That night, everyone returned to the hotel, and Drake also heard about the Raven Tail guild.
According to Erza, the malice of that black-robed person was definitely more than just jealousy.
Drake had several guesses, but he couldn't be sure which one it was. But Drake still told everyone to be extra careful of Raven Tail during the competition.
But they weren't given any time to rest. The signal for the start of the preliminaries woke everyone up in the middle of the night.
As in his memories, the preliminaries were a maze breakthrough. After the two teams entered the magical maze, Drake also began to act.
With Fairy Tail's current strength, it would be strange if they lost. Moreover, everyone didn't have as much pressure as in the original plot. They just needed to show themselves to their heart's content.
So Drake was now focusing more on the Eclipse Gate.
Seven years ago, Drake had already figured out the location of the Eclipse Gate, so he sneaked in all the way.
Perhaps because the plan was about to be completed, the security around the Eclipse Gate was much tighter.
But it was easy for Drake to sneak in, and he successfully bypassed the guards and arrived before the Eclipse Gate.
Sure enough, the magic power gathered on the Eclipse Gate was much larger than it had been seven years ago. It had indeed reached the point where it could be activated.
Drake had investigated before, and the Eclipse Gate had indeed been held by the Heartfilia family for generations. However, Lucy's father's business failed, leading to the family's bankruptcy, and the Eclipse Gate was also sold by him.
It was eventually acquired by the Fiore Kingdom, which was why the Eclipse Project existed.
Speaking of which, Teacher Anna had also traveled through the Eclipse Gate with his group to this era, and Drake had been looking for her, but he hadn't heard any news about her.
In the original plot, she had discovered the space-time rift and planned to use it to deal with Acnologia, and was also afraid that the space-time rift would be used by other ill-intentioned people, so she had been guarding there.
After all, she was an excellent mage recognized by Igneel. Although she had lost the Celestial Spirit keys of her contract, her magic level was definitely not low.
It would really be difficult for Drake to find her if she was intentionally hiding.
The state of the Eclipse Gate was still normal. It was estimated that the peculiar magic power fluctuations on the day of the Dragon King Festival had caused the changes.
Unfortunately, he didn't meet anyone discussing the plan in front of him this time. Drake left after confirming the basic situation.
As expected, when Drake returned to the hotel, he learned that both teams had passed the preliminaries at the same time.
Everyone was stunned when the results were announced. Although the competition didn't limit the number of participating teams, it wasn't easy for the elites of other guilds to form a team. Fairy Tail had actually produced an entire team composed of Dragon Slayers and could still send another team to pass the preliminaries.
It definitely made everyone clearly recognize the strength of Fairy Tail.
Drake noticed that Laxus's emotions were a little strange, and the first to notice this was actually Gajeel.
Gajeel told Drake that they had met Raven Tail again in the preliminaries. But there hadn't been any conflict between the two sides. But after that, Laxus had become strange.
At the same time, the Raven Tail guild had also passed the preliminaries this time.
Drake confirmed a certain idea in his heart, and then told Gajeel not to worry.
Laxus's reaction confirmed Drake's guess about Raven Tail, who hadn't appeared in the original plot. It seemed that that person had never given up on targeting Fairy Tail.
But Laxus was reliable, and it wouldn't be a problem to leave this matter to him to handle.
After one night, the official competition of the Grand Magic Games began.
The competition still used the format of random competitions plus battles, and the first competition on the first day was the hiding competition.
Rufus, the Memory-Make mage of Sabertooth, targeted Fairy Tail as in the original plot, and Gray was indeed tricked into getting the lowest score.
Even though Gray had retaliated, he didn't get any points. And Gajeel in the other team got six points, taking third place.
And precisely because of this, Natsu started to act up after the competition ended. This time, the two weren't on the same team, and Natsu directly mocked Gray to his face in a victorious manner.
"Wahahahaha! What's wrong, what's wrong? Someone went on stage full of confidence, but didn't get a single point!"
"Damn it!"
Gray grabbed Natsu's scarf and said loudly, "You didn't even go on stage, don't act like you won against me, you slant-eyed bastard!"
"Huh, what did you say? If I had gone on stage, I definitely wouldn't have gotten zero points like you, you droopy-eyed bastard!"
Natsu and Gray's foreheads were directly pressed together, and it looked like it was going to be like an ordinary day, but after Erza scolded them, the two immediately became honest and went to face the wall on the side.
Drake smiled on the side without saying a word. Gray was originally a little self-blaming and disappointed because he had lost the competition, but he cheered up immediately after arguing with Natsu.
Natsu was indeed exceptionally attentive at times. Perhaps he had just noticed that Gray's mood was low, so he had "comforted" him in his own way... although the person being comforted was also quite angry!
After the bickering, the battles in the second half also began.
Because the participating players in the battle portion were designated by the organizers, there was no room for strategy.
And the two who went on stage for Fairy Tail were Sting and Lucy.
Drake felt that the organizers were intentionally suppressing Fairy Tail. Sting's opponent was actually Jura from Lamia Scale.
Jura had been one of the Ten Wizard Saints seven years ago, and had become much stronger in these seven years. Sting's lasers couldn't penetrate Jura's steel-like rock wall at all.
Although he had lost, Sting's performance didn't have anything to criticize, and even Jura, as his opponent, expressed his appreciation!
Compared to Sting, Drake was more worried about Lucy, who would be going on stage next. Her opponent was Raven Tail, who had the most malice towards Fairy Tail.
Drake couldn't help but look at the mascot pumpkin on the platform, and began to wonder if the royal family was clear about the identity of that person in Raven Tail.
If they knew, then allowing Raven Tail to register was already very unreasonable, unless they intentionally let this guy, who had irreconcilable conflicts with Fairy Tail, in.
If that was really the case, then the kingdom's petty actions had really crossed the line.
Lucy went on stage. Her opponent was a black-eyeshadowed woman wearing a swimsuit-like leotard.
The Raven Tail mage, Luvia, whose magic was Sea Nymph Magic, was a branch of Take Over magic, the same type as Mirajane and her siblings.
She could take over the limbs or abilities of various sea nymphs, and from the beginning, she took over the Kraken Soul, turning her arms into a large number of octopus tentacles and wrapping them around Lucy.
Drake slapped his forehead. Did Lucy have some kind of special attribute? Why did some scenes that needed to be censored always appear every time she fought?
She was entangled by a bunch of tentacles in public, and the tentacles were constantly secreting a mucus that dissolved clothing, causing Lucy to make strange noises... What kind of shame play was this!
This grotesque scene was more suitable for appearing in a hentai anime!
However, Lucy still found a chance to summon the Celestial Spirit Cancer, cutting off the tentacles and putting on the Star Dress at the same time.
But then Luvia took over the Siren Soul, and tried to hypnotize Lucy with a strange song.
Fortunately, Lucy's contracted Celestial Spirit Horologium automatically appeared after sensing that she was in danger, and put Lucy inside its soundproof body.
Luvia didn't expect this to happen, and was punched away by Loke, the Celestial Spirit Leo summoned by Lucy, allowing Lucy to get ten points.
This time, Raven Tail didn't use any underhanded tactics, and Drake also withdrew his magic power, which had been building up. The first day of the competition ended smoothly.
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