"Everyone, fall back!" Raizel shouted.
He suddenly felt a violent tremor rumbling from underground.
Standing at the very edge of the deep pit, Raizel watched as thick cracks rapidly spread across the surrounding stone floor.
[Take Over: UlforceVeedramon.]
With a burst of power, Raizel shot straight up into the sky.
The brick slabs below shattered continuously, and numerous octopus-like tentacles—only vastly larger than normal—exploded out from the ground.
"What the hell is this thing?!" Lucy yelled.
Luckily, Virgo had reacted quickly and pulled Lucy back a few safe steps just moments before; otherwise, Lucy might not have even had the time to complain.
"These appear to be giant octopus legs," Virgo explained matter-of-factly, acting as if this horrifying sight were completely normal.
"That is not what I meant!" Lucy cried out.
"Octopus Liquid! I have already consumed that specific potion!"
Byro, who had fully transformed into a giant octopus monster, spoke down to them.
He sounded incredibly condescending from his newly elevated position.
"Well, that is hard to say," Lucy retorted stubbornly, refusing to be intimidated.
"Princess, I also think your attacks probably will not work," Virgo continued, completely undermining Lucy's confidence with her usual deadpan tone.
"The fight has not even started yet, so why are you giving up already?!"
Suddenly, a massive tentacle swung down heavily from above.
In the nick of time, Virgo grabbed Lucy and nimbly dodged the sweeping attack.
"Ahhh!!!" Lucy screamed incessantly as she was carried around like a sack of potatoes.
"If I do not get rid of you, you wretched girl, I will never be able to quell my deep hatred!" Byro roared.
He advanced relentlessly, wildly swinging his heavy tentacles, while Virgo effortlessly dodged and weaved through the destructive attacks with Lucy in tow.
"Aren't we going to help her?" someone asked.
Everyone else, with the helpful aid of Kagura's Gravity Magic, had successfully climbed onto the safe rooftop just moments before.
"It is fine," Raizel reassured them calmly. "If Lucy really cannot handle it, you all can step in when she has reached her absolute limit. I am going to find the Anima now. I will leave this place to you guys."
After saying this, Raizel flew higher up into the sky.
He knew Lucy's current strength was actually fairly decent.
Especially after their last major incident with the Oración Seis, Raizel had used his Archieve Magic to directly transmit the Star chart: Uranometria to Lucy.
If worst came to worst, Lucy could always use her ultimate move to secure a win.
Currently, with the celestial spirit Gemini's help, Lucy could barely manage to use it when pushed to her absolute limits.
"Oh great, another person who holds a terrible grudge against us!" Lucy groaned.
"You really are not very good at judging men, Princess," Virgo commented dryly.
"Stop bothering me so much!"
Virgo and Lucy suddenly transformed into two glowing shooting stars and shot straight up into the sky to avoid another attack.
"Get me down from here, quick!" Lucy pleaded for help.
She was tightly clinging to a strange, red spherical object high in the air.
"Princess! Here, take this!" Virgo called out, tossing a hollow, cylindrical tube toward her.
"What is this?" Lucy asked, catching it clumsily.
"It is the freely extensible Celestial Spirit World whip, the Star River of Cetus."
"Star River..." Lucy muttered, tightly gripping the handle of the Star River in her hand.
"Please make good use of it, although it might not be very useful," Virgo added unhelpfully.
"Why are you always so pessimistic?! How can you know the result without even trying?" Lucy scolded her spirit.
"I will wish you success from the start then, Princess!"
"Here I go!"
Standing bravely on the red sphere, Lucy held up the Star River.
The weapon suddenly erupted with a brilliant golden-blue light, swiftly forming a long, flowing energy whip made of intertwined gold and blue radiance.
"That is quite a beautiful weapon," Kagura remarked, nodding slightly in approval as she watched the glowing Star River from the rooftop.
"Amazing!!!" Natsu yelled, his eyes literally turning into sparkling stars out of pure excitement.
The luminous whip of the Star River floated and danced elegantly in the air.
"What kind of worthless junk is that?" Byro scoffed loudly. "It will be completely useless against my new form!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
After leaping high into the air, Lucy successfully landed four consecutive, lightning-fast whip strikes directly onto Byro's giant body.
"To be completely honest, I barely felt a thing. Is this really all you have got, Earthland Mage?"
As Byro spoke, he violently swung his massive tentacle at her.
Lucy, who was instantly sent flying backward by the sheer force of the wind, quickly used her Star Dress magic to wrap the glowing whip around a nearby tower spire and swung herself safely back into the fight.
"Weren't you just confidently saying that you would defeat me?" Byro mocked.
"This is completely useless! Why did you give me such a worthless piece of junk?" Lucy couldn't help but complain to Virgo.
She had genuinely thought Virgo was joking earlier, and she hoped the Star Dress power would pack a decent punch.
But she was unfortunately wrong.
Right now, her Star Dress attacks could only lightly tickle her enemies.
Well, that was not exactly true.
It was mainly just that Byro's current monster form had incredibly strong physical defenses. Furthermore, the Star Dress shared similarities with her Celestial Spirits—the stronger the user's magical power was, the more potent the Star Dress became.
At her current magical level, Lucy simply could not unleash the Star Dress's full, devastating potential.
"Hahaha! Why aren't you attacking me anymore? In that case, I will make sure you never get back up again!" Byro laughed wickedly.
The very moment Byro swung his heavy tentacle again, Lucy cleverly controlled the Star Dress whip to bind it tightly, using the whip's bouncy recoil to completely evade the incoming strike.
Taking a page out of Natsu's reckless fighting book, Lucy fearlessly ran straight up Byro's massive tentacle.
"Stop scurrying all over me like a bug!" Byro shouted angrily.
Lucy nimbly maneuvered across several of Byro's flailing tentacles using her glowing whip, easily enraging him into throwing wild, reckless swings that missed her entirely.
"It is over!" Lucy declared.
Having finally reached the high rooftop via her whip, she turned around to face the giant Byro.
"My feet..." Byro muttered in confusion.
Only when he finally stopped thrashing around did Byro realize that his own tentacles were now completely tangled together in a massive, tight knot.
"When did you—?!" Byro gasped as his giant, unbalanced body collapsed uncontrollably toward the ground.
"I am, after all, a proud Mage of Fairy Tail."
Lucy's inner magical power began flowing continuously into her Star Dress.
With a final, mighty swing, the glowing whip struck Byro directly in the face with immense, crushing force.
"Ouch... just thinking about that hurts..." Natsu muttered, instinctively covering his own face in sympathy.
"Lucy-san hits so hard..." Wendy whispered nervously, quietly taking a step back from the edge of the roof.
Byro's face was already a dark reddish color in his octopus form, but now it turned an even brighter, furious red from his forehead all the way down to his chin, creating a very stark and painful contrast with his cheeks.
"We won!" Sitting casually on the stone railing, Lucy happily twirled the Star Dress whip in her hand.
She felt she could afford to be a little bit proud of herself after successfully defeating such a massive opponent.
"Then only the king remains now," Kagura noted seriously, gazing toward the very center of the royal palace.
"What about Erza's side of things?" Gray asked, looking around.
"She is probably still fighting her opponent. She hasn't replied to any of my magical messages yet. But there is no need to worry about her."
Even though Erza hadn't communicated back, Kagura trusted the red-haired knight completely and felt absolutely no concern for her safety.
Carla the Exceed chimed in, "As for Gajeel, Happy says he is currently fighting a large black cat and has been at it for a very long time. However, the Magic Crystal is safe for now."
Gray suggested, "Should we go over there and help Gajeel out?"
After all, Raizel and Mystogan were already handling the Anima situation on their own.
"Gajeel specifically said he would rather die than have our help," Carla sighed. "He wants to settle this fight with that cat all by himself."
"I can hear it... it is so incredibly noisy..." Gray muttered, rubbing his temples.
He could also pick up the telepathic messages coming from Happy's end of the connection, but mostly it was just Gajeel cursing nonstop while fighting his mid-air battle.
...
Meanwhile, high up in the sky, the battle raged on.
"You have three Mages on your side. I believe you can probably rescue a few people," Panther Lily called out as he swung his giant sword.
"I think you have completely misunderstood the situation," Gajeel yelled back with a confident grin.
"My comrades have already defeated your three precious unit captains."
"Knightwalker lost too?" Lily's feline eyes sharpened in surprise.
If that were truly the case, then Earthland's overall combat power might be far beyond what he had originally imagined.
"No, that's not the case. It seems they are still actively fighting each other. The one who just lost is apparently an old guy called Byro."
"I see. As long as Captain Knightwalker is still standing there, I firmly believe we can win this war," Lily stated proudly.
"Enough about them! What do you think of my strength?" Gajeel demanded loudly.
"You are a very powerful opponent," Lily admitted honestly.
Gajeel expressed great pleasure and pride upon hearing Panther Lily's high evaluation of his skills.
"Hahaha! Well, although I really do not want to admit it out loud, our Erza is definitely way stronger than I am!" Gajeel laughed.