Seeing that it was the king—whom they'd agreed to meet here—Shane let his guard drop. He allowed His Majesty and Layla to talk, and turned his attention back to the Eclipse Gate.
Yet in the view of the Eye of Karma, this "time gate," which the Book of Heroic Spirits considered the start of a major event, didn't look especially unusual—other than the marks of time embedded in its very existence.
Instead, on the far side of this vast underground space, in one particular direction, an enormous number of causality lines had gathered—so dense and so dark they were almost black, nearly solid.
The anomaly made it hard for Shane to suppress the urge to investigate.
He turned to the owner of this place and asked, "Your Majesty, may I go take a look over there?"
King Toma followed his gaze and showed a flash of understanding. "Oh? You want to see the Dragon Graveyard?"
Since Layla-sama brought you here, there's nothing you can't see. Go ahead—just watch the time. Don't miss what matters."
"Dragon Graveyard?" Shane's interest stirred. With a name like that… did it really hold dragons?
He quickly looked to Layla, speaking faster. "I'll be right back."
Layla was checking her pocket watch. She lifted her eyes and reminded him, "Keep an eye on the time."
Shane nodded, then strode briskly toward the direction where the causality lines converged.
He passed through a slightly narrow natural tunnel—then the space opened up, along with a heavy, crushing sense of pressure.
Enormous skeletons of beasts he had never seen before sprawled across the cold rock. The bones were so vast it defied belief—one rib alone was taller than he was.
They lay scattered in various poses—some as if they had died struggling, others as if they had fallen into rest. Some were half-buried in earth and stone, while others were fully exposed. Their pale bones glinted with a cold sheen in the dim light.
The air was filled with an indescribable ancient stillness—dead and silent.
"So they really are… bones?" Shane drew a slow breath, sweeping his gaze across this grand, eerie graveyard. "These are… dragons?"
The red flames in his eyes flickered even more fiercely.
Those dense, ink-dark causality lines were pouring out from these gigantic remains.
They tangled together, forming an invisible mire of resentment and obsession.
"They're reduced to skeletons, and they still carry this much—this kind of—karmic weight…"
Shane frowned, an instinctive disgust rising in him toward these "dragons."
"What did they do while they were alive?"
He focused, trying to make out fragments of events recorded in that web of causality.
But all he could see was a blur of blood-red chaos and broken screams. Too much time had passed; the information had long since shattered beyond recognition.
Still, after a closer look, he noticed something.
Not every skeleton carried such terrifying "karma."
Some were drenched in near-solid darkness, while others—though equally massive—were comparatively "clean," their bones not stained with much karmic filth.
"Were they… two different factions in life?" Shane mused. "Enemies who fought each other, and ended up dying here together?"
The thought only deepened the sense that the more he learned about this world, the more mysteries multiplied.
He didn't disturb the site. He simply observed a while longer, memorized the anomaly, and—when there was barely any time left—turned and hurried back.
When he returned to the platform before the Eclipse Gate, Layla had finished her final preparations.
She held an ornate wooden box in both hands. Her face was solemn and pale, carrying the calm of someone about to walk into martyrdom.
"It's time," she said softly—half a declaration, half a farewell.
Then she snapped the lid open and flung the box upward!
Eleven golden keys of strange shapes rose into the air under the pull of her magic, circling her body and radiating a gentle but resolute starlight.
Immediately after, magic power—so immense it seemed to shake the entire underground space—burst from Layla's slender body like a sleeping beast awakening.
"Layla is… this strong?" Shane's eyes widened. He'd never imagined that the gentle, gracious Layla was hiding power like this.
The sheer quantity and quality of her magic was more terrifying than Ivan's by far.
Now Layla couldn't spare even a fraction of attention.
Hands forming seals, she poured her vast magic out without restraint, forcing it into those eleven keys.
The keys hummed. Their gold light flared—like eleven meteors trailing brilliant tails—shooting straight into the Eclipse Gate.
HUM—!
One by one, the ancient carvings on the door lit up. A deep rumble rolled through the chamber, and the air thickened under the pressure of the energy.
Shane leaned toward the tense King Toma and asked in a lowered voice, "Layla didn't gather all the keys—how is she planning to open it? Does she have a backup method?"
Toma reacted as if someone had stepped on his tail. He nearly jumped, his voice pitching. "What did you say? She didn't gather all the keys?!"
"Is… that a problem?" Shane asked, confused. Layla had seemed calm and confident—he'd assumed she had some kind of substitute plan.
"It's a huge problem!" King Toma was sweating now, words spilling out fast. "If the twelve keys aren't complete and you still force open the Eclipse Gate, then the star spirit mage hosting the ritual has to use her own source magic to fill the final missing portion!"
Shane's heart sank.
In this world, magic power and life force were deeply linked. Overusing magic shortened one's lifespan; losing it completely was practically the same as losing one's life.
Even without thinking, he knew what it meant to "fill" one-twelfth of what a time gate demanded—the kind of gap that would swallow a person whole.
Even Layla's oceanic magic could never truly cover it.
"So… from the beginning, you were prepared to open it with your life?"
Shane stared at Layla's back—so thin, so resolute, standing inside a flood of power—and something hot and violent surged up in him.
And with his whisper came fire.
Red Flame erupted around him, instantly driving away the underground chill and gloom.
"What are you doing?!" King Toma flinched at the sudden change, trying to stop him.
"What do you think?" Shane didn't turn around. His voice was absolute. "I'm stopping her!"
"I don't care about some four-hundred-year mission!
I promised Lucy I'd help her mother. If she dies, how am I supposed to call myself a Fairy Tail mage?!"
Flames coiled. The one-sleeved red outfit and cloak of Senji Muramasa manifested. The Flame blazed at full strength.
Shane moved—like an arrow loosed from a bow—charging straight toward Layla, who was pouring everything she had into the ritual.
~~~
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