Soda gathered away the emotion in His eyes, His voice low and cold.
"For the sake of humanity, you gave up being a god and became this, living pathetically among ant-like humans. Ankhseram, you truly are difficult for Me to understand."
Ankh shook out his fist and mocked Him without hesitation.
"You've never tried to understand. Of course you wouldn't get it."
"A god's wisdom is not meant to understand filth."
Soda's face was indifferent, His eyes filled with disdain toward humanity and contempt toward the former companions who had once walked beside Him.
"Lairs, Chronos, Velti, Atush, Fretz… What exactly do you fools like about humans?"
Soda raised His hand toward the sky.
Within the dark clouds, countless arcs of lightning flickered in and out of sight.
He stared coldly at the "unrepentant" Ankhseram and asked, "And you. Once, you were a god capable of fighting Zous. What is here that you could possibly be so attached to that you would willingly lower yourself?"
Ankh grinned and began explaining with a perfectly serious face.
"Mirajane is beautiful, and I'm willing to stay with her forever. Every day when I go to the guild, I get to watch Juvia chase after Gray, which is pretty entertaining in its own way. Seeing Natsu and Lucy bicker and mess around makes me feel like this world is gentle…"
"And then there's my adorable little sister asking me for money while pretending to be cool and mature. That's very cute. Ultear and Sorano always arguing and coming to me to judge who's right is fun too. Laxus uses his height and long arms to tease Lisanna, Jellal gets roasted by Sawyer and Macbeth every day, and so on and so on…"
"These things, these people, everyone in the guild… the friends I've come to know…"
Ankh's eyes burned brightly, and he smiled without the slightest shame.
"They're all the reasons I'm attached to this place!"
Hearing Ankh's reasons, Soda seemed stunned.
"Heh…"
After a moment, Soda could not help laughing mockingly.
He lowered His eyes and said in a voice full of disappointment, "What a boring reasons. What a waste of My question. It seems… there is no need to speak further."
Countless bolts of lightning poured from the sky like a waterfall.
A sea of thunder gathered in Soda's hand, then was released as if He were commanding slaves.
"Yeah. There's no need. You'll never understand it anyway."
The softness in Ankh's eyes faded.
An even more powerful death aura surged from his hands as he charged straight into the raging sea of lightning.
…
Inside the royal palace, the clash between the two gods erupted.
The beautiful Mercurius Palace, with its century of history, was on the verge of becoming nothing more than a memory.
Meanwhile, across the Flower Capital, the battles showed no sign of stopping.
Future Rogue was currently riding one of the seven dragons…
No, one of them had been killed when Soda extracted its soul for His descent, so among the remaining six, he had chosen the dragon with the strongest body and greatest flight speed, soaring high above the royal capital.
This dragon, whose hard skin was covered in strange patterns, was named Motherglare.
Rogue had taken control of it as his mount for another reason as well.
The patterns across Motherglare's body suddenly began to shift.
Then the markings opened layer by layer like blooming petals, revealing holes from which dragon eggs continuously spilled out.
Motherglare hurled those eggs down across the capital like cannonballs as it flew through the sky. When the fragile dragon eggs crashed to the ground, their shells shattered, and small dragons crawled out from within.
Dense clusters of eggs cracked open, and the small dragons quickly spread like a plague, charging at any nearby mages and attacking them.
Individually, these small dragons were not especially strong, and their attack patterns were simple. But what made them terrifying was that they moved as a swarm.
The allied mage forces, who had originally been relying on numbers to hold back the giant dragons, were now facing a dragon swarm that used the same numbers advantage against them.
The situation instantly flipped into a disadvantage.
Almost every dragon worthy of a name possessed its own unique ability.
For example, Motherglare's ability to produce dragon soldiers.
And then there was Zirconis, who was currently fighting Natsu and Lucy.
The bright green Zirconis had two bat-wing-like horns on his head, two long whiskers beneath his chin, and a face that looked almost human from the front.
His scales resembled Elfman's Lizardman Take Over.
"Dragons should be beaten by Dragon Slayers!"
Happy carried Natsu and charged excitedly toward Zirconis.
Behind them, Lucy shouted in despair, "Please, we got separated from everyone! I don't even know if the other me is safe!"
"Don't worry! The other me's there!"
Facing a real dragon, Natsu was unbelievably excited.
He flew up and punched Zirconis, but the expressive green dragon merely glanced at him, stroked his long whiskers, and said with relish.
"The taste of humans… Ah, it's been so long since I last ate one~"
"What did you say?"
Natsu angrily looked at Zirconis, who was ignoring him, and began punching and kicking his forehead in midair.
Zirconis impatiently curled one dragon claw.
Then, with a flick, he sent Natsu flying aside.
Natsu and Happy crashed to the ground, dizzy and spinning.
Without any sudden power-up in his normal state, and with no elemental advantage, a dragon fighting a human really was like playing with a toy.
Zirconis chuckled. "Although I enjoy eating humans, clothes taste terrible."
With that, Zirconis released a breath attack toward Natsu.
Lucy, standing nearby, anxiously prepared to save him, only to discover that Natsu was completely fine.
Except…
His clothes were gone!
Natsu climbed up from the ground, completely naked except for his scarf.
He was not embarrassed at all, merely lowering his head and looking at himself in confusion.
"Hehe. Now this is better!"
Zirconis laughed wickedly.
Natsu, who possessed absolutely no sense of shame, jumped forward under the moonlight and rushed at the hateful green dragon again.
The result was obvious.
Zirconis grabbed the naked Natsu in one claw and was just about to have a snack when his eyes suddenly shifted.
He saw Lucy.
Zirconis's eyes instantly lit up, and he laughed loudly. "White, tender meat is even more appetizing!"
Then the gourmet green dragon released another breath.
Lucy instantly became a white rabbit…
"Kyaaaaa—!"
Lucy crouched on the ground, covering herself as she let out a sharp scream.
Seeing this, Natsu began struggling wildly.
Then he seized his chance and hurled a blast of Brilliant Flame straight into Zirconis's eye.
Zirconis, hurt and furious, raised his claw and threw Natsu away, dragging Lucy along with him in the chaos.
Fortunately, before the naked pair could fly too far, they both crashed headfirst into the giant bell above the Grand Magic Games arena.
"Damn it… I need to think of something. This dragon is seriously annoying!"
Natsu struggled to sit up, angrily staring at Lucy in front of him while thinking of a countermeasure.
Seeing that, Lucy's face flushed bright red.
She covered the important parts of herself with one arm, then decisively punched Natsu.
"Don't stare straight at me! I'm having a hard enough time covering myself!"
"Tch… What a pain."
Natsu complained speechlessly.
Then, very considerately, he reached out and helped Lucy cover her chest so the important areas would not be exposed.
"There. Now it's fine~"
Bang!
"What are you doing?! A normal person would cover his own eyes!!"
Unsurprisingly, Natsu was punched flat onto the ground by Lucy, who had steamed up from embarrassment.
Natsu lay on the ground, his eyes blankly staring in a certain direction.
There, in the city, was the flame dragon fighting the mages, its entire body wrapped in fire!
"I've got an idea!"
Natsu jumped up excitedly, ran to Lucy, and grabbed the hand she was using to cover herself.
Then he charged toward the flame dragon, shouting with excitement, "We'll use a dragon's power to fight a dragon!"
Bang!!
Lucy's third punch landed.
"At least let me find something to wear first!!"
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator