into the fray.
Sugarboy quickly grabbed his shoulder, yanking him back.
He pointed to his own face, which was still blue and shivering from Ultear's frostbite, and then pointed toward the avenues leading into the plaza, where fresh battalions of Royal Army soldiers were finally beginning to pour in.
Hughes understood the silent message. The enemy was using this time to recover, but the Captains needed this time far more. They needed to heal, and they needed those reinforcements in position.
Swallowing his pride, Hughes forced himself to step back, his face flushed purple with suppressed rage.
"Since it seems we're all taking a breather, why don't we have a chat?" Noah suggested, his hands still clasped together. "Care to elaborate on what the King's grand plan actually is?"
"Why would they ever tell us that?!" Lucy groaned, burying her face in her hands.
"Lucy's right. Ask something useful, Noah. Like, exactly which room the King is hiding in, or what the fastest route to the throne room is," Sorano suggested seriously.
"They wouldn't answer that either..." Lucy mumbled weakly.
"If we're asking questions, I have one," Erza spoke up, her gaze fixed sharply on her counterpart. "How did you know so much about us? Your forces specifically targeted our Fairy Tail and locked onto Magnolia with precision. How did you acquire that intelligence?"
"That is a very good question," Mirajane nodded, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the Captains.
"Oh! I have one too!" Natsu raised his hand eagerly. "Where's the kingdom's treasury?! I wanna grab some souvenirs to take back home!"
"That's actually a great idea," Gray chuckled.
"Do you think they keep fish in the treasury?" Happy drooled.
"Guys, we are in the middle of a war! Can you please take this seriously?!" Lucy shrieked, completely exasperated by her guildmates' total lack of tension.
Meredy and Wendy nodded vigorously in agreement, finding Natsu and Gray's casual attitude utterly absurd given the circumstances.
"Don't worry, no one has forgotten we're in a battle. They're just using the downtime to relax their nerves," Ultear whispered to the girls, a sly smile playing on her lips. "Besides, look closely. Their nonsense is actually highly effective."
She pointed discreetly at the Edolas Captains.
Lucy, Meredy, and Wendy followed her gaze. They saw that while Knightwalker and the others were refusing to answer, their knuckles were white from gripping their weapons so tightly. Veins bulged on their foreheads, and their breathing was erratic.
They were so consumed by rage at Fairy Tail's casual, dismissive attitude that they were practically vibrating.
"If they answer Noah's questions, great. If they don't, it doesn't matter," Ultear explained softly. "The real goal is psychological warfare. By acting so flippant and disrespectful, they're intentionally provoking the Captains. If their emotions are a chaotic mess of rage and humiliation, they can't focus on properly regulating their magic or recovering their stamina. Their recovery rate slows down, which gives us a massive advantage when the fighting starts again."
Meredy, Wendy, and Yukino nodded in awe, genuinely impressed by the subtle tactical depth of the seemingly foolish banter.
Lucy, however, squinted at Natsu and Gray. She was absolutely certain Natsu had zero concept of psychological warfare; he genuinely just wanted to loot the treasury.
~~~
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