"WE WON!!!!!" Natsu shouted, pumping a fist into the air. The rest of the Fairy Tail mages around him cheered with equal volume, raising mugs, bottles, bowls, and in one case what looked suspiciously like an entire cooking pot into the air in celebration.
Fairy Tail had won. Somehow.
Everyone present had been on the verge of death less than a few hours ago, yet now they were bandaged, exhausted, half-broken, and still partying like they were not one bad step away from collapsing unconscious again. Gray was arguing with Cana over who hit harder during the battle while missing half his shirt as usual. Elfman was loudly retelling a version of events where he apparently punched a tidal wave. Levy and Lucy looked exhausted beyond reason, but still smiled every few seconds whenever someone else started cheering again.
Aelius himself was very much not part of that group. He had spent the day before the war trying to talk more. Trying to be better. Trying to let himself exist around the others without constantly sounding like he expected betrayal around every corner. But now he could not be bothered.
Even if he wanted to keep improving, it still felt like wearing a mask sometimes. A deliberate effort to force himself into being that open, that approachable. And right now, he genuinely could not be bothered lifting his arms, let alone holding that mask in place.
So instead, he sat on the outskirts of the newly rebuilt camp while the celebration carried on in the distance. Or maybe "celebration" was generous. From where he sat, it looked closer to a tavern brawl mixed with a festival and several minor natural disasters happening simultaneously. Someone had already been thrown through a table. Twice. Mira was somehow smiling sweetly while also picking wood chips out of her hair. Happy had stolen food from at least four separate people already and was actively denying it despite still holding evidence in both paws.
Aelius leaned back slightly against one of the rough wooden supports near the edge of camp, wings folded loosely behind him. It turned out, they didn't disappear, so that was something he'd have to get around, or just get used to. Most of his body had healed by now, at least enough to function normally again, though fresh scars still crossed parts of his arms and torso where regeneration had not finished completely. Honestly, he was mostly just tired, not physically, well, partially physically. But more in the way someone became tired after thinking too much for too long.
The firelight from the camp flickered across the clearing while distant laughter echoed through the trees. It should have felt peaceful after everything that happened. Instead, it mostly felt strange. Though Aelius did snicker quietly to himself after a moment as he realized the situation he was currently in. Big hard battle. Mysterious powers. Near-death experience. Then, instead of joining the celebration afterward, he sat alone on the edge of camp, skulking around like the "mysterious" heroes from those adventure books he used to read when he was younger.
The realization annoyed him slightly, mostly because he could absolutely picture the descriptions. The lone warrior watching from the shadows while the others celebrated victory, burdened by powers no one else understood. Aelius rubbed at his face tiredly with one hand. "…Gods, I'm becoming cringe."
"Too late," Levy said from nearby.
Aelius nearly jumped as he turned slightly and found Levy standing a few feet away, holding two cups, one steaming lightly while the other smelled strongly enough of alcohol that it could probably strip paint.
"You walk quietly," he muttered.
"You were thinking loudly." Levy sat beside him without asking permission first and handed over the steaming cup instead of the dangerous-looking one. "Tea. Before you complain, no, there's no poison in it." Aelis gave her an unimpressed look and grabbed the other cup instead.
Levy smiled faintly before glancing toward the chaos happening deeper in camp. Natsu had apparently started arm wrestling Gajeel again while injured.
"Does that make you the princess then?" Aelius asked after a moment, completely straight-faced, "The one who breaks the hero out of his edginess?" he finished with a light laugh, his eyes meeting hers.
Levy immediately choked on her drink. A full, violent coughing fit that nearly sent tea out of her nose while she doubled over beside him, trying not to die. It took several seconds before she finally managed to breathe properly again, face bright red beneath the firelight.
Aelius watched her calmly. "…You alright?" he asked once the worst of the fit had ended.
Levy pointed at him accusingly while still coughing lightly. "You," she managed, "are not allowed to say things like that with a serious expression."
"I was simply asking a question."
"You were absolutely not."
Aelius tilted his head slightly. "No? It seemed accurate to the genre."
That only made her groan harder while dragging both hands down her face. The blush stubbornly refused to leave her cheeks, which Aelius noticed immediately and wisely chose not to comment on. Mostly because he was not entirely sure what he said wrong. Or right.
Levy finally recovered enough to sit upright again, though she kept avoiding direct eye contact now while taking another careful sip from her drink. "You know," she muttered, "most people flirt with a little more warning."
"I was flirting?"
That got him a completely flat stare, "Aelius."
"In my defense," he said quickly, holding up his hands, "I genuinely don't know anymore." Which, annoyingly enough, was honest.
Levy stared at him for another few seconds before suddenly laughing into her cup, quieter this time. "That somehow makes it worse."
Aelius frowned slightly. "You humans are very complicated."
"You are human."
"Debatable."
Levy lowered her cup slowly. "Don't." The response came immediately enough that Aelius looked at her properly this time. She was still blushing faintly, though now there was something firmer underneath the embarrassment. Not anger exactly. More like irritation mixed with concern.
"You keep doing that," she said quietly. "Talking about yourself like you're something separate from everyone else."
Aelius looked away first, towards the distant party, voices carried through the trees again, while someone shouted loudly about cheating at cards. Probably Cana. Maybe Natsu somehow. Hard to tell.
Levy continued after a moment. "I know your magic scares you sometimes," she said. "Honestly, it scares a lot of people." She smiled weakly into her drink. "Some of your beasts are horrifying."
"They all are horrifying."
Levy snorted before growing quieter again. "But you still jumped in front of attacks for everyone today. You nearly got yourself killed protecting people over and over again." Her eyes flicked briefly toward the still-regenerating remains of his wing beneath the bandages. "People don't really do that if they secretly see themselves as monsters."
AeliUs was silent for a while after that; the firelight and sunlight reflected faintly in his eyes while he watched the others celebrating deeper in camp. Natsu was currently trying to lift Gray and failing because Gray kept intentionally making himself heavier with ice. Wendy was laughing hard enough that she nearly fell over. It looked…nice. Messy, yes, loud, even more so, but nice.
"I don't think monsters are incapable of caring," Aelius said eventually.
Levy considered that for a moment before nodding slightly. "Maybe not." Then she bumped her shoulder lightly against his. "But I think monsters usually enjoy hurting people a lot more than you do."
"That depends on the person."
"Aelius."
"Fine."
A comfortable silence settled between them afterward. Levy eventually leaned back against the same wooden support he was using, close enough that their shoulders still touched occasionally whenever one of them shifted slightly, though neither moved away from it. After a while, she glanced sideways toward him again, her expression turning mischievous.
"So," she said carefully, "if I'm apparently the princess in this situation…" Aelius already disliked where this was going, but she finished before he could interrupt. "…does that mean you think you're handsome enough to be the mysterious hero?"
Aelius looked genuinely thoughtful for a second. Then he nodded once. "Obviously." Levy burst out laughing again, nearly spilling her drink a second time. "You called that flirting," Aelius spoke again once she calmed down slightly. "Was that what it was?"
Levy looked at him for a long moment after that. Not because he sounded smooth. Quite the opposite, actually. He sounded genuinely confused. Which somehow made the question worse.
"You seriously don't know?" she asked carefully.
"…After everything that happened," Aelius said slowly. The tone shifted immediately, and Levy understood what he meant without him needing to say the labyrinth out loud. He always sounded different whenever that place came up. Not softer exactly, but distant in a way that made it feel less like remembering and more like briefly ending up there again. "Well," he continued after a moment, eyes fixed somewhere past the campfires instead of on her, "the only real type of flirting I remember is Vanessa's." He snorted faintly to himself. "And the way she flirts with people is usually…different."
Levy blinked once. "Different how?"
Aelius looked genuinely thoughtful for a second, like he was trying to phrase it correctly. "Someone with her looks doesn't really flirt," he said eventually. "She just takes." His mouth twitched slightly with faint disbelief at the memory. "At least that's how she put it."
Levy nearly choked on her drink again. "Aelius."
"What?"
"What kind of woman says that?"
"The very dangerous kind."
That answer came quickly enough that Levy could not tell if he was joking. And honestly, that worried her slightly.
Aelius leaned back further against the wooden support behind them, expression turning more distant now that the memories were actually surfacing properly. "She treats flirting like hunting," he muttered. "If she wants someone's attention, she'll get it." His eyes narrowed slightly at the recollection. "She can read a person, most of the time more than they read themselves; she's stabbed people just because she knew they'd enjoy it somehow."
Levy stared at him, her mouth halfway open, before she asked, "…And this is your baseline reference for romance?"
"In my defense, the people who survived the labyrinth are violently unstable."
"That somehow does not help."
Aelius hummed quietly in acknowledgment. The fire crackled nearby while distant laughter rolled through the camp again. Someone started singing badly. Judging by the volume, it was probably Cana.
Levy glanced sideways toward him carefully. "So what exactly did Vanessa do to flirt with you?"
Aelius went silent for several seconds, which answered enough on its own.
Levy's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, my god."
"It was not like that."
"You hesitated."
"I was choosing how to word it without you jumping to conclusions."
"That sentence alone is concerning."
Aelius rubbed tiredly at his temple. "The first time she tried, she challenged me to a drinking contest, and drank enough that she needed her stomach pumped. He ignored Levy's look as he continued, "The second time," he said calmly, "she sat on me during a meeting because she said I looked too tense."
Levy's face turned bright red almost instantly. Aelius, somehow, remained completely serious through all of this. "She also bit me once."
"AELIUS."
"What? You asked."
Levy covered her face with both hands while making a noise somewhere between embarrassment and disbelief. "What kind of relationship experience is that?!"
"The unhealthy kind, probably."
"That is not probably!"
Aelius actually laughed quietly at that. Not the dry sarcastic kind he usually did, either. Something more genuine, brief as it was.
Levy slowly lowered her hands enough to look at him again, still blushing fiercely. "You know," she muttered, "normal flirting is usually less violent."
"That explains why I was confused earlier."
"Most people don't compare girls to fantasy princesses and accidentally confess feelings halfway through a conversation either."
"I did not confess."
Levy gave him a look.
Aelius paused. "…I implied?" he corrected reluctantly.
"Much better."
For a while, they just sat there again while the noise of Fairy Tail's celebration carried on around them. Then Levy spoke more quietly this time. "You know," she said carefully, "I think I prefer your version anyway."
Aelius glanced toward her.
"The awkward one," she clarified quickly, cheeks reddening again. "Not…the biting thing."
"I should mention, the biting thing wasn't her flirting."
Levy laughed softly under her breath before resting her head lightly against his shoulder. Aelius stiffened automatically for half a second. Then slowly relaxed. "…This is also flirting?" he asked after a moment.
Levy smiled against his shoulder. "Yeah."
"…Huh." And despite everything, the confusion in his voice sounded almost pleased.
Levy looked at him for a few moments before sighing softly. "You know, you should probably ask properly. It's only polite."
Aelius frowned slightly. "I accidentally asked improperly first. Does that complicate the process?"
"Yes," Levy said immediately. "Very much."
"That makes sense."
Levy rolled her eyes before lightly elbowing him in the side. "Also, I have to ask…" She looked up at him with visible disbelief now. "Did you really think I'd say no?"
Aelius opened his mouth, it hung there for a moment, then slowly closed it again.
Levy pointed at him accusingly. "I let you stay at my house." Levy continued before he could recover. "I've hung out with you constantly, against your will sometimes. During the Fantasia parade, before the whole Laxus mess, we literally spent the morning going around stalls together." She stared at him harder with every example. "And you've flirted with me before, even if you didn't realize it."
Aelius blinked slowly. "…I did?"
"Yes!"
"When?"
Levy looked genuinely offended now. "You bought me food and called spending time with me 'surprisingly tolerable.'"
"That was a compliment."
"I know it was!"
Aelius stared at her for several seconds. Then looked faintly horrified. "Oh no."
Levy immediately burst out laughing again. "You seriously didn't realize?!"
"I thought I was just being less antisocial."
"That is not normal friendship behavior!"
"That explains several conversations in hindsight."
Levy nearly fell sideways laughing at the growing look of realization crossing his face. "I'm actually amazed you managed to survive this long."
"In fairness," Aelius muttered darkly, "most people in my life tried to stab me instead of court me."
"That is somehow not reassuring."
Aelius rubbed at his face again before exhaling tiredly. "I genuinely thought you were simply persistent."
"I was persistent," Levy admitted. "But not subtly." Apparently not.
Aelius leaned his head back against the wooden support while processing what was apparently months of missed signals all arriving simultaneously. "That is…embarrassing."
Levy smiled smugly beside him. "A little."
"You could've said something."
Levy sputtered immediately. "Me?! You're the scary, mysterious guy with plague powers!"
"That's never stopped you from yelling at me."
"That's different!"
Aelius glanced sideways toward her. "You are very small. It reduces the intimidation factor significantly."
Levy smacked his arm. He actually laughed quietly at that. Then the laughter faded after a moment, leaving something softer behind as he looked at her properly again. Firelight reflected across her eyes while the distant chaos of Fairy Tail's celebration blurred into background noise.
"…Right," he said eventually, like he had reached some internal conclusion.
Levy blinked once. "Right?"
Aelius straightened slightly from where he had been leaning against the support beam, expression more focused now despite the exhaustion still visible across his face.n "Levy." The sudden seriousness immediately made her sit up straighter, too. "You said I should ask properly."
Levy's cheeks already started turning red again. "I did."
Aelius nodded once, like confirming battle conditions before a fight. Then, completely sincere, he asked, "Would you like to go on a date with me?" It was just honest intent delivered with the same blunt certainty he approached nearly everything else with.
Levy stared at him for about three full seconds. Then smiled slowly. "…Yeah," she said softly. "I would."
Aelius could say he was happy, actually happy, not the brief satisfaction of surviving another fight. Not the cold amusement he usually found in chaos or violence. Not even the quiet comfort of sitting near people he trusted. For the first time in a very long while, it genuinely felt like maybe his life was getting back on track. Maybe he could move on from the labyrinth eventually. Maybe all the rot and death and years spent trapped in that place did not have to define the rest of his existence forever.
Maybe.
The thought repeated itself quietly through his head while Levy stayed beside him, shoulder pressed lightly against his own as the distant campfire celebration continued deeper in the clearing.
Maybe things could finally start getting better.
Maybe if he looked back on this day later, he would realize that was the exact moment everything should have ended.
Maybe they should have run the second Hades fell.
Maybe they should not have sat around celebrating like idiots on an island infamous for disaster.
Maybe then they would have escaped before it arrived.
Maybe he would not have to suffer more.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the world changed, and every instinct in Aelius's body screamed at once. Pressure crashed down over Tenrou Island. The campfire extinguished instantly. Trees groaned across the island as wildlife erupted into panicked movement somewhere deeper in the forest. Fairy Tail's celebration died mid-laughter, conversations cutting off violently as every mage present felt it.
Aelius was already on his feet before conscious thought caught up, and so were Gildarts and Makarov. The expressions on both of their faces told him everything immediately, pure, genuine, fear.
The air itself felt wrong now, heavy enough that breathing became difficult. Aelius's wings spread instinctively behind him while fresh magic surged through his body despite his earlier exhaustion. Every survival instinct he possessed screamed one thing. Run. Around the camp, Fairy Tail mages staggered or froze outright beneath the overwhelming presence now pressing against the island. Even Erza looked shaken. Gray's face had gone pale. Natsu instinctively dropped into a fighting stance despite clearly not understanding what he was reacting to yet.
Then Gildarts looked upward toward the darkened sky beyond the trees. And quietly muttered one word. "Acnologia."
That was all it took. Aelius moved instantly the instant he comprehended the word. His wings exploded outward at full span. The ground beneath him cracked as he launched upward into the trees without hesitation. Around him, the forest canopy bent violently from the force of his ascent while panic finally began spreading fully through the camp below.
He broke through the treeline, and that's when he saw it, just as much as he felt it. A massive beast clad in black scales with glowing blue lines tracing through them like cracks in the night sky itself. Its underbelly was paler, though still dark enough to look wrong against the clouds behind it. The creature's body cut through the air with impossible speed for something so large, each movement carrying the weight of a natural disaster rather than a living thing.
A dragon, the dragon, Acnologia. Even seeing it made something primal inside Aelius recoil violently. His instincts did not register the creature as something to fight. They registered it the same way prey recognized a predator too far above itself to comprehend properly. Death.
The dragon approached faster than anything that size should have been capable of moving. Two beats of its wings was all it took, one moment it was approaching from the horizon, the next it was directly in front of him. The pressure from its movement alone split clouds apart while the displaced air tore through the forest canopy beneath it like invisible explosions. Trees bent sideways or uprooted outright from the sheer force.
Then the dragon opened its mouth and roared. The nearest trees simply vanished, ripped apart into exploding splinters and shredded leaves by the pressure wave alone. The air itself became violent. Aelius felt his body get hurled backward instantly despite instinctively trying to brace with his wings.
And the noise, Gods, the noise, it was so loud he physically felt his eardrums burst inside his skull. Warm blood spilled from both ears before regeneration immediately forced the damage closed again, only for the continuing roar to rupture them a second time moments later. His vision blurred violently while every part of his body screamed under the pressure battering against him.
The dragon was not even attacking him specifically. It was simply existing loudly enough to break lesser creatures. Aelius slammed through the upper branches of the forest hard enough to snap several trunks before managing to catch himself midair again. His wings flared painfully wide. trying desperately to stabilize his movement.
Above him, Acnologia's massive form eclipsed the sky itself. Blue lines pulsed across black scales while ancient eyes swept across Tenrou Island below. Aelius had fought Hades, had stared down monsters, gods, and abominations buried beneath kingdoms. None of them compared to this.
Because for the first time in years, Aelius understood something with absolute certainty. If Acnologia wanted him dead, there was nothing he could do about it.
Makarov appeared next, stopping that train of thought. The old master launched upward through the forest canopy in a surge of golden light before his body rapidly expanded into his full Titan form. One moment, he was the same small old man who sat drinking with the guild earlier, and the next, he stood massive enough to rival the beast before them.
The forest groaned beneath Makarov's weight as his enlarged form planted itself between the dragon and the island proper. Trees bent outward around him while magic rolled from his body in dense waves.
Aelius didn't wait. he dropped straight onto the giant's shoulder and slammed both hands against the old man's neck and upper back. Plague magic surged outward instantly; he was using the same principle he used on Happy and Carla before Edolas. Forced adaptation and temporary enhancement through accelerated mutation and regenerative overclocking. Except this time, he poured in vastly more power than he ever had before. As much as he believed Makarov could withstand without permanently destroying himself.
The reaction was visible, as Makarov's already massive muscles visibly swelled further beneath his skin while green-black energy raced across his enlarged form in branching patterns. Tendons thickened. Veins pulsed brighter beneath the surface. The sheer density of the old man's magic spiked hard enough that the surrounding air warped around him.
The Titan form grew stronger, heavier, and even more monstrous.
Makarov's eyes widened briefly before narrowing again as he adjusted to the sudden influx of strength flooding through his body. Aelius caught the side-eye the old man gave him afterward. Makarov clearly wanted to say something. Probably several things, most likely involving running, but after a moment, the master said nothing, focusing back on the beat before them.
But Aelius was not a fool. He knew exactly what Makarov intended. The old man was preparing to sacrifice himself, he was going to hold the dragon back long enough for the others to escape, hide, or gain distance. The same thing heroes and old men always did when faced with something impossible.
But Aelius also understood something Makarov apparently did not. The master could not hold out alone. Honestly nobody could. And out of everyone on the island, Aelius was probably the only one who even had a chance of defending against the beast directly. His regeneration and his defence were what he prided himself on.
So maybe, just maybe, if they worked together, they could…
Makarov did not let Aelius finish the thought as the titan moved first. The master lunged forward and slammed bodily into the dragon before them with enough force that the surrounding forest exploded outward from the impact. Massive hands wrapped around Acnologia's torso while the two colossal figures crashed through the treeline together, tearing apart earth and stone beneath their combined weight.
The dragon roared in fury as Makarov drove it sideways through the island. Aelius himself used the momentum on instinct. The moment the titan collided with Acnologia, he launched himself from Makarov's shoulder and let the violent movement hurl him forward. Wind screamed past him as he shot through the air directly toward the dragon's head.
Acnologia noticed. One enormous eye shifted upward toward him mid-struggle, ancient and hateful. Aelius did not care; his boots hit black scales hard enough that cracks spread through the air around the impact point, though the dragon itself barely seemed to notice. He skidded several feet across the massive creature's head before slamming one hand down between overlapping scales to anchor himself.
Gods, the scales were enormous up close. Each one larger than his torso, black with glowing blue lines pulsing faintly beneath them like veins carrying light instead of blood. They were hot too. Not burning, but warm in the way a living thing should not have been. Below him, Makarov roared as the titan grappled desperately against the dragon's strength. Acnologia retaliated immediately, claws ripping across the master's chest hard enough that blood sprayed through the shattered forest beneath them. The master responded with a slam of his fist, knocking the beast to the forest floor.
Aelius slammed both palms against the dragon's skull and poured everything he had left into his magic. "Plague God's Pestilent Arrow." The spell condensed instantly into a jagged lance of green-black corruption so dense it screamed as it formed. Every spore, every strain of rot, every virulent plague he could force together compressed into a single piercing point before erupting forward between Acnologia's scales.
For half a second, it worked; the Arrow punched through, black scales cracked apart around the impact point as the spell buried itself into the dragon's head deep enough green corruption exploded outward through the gaps in branching veins. Diseased energy spread rapidly beneath the scales while fungal growth burst from the wound in wet clusters.
Acnologia jerked violently, then blue light surged beneath the damaged scales, as the dragon's magic ignited, and the corruption got burned out of existence. The fungal growth blackened instantly before crumbling into ash. Green veins collapsed inward and vanished while the Pestilent Arrow itself disintegrated piece by piece inside the wound, consumed by overwhelming draconic power until nothing remained.
Aelius felt the backlash tear through his own magic painfully as Acnologia's body rejected the corruption outright. Dragon scales pulsed brighter beneath him while the beast's head jerked violently sideways.
Aelius barely managed to hold on. Then the dragon laughed, not verbally, but the rumbling vibration rolling through Acnologia's body carried unmistakable amusement.
Aelius's eyes narrowed immediately. "Oh, fuck you too."
The dragon twisted violently, in response Its head snapped sideways with enough force that the movement alone shattered the sound barrier around them. Aelius lost his grip instantly and got hurled through the air like debris from an explosion.
He flipped twice before forcing his wings open mid-flight. Below him, Makarov was losing ground.
Even empowered by Aelius's magic, even in titan form, the master simply could not match Acnologia physically. The dragon forced him backward step by step through the island while its claws attempted to rip chunks from the titan's body. And worse, Acnologia still looked almost completely unharmed. One flap of its wings sent Makarov reeling backward through the shattered remains of the forest like he weighed nothing. The titan crashed through hundreds of feet of trees before finally collapsing against the earth hard enough that the island shook beneath him.
And with one more beat of those enormous wings, Acnologia took to the sky. The dragon rose above Tenrou Island like the end of the world itself, then it opened its mouth.
Aelius felt the magic before he saw it. The power gathering inside the dragon's throat dwarfed anything he had ever experienced. Hades's spells. Fairy Law. Even Nameless, or Nehzhar. None of them compared to this. Blue-black energy condensed deeper and deeper between Acnologia's jaws while the surrounding sky distorted from the sheer pressure.
It was enough to destroy the whole island, and then some.
Below him, Fairy Tail was still scattered across Tenrou, far, far, too slow to escape something like this.
Aelius moved, doing the only thing he could. His wings snapped downward hard enough that the air detonated around him as he launched himself directly between the island and the dragon above. Between his friends, his guild, and death.
"Plague God's Aegis." Green-black magic exploded outward in front of him, forming a massive barrier of diseased energy that spread across the sky like corrupted glass. Sickly veins pulsed through its surface while spores drifted from its edges in thick clouds.
"Plague God's Contagion Bastion." The shield twisted immediately, thickening and layering over itself into something closer to a gate than a wall. Corruption folded inward repeatedly, creating overlapping layers of plague magic designed to rot apart anything that tried forcing through it.
But Aelius did not stop. "Plague God's Blight Ward." Another barrier formed behind the first, this one denser, darker, reinforced through condensed rot magic so thick the air around it began decaying.
"Plague God's Living Wall." Fungal growth exploded outward across all the barriers simultaneously, reinforcing them with rapidly multiplying masses of hardened plague matter. Bone-white growths spread over the shields while blackened roots intertwined through every layer. Still not enough, so he kept casting.
More magic poured from him in violent waves; every defensive spell he knew layered together faster and faster until the space between him and the island resembled a fortress made entirely from disease and corruption. His remaining magic reserves collapsed rapidly. Blood ran from his nose, the island below screamed in pain, and fear from the dragon. He ignored all of it, because above him, Acnologia's mouth glowed brighter.
The dragon fired. Blue-black destruction descended from the sky like divine punishment itself, a beam so massive it swallowed the clouds overhead while reality itself seemed to tear around its edges.
Then it hit Aelius's defenses. The first barrier exploded instantly. Erased with ease. Plague God's Aegis ceased to exist the moment the dragon's roar touched it. The second layer lasted less than a heartbeat longer. Contagion Bastion twisted under the pressure before collapsing inward violently, rotten magic scattering apart like ashes in a hurricane. Blight Ward detonated next. Living Wall burned away afterward. Every defense Aelius created disappeared one after another beneath Acnologia's power. Too fast. Far too fast. Aelius roared and forced more magic into the remaining layers anyway, desperately trying to reinforce barriers already collapsing faster than he could maintain them. The dragon's breath punched through all of it.
The beam hit the final barrier. And stopped.
It pressed against the green-black wall like the world itself trying to force its way through a locked door. The sky warped around the point of impact. Space bent inward. The ocean below Tenrou split apart from the pressure alone. Aelius poured everything he had left into the barrier.
Every drop of magic, every reserve he shouldn't have had left. Everything. The final shield thickened again, diseased layers folding over themselves while fungal growth spread desperately across the surface, trying to reinforce what could not be reinforced.
The dragon's roar pushed harder. Aelius felt his body begin to burn from the strain. Not outside, but Inside. His veins felt molten. His body screamed and
But the barrier held, for a second, then another. Below him, Tenrou still existed because of him, which alone forced him to keep going. His magic should have been empty already, completely dry, he knew that. There was nothing left to draw from anymore.
And yet more power kept coming. And something inside him broke because of it. A single sharp sensation somewhere deep within him, like glass cracking under pressure. His ethernano container fractured. The thing every mage relied on. The core that regulated magic itself. The part of him that had already been twisted and overstrained by years of war and blood, by plague magic, by forcing his body beyond what humans were meant to survive.
It had cracked. And magic flooded out wrong afterward, wild, and unstable. Pain ripped through him so violently that his vision went white for a moment. Then came the sound.
CRACK. The barrier split down the center. Aelius's eyes widened as the dragon's roar broke through. The remaining shield disintegrated instantly, and then the beam hit him directly.
There was no resistance, no heroic moment where he held it back through sheer determination. Acnologia's power tore through him like he was nothing. His left arm vanished first. Then most of his torso. The beam ripped through flesh, bone, organs, wings, everything, erasing sections of him so completely that there was nothing left to regenerate from in those places. He felt himself being thrown backward through the sky while the roar continued through him and beyond him toward the island behind.
For one impossible second, Aelius remained conscious. Even as most of his body no longer existed. Even as half his skull disappeared into burning blue-black light, one eye gone, most of his jaw erased. The remains of his nervous system firing wildly while regeneration desperately tried to rebuild parts faster than they were being annihilated.
And still, the beam consumed more. Forests, stone, ruins, coastline, sea itself. The sacred island of Fairy Tail disappeared beneath catastrophic light while the ocean exploded upward around it in walls taller than mountains.
There were no screams. The roar drowned everything, until finally, silence.
The dragon's breath faded, and the sky dimmed as smoke and steam rolled across an empty stretch of ocean where Tenrou Island had once stood.
Acnologia hovered there for a moment, enormous wings spreading against the ruined clouds while glowing blue lines pulsed faintly across black scales.
Then the dragon turned away like everything that had just happened meant nothing at all; two beats of its wings carried it into the distance. And soon even its pressure vanished. Leaving only the ocean behind. And what remained of Aelius floating in it.
He was no hero; this wasn't a story where the friends pull the hero out of his darkness, where he finds the power to win even against the reaper himself; he was nothing. He was Alone, He had failed again. And for the first time since entering the labyrinth all those years ago.
Aelius truly felt broken. But it would seem his torment was over yet.
"How does it feel, little godling?" The voice reached him through the rushing collapse of his own senses, soft at first, almost conversational beneath the sound of boiling seawater and the distant crackle of burning magic still hanging over the ruins of Tenrou. "You mortals always say the second time is easier."
Of course, it was Nameless.
Aelius registered the words dimly, though his remaining eye never left the empty stretch of sky where Acnologia had disappeared. The dragon was already gone. It had destroyed an island, erased lives in seconds, nearly annihilated him outright, and then simply left because none of it had mattered enough to stay for.
The ocean rocked beneath what remained of his body. He was just a head if that, his magic was gone, his container broken, and yet somehow he was still alive.
Nameless drifted closer above him, its elongated canine face bending unnaturally as countless pale eyes opened and closed beneath stretched black skin. Its body never stayed shaped properly for long. Limbs shifted subtly between too many joints while shadows peeled from its form like smoke. The thing hovered there effortlessly above the ruined ocean, thousands of overlapping voices reduced to a near-whisper. "They aren't dead, godling."
Aelius's remaining eye snapped into focus, locking onto the creature hovering over him. His ruined jaw twitched instinctively. He tried to speak and managed nothing but bubbling blood through what remained of his throat.
Nameless understood anyway. "I am not lying to you." The creature's voices folded together into something almost amused. "A very powerful spell was cast." Its grin widened slowly, splitting farther than any face physically should have been capable of stretching. "And all because you bought them one extra second."
The ocean shifted beneath Aelius as another wave rolled through the crater where Tenrou Island had once stood. Steam still rose from the water in massive clouds. Nameless looked out over it all. "That little fairy woman," it murmured thoughtfully. "Remarkable creature. So fragile. So temporary. And yet she reached through the impossible anyway."
Aelius's thoughts dragged sluggishly through the pain before finally catching onto the implication. Mavis?
"The spell fooled the dragon," Nameless continued. One clawed hand gestured lazily toward the empty ocean. "Think of your requip spaces, little godling. Then imagine something infinitely more refined. A suspended world caught between moments. Time barely touching it at all."
Fairy Sphere. It had to be Fairy Sphere, so they were still alive. Aelius hated how genuine the relief felt.
Nameless noticed. "There it is," the creature whispered warmly. "Hope. Nameless drifted lower until its face filled his vision completely. Up close, its features became even worse. Skin moved when it should not. Teeth shifted subtly between shapes. Its eyes were wrong in ways his exhausted mind could no longer fully process.
"I can help you," it said softly. The ocean darkened beneath them as clouds rolled overhead. "I can help you kill that dragon." Those words cut cleanly through the haze consuming his thoughts. Nameless smiled wider. "I can make you stronger than you have ever imagined. Strong enough that creatures like Acnologia no longer reduce you to ash with casual effort." It's many voices deepened slightly. "Strong enough to stand alongside your grandfather in his prime." The grin stretched further still. "Perhaps beyond even him."
"Oh, don't look at me like that, godling." Nameless laughed quietly as it watched Aelius's eye narrow, the sound echoing across the ruined sea in layered tones that did not belong in mortal ears. "You already understand the truth now." Its eyes narrowed. "There are monsters in this world that cannot be overcome through friendship and speeches shouted loudly enough."
Aelius's eye twitched, and his face contorted into the closest thing to a sneer he could manage. The memory of the dragon's roar still reverberated through him. The absolute helplessness. The certainty of death. The way every defense he possessed had shattered like paper beneath Acnologia's power. Nothing he had done mattered. Nothing except delaying the inevitable by seconds.
"You felt it," Nameless whispered. "That instinct. That certainty." Its grin softened into something almost sympathetic. "For all your growth, all your struggles, all your effort to become something greater than the terrified child thrown into Crisis, after Crisis…" The creature tilted its head slowly. "You were still prey."
Nameless extended one long hand toward the shattered remains of Aelius's body. "I do not ask for much," it said softly. "Not your soul. Not your firstborn. Mortals always assume beings like me crave theatrics." The creature's thousand voices shifted faintly with amusement. "My price is simpler. You recently came across a certain book." Nameless's grin widened slowly. "Give it to me. And I will help you."
The Book of Zeref. Even now, even half-dead and barely conscious, Aelius understood how dangerous those words were. And Nameless wanted it badly enough to bargain instead of taking. That alone should have been enough reason to refuse…..But Fairy Tail was gone, and Acnologia still lived, and Aelius had never felt weaker in his life.
His eye closed as he made up his mind, functioning off rage instead of logic, as space distorted weakly above him, with a thought, as he barely managed to pull the book out of his requip. The fleshy grimoire slipped free from his requip space and began falling toward the water below, ancient pages fluttering faintly in the wind.
Nameless moved and snatched the book from the air before it could touch the ocean. Its claws closed around the cover almost reverently as countless voices laughed softly all at once.
"You know where to find me, Godling. I'll be waiting and preparing for the prince's triumphant return."