"Glasses? But I just destroyed them..." Elfman stared blankly at Rustyrose, who was now adjusting a pristine new pair on his nose.
"My magic is a flawless form of imagination called the Arc of Embodiment. Anything I desire can be instantly materialized into a physical object," Rustyrose explained with a grand, theatrical gesture.
Suddenly, dozens of identical pairs of glasses materialized and began floating gracefully around him.
"Manifesting desires is connected to the very root of magic itself. Although it has its limits and certain restrictions, this is an undefeatable magic! So far, it has never been broken. Not even once!"
Rustyrose raised his hands toward the sky.
"Appear! Tower of Dingir!"
"Transfer all your sorrow onto these foolish fairies! Turn them to dust!"
A towering, sinister spire violently erupted from the ground directly beneath them.
It trapped Elfman and Evergreen waist-deep inside the dense stone, leaving them completely unable to break free.
Elfman looked over and suddenly noticed Evergreen was crying, which took him completely by surprise.
"Elfman... if your partner wasn't me... perhaps you wouldn't have lost to someone like this..." Evergreen sobbed, sounding entirely dejected.
She might not be the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail—perhaps not even close to Erza or Mira—but as a proud member of the Thunder God Tribe, she had her pride.
She genuinely believed she was strong enough to help Elfman become an S-Class Mage and defeat Rustyrose... but reality had proven her wrong and she couldn't accept it.
"Silly woman," Elfman smiled gently, despite the pain. "It is precisely because of you that I was able to come this far today."
"Elfman..."
"Thank you, Ever."
"Hmph. Fall now, to the other side of darkness," Rustyrose sneered, ruining the heartfelt moment.
He snapped his fingers, and the Tower of Dingir completely crumbled, triggering a massive, devastating explosion that engulfed the two fairies.
As the thick smoke billowed into the air, a chillingly sweet voice echoed from the sky.
"If you two actually had a child together... what do you think it would look like?"
Rustyrose blinked, looking up as the dust cleared.
Hovering high above the explosion was Mirajane, entirely transformed into her terrifying Take Over: Satan Soul form.
She glared fiercely down at Rustyrose.
Earlier, on her way to the coast to intercept the airship, Mira had felt a sudden awful premonition about her brother.
She had immediately turned back, rushing to this ruin alongside Happy, Panther Lily, and Carla.
Currently, Happy and Lily were carrying Elfman by his shoulders, while Carla was struggling to hold onto Evergreen.
"You're so incredibly heavy..." Carla grimaced, her tiny wings beating frantically.
"How rude! You insolent cat!" Evergreen barked, blushing furiously.
Having just narrowly escaped death, she absolutely would not tolerate anyone calling her fat.
"Evergreen is actually much lighter than Lucy," Happy chimed in helpfully.
"Is it really okay to casually say that, Happy?" Lily muttered, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Mira slowly descended, her demonic eyes locked onto Rustyrose.
"So, you are the one who hurt the members of Fairy Tail... the one who hurt my brother?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom.
"Do you feel the temperature suddenly dropping... Lily?" Happy shivered.
"I feel a terrible chill..." Lily nodded gravely.
"Alright, stop talking and get them down already!" Carla snapped, urging the boys to show some respect for the terrifying aura Mira was emitting.
"Oh? A demon," Rustyrose observed, looking at Mira's Satan Soul form with absolute disdain. "How inelegant. Truly, truly inelegant."
...
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest—
"It hurts... it hurts..." Natsu groaned, his eyes fluttering open.
With a sudden burst of energy, he managed to sit up with a quick carp flip.
"Natsu-san!" Wendy cheered, finally breathing a massive sigh of relief seeing him awake.
"Where's Gramps?!" Natsu yelled, looking around frantically.
"They're still fighting," Wendy explained gently. "The Guild Master explicitly asked us to bring you here to recover."
Fortunately, Freed and Bickslow had come along with Wendy.
If the little Sky Dragon Slayer had been forced to drag the unconscious Natsu through the jungle all by herself, it would have been the death of her.
"We dragged you over here, but Wendy was the one who actually healed you," Bickslow laughed, his dolls hovering around him.
"Thank you, Wendy!" Natsu grinned.
"Since Natsu is fine now, let's head back to the beach camp first," Freed suggested, adjusting his sword.
Seeing Natsu's energetic condition, Freed could tell the boy was largely unharmed and just needed rest.
"No way! I need to go back and help the old man!" Natsu argued, jumping to his feet.
"No! The Master gave strict orders that you cannot get involved in his fight," Freed firmly stated, blocking his path.
Although Laxus had some tactical ideas regarding Hades, since Makarov fiercely disagreed with letting the kids fight the Master, Freed temporarily held off on letting Natsu run back to the danger zone.
...
Meanwhile, in a completely quiet, isolated sector of Tenrou Island...
Kain Hikaru of the Seven Kin of Purgatory was happily enjoying a peaceful barbecue.
He had been wandering around Tenrou Island for so long, yet he hadn't encountered a single member of Fairy Tail.
His luck was truly terrible.
"This is really frustrating," Kain mumbled, chewing on a massive piece of roasted meat. "Not only have I completely failed to find Zeref, but I haven't even run into anyone to fight! And I was starving to death!"
After arriving on Tenrou Island, the large man had first gotten helplessly lost wandering around, then decided to take a relaxing bath in a hot spring, and later went fishing to cook himself some barbecue.
"But now that I think about it... after eating all this savory meat, I suddenly crave dessert!" Kain grinned, clapping his hands together.
"I totally anticipated this! So I prepared some ice cream in advance. I'm really a genius, aren't I..."
Kain eagerly reached into his magic satchel and pulled out his treasured ice cream cone.
His face instantly fell into pure, comedic horror.
"IT MELTED!!!" Kain wailed, tears streaming down his face.
The tropical weather on Tenrou Island was just far too hot.
All that remained of his precious dessert was a soggy, dripping cone.
...
Miles off the coast, at the temporary naval camp of the Magic Council's Rune Knights—
After the main magic battleship was brutally sunk by Azuma's explosion, it took the surviving troops a long time to regroup the unit and set up an emergency medical camp on a small, rocky reef near Tenrou Island.
Laharl, the strict Captain of the New Council's Custody Enforcement Unit, was barking urgent orders.
"Good, everyone is accounted for! Those in decent condition, quickly take the injured to the medical tents on the reef! Treat their burns as soon as possible!"
"Equipment repairs can wait until later! Focus on the wounded!"
Just as Laharl was about to issue another command, a severely injured Doranbolt suddenly teleported directly onto the deck of the surviving command ship, collapsing to his knees.
Doranbolt had been hiding in the shadows of the island, not daring to show himself or teleport across the ocean until he explicitly spotted Laharl's ship.
"Doranbolt!" Laharl gasped, rushing over to his friend. "How did someone as skilled as you get so badly injured?!"
The Council had specifically assigned Doranbolt as their deep-cover spy partly because of his Memory Magic, and partly because he knew advanced Teleportation Magic—if he couldn't win a fight, he could instantly escape.
These were absolutely excellent survival qualities for a scout.
So, Laharl was profoundly surprised that Doranbolt had been beaten so severely.
In a fair, one-on-one fight, Laharl might be able to eventually defeat Doranbolt, but he certainly couldn't inflict such overwhelmingly heavy, brutal injuries so quickly.
"I'm fine," Doranbolt coughed, spitting blood onto the deck. "What about the battleship fleet?"
"It's alright. Although the flagship was destroyed and we aren't completely unaffected, fortunately, no one died," Laharl reassured him.
Azuma's massive Tower Burst explosion had been aimed directly at the battleship hulls.
For the Rune Knight unit, it was more of a secondary impact, and since they were in the sea and heavily protected by their military-grade armor, some were seriously injured, but there were no casualties.
"Is the long-distance communication lacrima still intact?" Doranbolt wheezed, grabbing Laharl's collar.
"It's fine. What exactly happened on that island, Doranbolt?!"
Doranbolt forced himself to stand up despite the intense, searing pain in his chest.
He looked Laharl dead in the eye, his expression filled with absolute dread.
"Fairy Tail, Grimoire Heart, and the legendary Black Wizard Zeref... these three forces are currently engaged in a massive fierce war on that island as we speak."
Laharl's face drained of all color.
"The one who attacked our battleship fleet earlier was a vanguard from Grimoire Heart," Doranbolt finished.
Doranbolt was so exhausted he failed to notice that Laharl's rigid body was trembling involuntarily.
"I need to borrow the communication lacrima right now," Doranbolt demanded. "I must report this situation to the Magic Council headquarters immediately."
"To think such a terrifying thing could actually happen..." Laharl whispered, staring blankly at the distant, smoke-covered island.
"The three greatest thorns in the magic world's side... actually gathering voluntarily in the exact same place. What astronomical cursed odds would be required for this to occur?!"
Laharl swallowed hard, terror gripping his heart.
"Could it be... that the Council will decide the Etherion must be unleashed once again?"
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