Chapter 280: Bringing Everything to an End
Edolas, Edolas Continent, Royal Capital.
November, x784.
"We're finally back outside." Marin said, stretching her back as she spoke. "It feels like we spent so much time searching the underground of that castle."
"Well, the sun is about to set now, right?" Elicia said with a smile. "I guess we've been in there for a few hours, at the very least."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Marin said.
While the two were speaking, Elicia was dragging along Byro, Hughes, and Sugarboy, who were bundled up tightly in her threads. At the same time, Coco was following closely behind Elicia.
"It looks like Natsu, and the others, have been busy while we were inside, though." Marin said after taking a look at her surroundings.
"Yeah..." Elicia said with a wry smile. "This is what happens when you let Fairy Tail wizards run wild, after all. Honestly, it's no wonder the Magic Council hates us so much back home."
"Yeah, but stuff like this hasn't happened in a long time, right?" Marin replied. "I mean, ever since getting Fonzie's food became dependent on not destroying everything."
"That's true." Elicia said with a nod and a smug smile. "I always knew Fonzie's cooking would bring peace to the world someday."
Though she had a lot to say about Elicia's statement, after seeing the smug smile on her friend's face, Marin felt that anything she said at this moment would be either ignored or misconstrued into something completely different. So, she wisely decided to keep her mouth shut.
"Alfonzo~~~~~! I'll make you pay for this, you bastard~~~~~!"
At that moment, the awkward atmosphere was broken by the angry shouting the girls could hear from above. Looking up, Elicia and Marin saw a black-haired young man approaching them quickly from the sky. And it was clear to both of them that he had very little control of his flight.
"That's Gajeel, right?" Marin asked with wonder in her expression.
"Looks like it." Elicia replied with a nod.
"But he can't fly, right?" Marin asked.
"Unless he learned some new magic since we got here, no." Elicia replied.
"Then, this is really gonna hurt, huh?" Marin asked curiously.
"No, it's not." Elicia said as she flicked the fingers on her right hand. "*Sigh* Since he shouted Fonzie's name, Fonzie probably expected me to catch him."
"Oh, I see." Marin replied with a nod.
A moment later, a large number of threads appeared in front of Gajeel before they wove themselves into a net. Meanwhile, Gajeel, after seeing the threads and the net, was able to calm down significantly. Still, he vowed to make Alfonzo pay for chucking him halfway across the Royal Capital.
"Hey, Gajee, where's Fonzie?" Elicia asked as she put Gajeel down on the ground next to the rest of her group.
"That bastard's on is way here with Mystogan." Gajeel muttered, clearly still angry. "Wait, I told you not to call me that!"
"Oh, I guess our stay in this world is almost over then, huh?" Elicia said with a smile.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Marin asked curiously.
At the same time, Coco, who heard that Elicia would be going back to her own world soon, gripped the hem of Elicia's shirt while staring at her with a worried expression.
"It's because Mystogan is making his move." Elicia said as if that would explain everything.
Although Gajeel understood what Elicia meant based on the fact that he had overheard Mystogan's true identity as the prince of the Edolas Kingdom, Marin, Coco, and Sugarboy, the only one of the prisoners who was still conscious, had confusion written all over their faces.
"Yeah… I'm still confused." Marin said with a helpless expression on her face.
Looking around, Elicia noticed the confusion on the others' faces as well. Then, after pondering for a moment, she slapped her right fist down on her left palm.
"Oops, I guess I forgot to tell you about that, huh?" Elicia said as she tilted her head to the right and knocked on the side of her head with her right fist. "Mystogan is actually the prince of Edolas, Prince Jellal."
While Marin wore an expression of understanding after hearing Elicia's explanation, Coco and Sugarboy's reactions were much more exaggerated. Both of them had their eyes and mouths opened wide in surprise from that revelation.
"Prince Jellal is back?" Coco asked in a confused tone.
"But the king told us that the prince perished years ago." Sugarboy said.
"Telling his citizens that his only son ran off to protect the world that he had been stealing magic power from for years would not make the royal family look very good, after all."
With the sound of that voice, the group was covered by a large shadow. Looking up, they could see a Legion had approached while they were in a state of shock.
Standing on top of the Legion's head were Alfonzo, Mystogan, and Panther Lily. While Elicia and Marin were happy to see Alfonzo and Gajeel was scowling at him, Coco looked at Panther Lily with some relief in her gaze. Meanwhile, Sugarboy looked at the Exceed in disbelief.
"Panther Lily, have you betrayed his Majesty?" Sugarboy asked in a shaky tone.
"Sugarboy, you should know, my loyalty has always been to Prince Jellal first." Panther Lily replied.
That was actually something Sugarboy was aware of. However, since Mystogan disappeared from Edolas, he never really thought much about it after that.
"Put me down already!"
Before they could continue their conversation, however, the shout from an agitated female voice could be heard from not too far away. Looking in the direction of the shout, the group could see that most of the city in their field of view had been turned to rubble while flames blazed on the remains of many buildings.
Meanwhile, a group of seven, Erza, Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Wendy, Carla, and Erza Knightwalker, who was still being carried over Erza's shoulder, was approaching the castle's gate.
"It would seem you were successful in your task." Erza said after seeing the key in Elicia's hand.
"Yeah, thanks to Coco." Elicia said before patting the puppy-like girl on the head.
Hearing that, everyone turned their attention towards Coco. And when Alfonzo saw the expression of euphoria on her face due to Elicia's praise and patting, he could not help but shake his head.
'Well, there's another one.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'Lici is always adding to her band of weirdos. But at least this one won't try to take her away from me, right?'
As soon as that thought passed, Alfonzo shuddered. Then, he patted himself on the back mentally, grateful to himself that he did not say it aloud, otherwise, he would have just raised a flag on himself.
"Anyway, now that we're all here…" Alfonzo said as he hopped off the Legion's head. "Can we put an end to this? I really wanna go home."
"Indeed." Mystogan replied with a nod. "I think the end to this is long past due."
Hearing Alfonzo and Mystogan's words, everyone nodded in agreement with solemn expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, Alfonzo could not help but pat himself on the back again as he was able to smoothly push the conversation forward, not giving anyone the chance to raise the flag he, himself, almost raised.
After receiving everyone's agreement, Mystogan look towards the castle. Then, he took a step forward on the Legion's head as he spoke in a sonorous voice.
"Father, it's time to bring this to an end." Mystogan said strongly. "Your captains, your chief of staff, and nearly the entire Royal Army have been defeated. Please surrender and face the consequences of your crimes."
"Oh, well if it isn't my foolish son." Faust said, his voice echoing from inside the castle. "It would seem that your years away from Edolas have not taught you anything."
Despite the fact that Faust was not shouting, the sound of his voice could be heard clearly by anyone in the castle's vicinity. On top of that, his voice was accompanied by the sound of rhythmic banging and the rubble falling to the ground.
"So, my question to you is…" Faust continued as a large part of the castle's main entrance collapsed. "… Why would I surrender when I still have the upper hand?"
Due to the main entrance's collapse, the area was covered in a cloud of dust. But thanks to the earlier banging sounds, the group knew there was something large waiting for them behind the smokescreen. Luckily, it did not take long for the smoke to disperse. Especially because the entity inside helped to do so.
Once the smoke was cleared, the group first noticed a thick, metallic tail swinging back to its position behind a 42 foot (approx.. 12.8 m) tall, bipedal, magical, armored, mechanical dragon with glowing red eyes.
"Behold, the trump card of the Edolas Kingdom." Faust's voice sounded from the speaker system installed on the mechanical dragon. "Dorma Anim!"
From inside the mechanical dragon, Dorma Anim, Faust wore an expression of satisfaction after seeing the astonished expressions on Mystogan, Panther Lily, Coco, and Sugarboy's faces. Even Byro and Hughes were quickly awakened when they heard the sound of the castle collapsing.
"The Dorma Anim…" Byro muttered as he gazed upon Edolas' most dangerous and forbidden weapon.
"Amazing…" Hughes said, caught in a trance from the sight of the Dragon Knight, the meaning of Dorma Anim when translated from ancient Edolas.
"And this proves that you are no longer suited to lead, Father." Mystogan said after he snapped out of his astonished state. "The Dorma Anim syphon's too much of the already waning ethernano from the atmosphere. Thus, it was declared forbidden in article 23 of the Edolas Imperial Constitution."
"You are still so short-sighted, my foolish son." Faust replied "Now that the Anima has been perfected, the dwindling magic power in Edolas is no longer a concern. Especially with three Dragon Slayers we can use to harvest an infinite amount of magic power. The Edolas Kingdom will be invincible and last forever. Bwahahahahaha!"
While Faust was busy celebrating his already perceived victory, the wizards from Fairy Tail were discussing amongst themselves.
"If I were to cut down such a creation, would I attain the title of Dragon Slayer?" Erza asked in a serious tone.
"Ha! You should let me have this one, Erza." Natsu replied. "You already got to fight someone strong, but all I did was run around the city and fight the soldiers from the army."
Hearing Natsu's statement, the Edolas Erza, though she was annoyed that she was still being carried over Erza's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, could not help but puff out her chest after being recognized as strong.
"You call this woman strong?" Erza asked as she finally took her Edolas counterpart off of her shoulder. "Perhaps she could be considered so when referring to the rest of the people in Edolas. But without magic to strengthen her body, she was no challenge."
"Hey!" The Edolas Erza protested, but was easily ignored.
"Whatever." Natsu replied, rolling his eyes at Erza's retort. "Either way, I'm a [Dragon Slayer] wizard. So, this fight is perfect for me."
"If that's the case, Salamander, you should let me fight." Gajeel said, cutting into the conversation. "I'm a Dragon Slayer, too. So, why don't you sit this one out. On top of that, this dragon is made of metal, making it perfect for me."
"Hey, butt out, Metal Head." Natsu complained.
"Um… Can I fight it?" Wendy asked, raising her hand timidly. "I'm a Dragon Slayer too, you know."
With that, the four Earth Land wizards continued to argue over who would be the one to fight the Dorma Anim. Their argument naturally drew the attention of everyone standing nearby.
"These people are amazing." Hughes muttered subconsciously. "How are they so eager to fight something so amazingly powerful?"
"They are simply arrogant." Byro replied disdainfully. "With the Dorma Anim's magic nullification, none of them stand a chance against it."
As Byro mentioned, the Dorma Anim's armor plating was created using an alloy that nullifies magic on contact, making the Dorma Anim one of the deadliest weapons Edolas has ever seen when it comes to magical warfare.
At the same time, Elicia, Marin, and Lucy were gathered around Alfonzo as the group of four watched the ongoing argument.
"Are they seriously arguing over who will fight at a time like this?" Lucy asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, that's just how they roll." Alfonzo replied.
"It's too bad none of them will get the chance to fight, though." Marin replied.
"Huh?" Lucy exclaimed in confusion. "What do you mean? Wouldn't it be better for all of us to work together against that thing. I mean, that little old man said that it could nullify magic, right?"
"That's true, but you're forgetting something, Lucy." Elicia said while patting the shorter girl on the shoulder.
"What did I forget?" Lucy asked curiously.
"We have him." Elicia replied, pointing at Alfonzo with a bright smile on her face. "That dragon thing is made of metal, so…"
Hearing that, Lucy's eyes opened wide in realization.
"And that's another thing added to the list of things we need to work on with you, Lucy." Alfonzo said before he started combing his fingers through Lucy's hair. "Your reaction in perceived dangerous situations needs work. You didn't even try to save yourself when you were falling from the top of that tower, earlier. When, in fact, you had an easy solution to that problem."
Hearing Alfonzo's gentle reprimand, Lucy could not help but lower her head with a blush on her face. After being saved by Happy and having the time to think about the situation, she knew that if she had summoned Aries, her wool would have been more than enough to save her.
"And then there was this." Elicia added. "I mean, Fonzie's nickname back on Earth land is the Master of Metal, after all."
With that, Lucy lowered her head even further, burying her chin between her breasts.
'*Sigh* I guess our presence in this world has messed up a lot of her chances to gain experience, hasn't it?' Alfonzo thought to himself.
'I guess Fonzie and I should take Lucy on some of the harder A-Class quests for a while.' Elicia thought to herself while planning how to get Lucy the necessary experience. Then, she smiled mischievously as her thought continued. 'She's probably gonna hate us for this.'
At that moment, Lucy shuddered in fear. Though, for the life of her, she could not understand why.
"Anyway, we can talk about that when we get back home." Alfonzo said, pulling his fingers out of Lucy's hair as he took a step forward towards the Dorma Anim. "I'll take care of this."
Hearing Alfonzo's declaration, the argument between Erza, Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy came to an abrupt halt. Then, the four wizards snapped their heads in Alfonzo's direction.
"Come on, Alfonzo." Natsu whined. "I didn't get to fight anyone strong yet. Let me have this one."
"Yeah, at least let us Dragon Slayers fight it." Gajeel said, deciding that taking a step back might increase his chance of getting to fight.
Meanwhile, Wendy only looked at Alfonzo with pleading eyes. And when Alfonzo saw them, he almost agreed to her unspoken request immediately. Luckily, his will that had been tempered over the years was strong enough to resist.
'Damn it, she's too fucking cute.' Alfonzo muttered internally. 'Puppy dog eyes combined with cute loli characters should be considered illegal.'
As for Erza, everyone was surprised to see that she did not protest int eh slightest when Alfonzo denied her opportunity to fight a strong opponent.
"No, I've already had enough of this farce." Alfonzo replied resolutely. "I'm ready to go home already."
"Tch! Fine." Natsu grumbled.
"Fine, but let me taste its metal later." Gajeel said, knowing that he was not capable of changing Alfonzo's decision.
At the same time, Wendy could only look at Alfonzo sadly as her eyes began to water.
'Don't look. Don't look. Don't look.' Alfonzo thought to himself as he felt the little girl's stare. 'If you don't see her, she can't influence you.'
"Fonzie, you're so cute." Elicia said as she jumped onto Alfonzo's back and wrapped her arms and legs around his neck and waist respectively. But I understand how you feel, cute is justice, after all."
By now, Faust had finished with his evil laughter and villainous monologue. But when he noticed that he was all but being ignored, he grew furious.
"You dare to ignore me?" Faust shouted through the Dorma Anim's speaker system. "I will punish you for your insolence!"
However, even after a few moments, the Dorma Anim did not move in the slightest. Instead, the only thing that could be heard was the confused ramblings of the king.
*Sigh* You really should have done your research, Faust." Alfonzo said as he, with Elicia still on his back, began walking towards the immobilized Dorma Anim. "I use [Metal Magic]. So, all this was a big ass waste of time. And you ended up hurting your world even more without gaining anything from it."
By the end of his little, impromptu speech, Alfonzo was already close enough to touch the Dorma Anim. At the same time, the hatch on the Dorma Anim's chest opened, revealing a flabbergasted Faust sitting in the dragon armor's cockpit.
"Impossible…" Faust muttered repeatedly.
"It's over, Faust." Alfonzo said as he touched the Dorma Anim's armor, using his magic power to analyze the alloy's make up and destroy the mechanisms that drew in the ethernano from the atmosphere.. "Now just sit still like a good boy while your son and I discuss how to get us back home."
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