The Flower Capital, now engulfed in a three-way war between gods, dragons, and humans, no longer showed the slightest trace of its former prosperity and vitality.
Broken walls and ruined buildings lay everywhere.
Cries of pain filled the sky. Dragon soldiers swarmed through the city like a plague of locusts, clashing with human mages who were desperately struggling to survive.
The Flower Capital had now been split into countless battlefields by all kinds of powerful enemies.
In the battle between Ankh and Soda, although Soda possessed strange and unpredictable divine power, the pressure he brought Ankh was not as overwhelming as what Ankh had felt when facing the strangely strengthened Acnologia back then.
So even though the battle remained deadlocked, Ankh was at least able to suppress him.
Elsewhere, Rogue, the controller of the six dragons and the source of all this trouble, was riding Motherglare, the dragon that produced dragon soldiers, and dominating the skies.
The two Natsus were currently riding Uncle Flame Dragon toward the battlefield, determined to cure Rogue of his king complex.
Setting aside the Flame Dragon, who had switched sides, and Motherglare, whom Rogue was riding, the four giant dragons scattered throughout the royal capital had also been intercepted by Dragon Slayers, each of them assisted by elite mages from the various guilds.
Sabertooth's Twin Dragons, just as they had boldly declared earlier, were now joining forces to fight two dragons who seemed to have a fairly good relationship with each other.
The other members of Sabertooth were also working together to support them, creating openings for their attacks.
It had to be said that without Jiemma and Minerva, that twisted father-and-daughter pair when it came to guild management, and after new master Sting and the other core members had all been physically educated by Fairy Tail, Sabertooth could now barely be considered a decent guild.
Facing two dragons whose pressure was unbearably heavy, not a single member of Sabertooth retreated.
All of them charged forward without fear of death for the sake of their comrades.
Unfortunately…
Sabertooth's attempt to imitate Fairy Tail's power-up-by-bonds-and-feelings style also depended on timing.
An emotional burst needed a foundation of strength to build on.
Right now, even Natsu, Gajeel, and the others were caught in hard battles, let alone the Twin Dragons, who were basically the floor tiles among Dragon Slayers…
Their opponents were Scizoransa, the dragon who had toyed with Sting earlier and possessed spatial abilities, and Levia, a fish-type dragon with a dorsal fin and a forked tail.
One of these dragons teased Sting with spatial magic, while the other lazily ignored and reflected Rogue's relentless attacks with its still-not-smooth scales.
Sting, who had once boasted about killing a dragon and mocked Ankh for being unable to defeat Acnologia, thought about how he was now being played with like a helpless chick by some unknown dragon, and his face turned green with frustration.
Fortunately, Wendy soon arrived on the battlefield to support them.
For the moment, she too might be considered a "floor tile of the dragon-slaying system," but her future potential was limitless.
With three mages in Dragon Force, they finally gained the power to fight.
Kagura from Mermaid Heel also arrived with a group of mages to help.
Compared to these less-than-reassuring Dragon Slayer forces, the other three human-versus-dragon battlefields were, for now, proceeding relatively smoothly.
After settling his girlfriend Cubellios in Fairy Tail's group, the Poison Dragon Erik did not hesitate to lead Team Ram toward the dragon women hated most—Zirconis, the dragon who loved stripping women naked before eating them!
First, this unserious dragon was not as terrifyingly strong as the others.
He also had a chaotic mind full of random thoughts, which allowed Erik, who could hear thoughts, to maneuver around him for a long time.
Second, Erik had already seen through this dragon's special ability.
At first glance, Zirconis seemed able to make clothing vanish with a single breath, but as someone who used poison, Erik could tell that what Zirconis exhaled was actually a special invisible toxin that corroded clothing.
In a way, this was a perfect professional match.
Poison Dragon Erik versus the Jade Dragon Zirconis!
Gajeel and Laxus were facing a similar situation.
Although they did not have an ability specifically suited to counter their enemy, as the two currently most reliable Dragon Slayers, their battle situation was still fairly stable.
The problem was that their opponent was a rock dragon with defense maxed out.
Its entire body was harder than iron, and it had a constitution resistant to electricity, making both Gajeel and Laxus incredibly irritated.
Fortunately, Fairy Tail's main combat forces, including Erza and Mirajane, were assisting them here, and Lamia Scale's rock expert Jura was also present.
Across the battlefields, Dragon Slayers and guild elites were fighting the dragons, while the guild masters led the more ordinary mages in resisting wave after wave of dragon soldier attacks.
For the moment, the battle had entered a strange kind of balance.
But everyone understood one thing.
The real key to victory in this nightmare battle still lay within the royal palace.
They had to destroy the Eclipse Gate, the thing that had allowed these dragons to cross time and descend upon the royal capital!
...
At the center of the Flower Capital, aside from a few distant palace buildings, the rest of the once-magnificent structures had already become dust and wasteland.
A bloody scratch on Ankh's cheek healed rapidly as he swung a fist forward with all his strength, unleashing a bloody wave of death aura.
Soda's expression remained indifferent.
He responded with a punch of his own, his movement precise and flawless, like a perfectly calibrated combat machine.
Countless wailing ghostly souls collided with the black aura of death that destroyed all things.
Another layer of ground was mercilessly torn away, causing the unlucky royal palace to sink even lower.
The surrounding air had become filthy and difficult to breathe.
If any outsider saw this scene without knowing the truth, they probably would never believe that the two beings fighting each other in such a primitive, bare-handed manner were gods.
And one of them, the one who looked more like an evil god, was actually the benevolent god on humanity's side…
After another collision of fists, with death aura and souls scattering wildly, Ankh suddenly changed direction and rushed toward the Eclipse Gate!
Soda immediately understood his intention.
He casually grabbed the space in front of him, and a violent gale suddenly appeared before Ankh, wrapping around him as though it had gained intelligence.
With his intent discovered and Soda closing in again, Ankh could only frown and start thinking about how to break through this guy's defensive line.
Compared to Ankh's own ability to truly create and bless life, Soda's soul power seemed more inclined to transform all things into beings with a certain level of intelligence but no true physical body.
Judging by Soda's previous casual attacks, he could turn objects with no emotions or intelligence into "loyal dogs" that obeyed his commands.
Its destructive power was not as strong as divine power of death, but it was persistent and clingy.
Its creative power was not as good as divine power of life, but it was fast and extremely annoying.
This guy really was first-rate when it came to dragging out irritating, sticky battles…
"Are you worried about your human companions, Ankhseram?"
Soda's expression remained indifferent, and his tone carried no fluctuation at all.
Ankh almost failed to realize he was mocking him.
Ankh secretly glanced toward the real objective of this battle—the Eclipse Gate—while still sneering back.
"Their power isn't something your brain can imagine, Soda."
Soda's cold face finally changed.
He frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with the way Ankh spoke to him.
But before he could respond, a blazing red light suddenly erupted in the distant sky above the city.
A fierce red dragon that no one recognized appeared without warning, spewing flames from its mouth, and with one violent claw, it swatted Future Rogue down from the giant dragon he was riding!
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