From a nearby cliff just outside the capital,
A man wearing a brown windbreaker stood with his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky. There was barely anything to see. Floating islands completely covered the sky itself, their massive shadows swallowing the sunlight and casting the entire region in a dull, muted gray.
Behind him stood dozens of figures in brown cloaks that covered their bodies from head to toe. A few faces were partially visible beneath the hoods, and on each of them, faint silver tattoo-like markings could be seen carved along their cheeks and temples, glinting slightly sometimes.
A sudden gust of wind swept across the snow-covered ground, but the wind carried sand with it. It was an unnatural sight—grains of sand skidding and swirling over pure white snow as if the summer and winter seasons had collided. The sand gathered in one place, spinning tighter and tighter until it formed the shape of a human figure.
When the wind finally died down, a cloaked man stood there. Without hesitation, he stepped forward and knelt behind the man in the windbreaker.
"Master Golvax… we received words of confirmation from our insider in the Magic Council. It really seems like Astro Blackmist was the one who killed our people yesterday. The exact method was unknown; however, he should be up there right now on the sky islands, participating in the competition."
The kneeling man spoke through gritted teeth as he lifted his head slightly. Golvax did not turn around. He did not even seem surprised. He had already reached that conclusion on his own anyway. The only people capable of breaking the immortal curse were those bearing the Imperium Eye curse, and in this city, there were only two individuals who possessed it.
Aurora… and her son.
Golvax's gaze shifted toward the distant coliseum, his expression hardening slightly.
"Any news about the Poison Devil's Lacrima, Alec?" he asked calmly.
The kneeling man—Alec—narrowed his eyes for a brief moment. It did not go unnoticed by him that Golvax showed no visible anger over the deaths of their guild members. No grief. No outrage. But Alec suppressed his thoughts and answered plainly.
"It should be with the First Prince of the Iceberg Kingdom. They're trying to keep it quiet after last night's stealing attempt. It seems they've tightened security as well."
One of the cloaked figures behind them suddenly stepped forward. Her face remained hidden beneath her hood, but her slender frame and posture made it clear that she was a woman.
"Why don't we just go kill that Astro kid and take the lacrima from the colosseum while we're at it? We have more than enough people to do it both."
"Sera. Look up," Golvax interrupted without turning around.
Sera frowned but instinctively lifted her head toward the sky islands.
At that moment, a massive bat-like monster flew toward the edge of one of the floating islands. It flapped its enormous wings, clearly intending to leave the boundary of the island, but just as it crossed the edge, its head slammed violently into something invisible.
A loud impact echoed outward, and several glowing rune symbols appeared in midair where the creature had struck. The runes shimmered briefly, revealing a massive invisible barrier encasing the sky island before fading again.
The implication was obvious.
"So we can't just go in there," Sera said, her voice filled with frustration as she continued staring upward.
"Yeah. Unlike last night, there's no opening anymore in the magic council's defense…," Golvax replied in a low voice.
"Then let's just take the lacrima," Sera said, narrowing her eyes toward the distant coliseum.
"The lacrima is no longer our task," Golvax answered while looking in the same direction. "There are two people there who can stop us. Fighting with them right now won't be wise."
Sera turned toward him sharply and asked in a slightly frustrated voice. "What? Then what are we supposed to do?"
"We find their weakness," Golvax said without hesitation. "That kid who has been hindering us… just like thirteen years ago… he is still their weakness. They are so…foolish…"
His face remained expressionless, but his left eye—glowing a deep crimson—began to shine more intensely. His knuckles tightened at his sides as he continued staring at the sky islands. The air around him grew heavier. The ground beneath their feet started trembling, and several cloaked members struggled to keep their balance under the invisible pressure radiating from his body.
"I was a fool like them once too…," Golvax muttered quietly, though his voice carried clearly in the tense silence. "But I am better than you two now. The three of us had the power to change this continent… to change the world for the better. In the end, we all threw it away for our children…. For what? We could save millions more children if we just stuck to our way…"
A twisted grin slowly formed on his face as his glowing red eye intensified further.
"Now I will show you the path without restrictions… the path that will finally grant me peace. The path that you two failed to see…"
The ground around him shook more violently, cracks spreading across the snow as the pressure he emitted continued to rise, and the cloaked figures behind him lowered their heads instinctively, none daring to speak another word.
Nina was carrying a small wooden crate through the yard near her house inside the compound, moving quickly as she glanced up at the massive sky island hovering above the city. From where she stood, she could just barely make out the distant structure of the colosseum resting on top of it.
She wished she could go there and watch the event herself, to see everything unfold with her own eyes instead of hearing about it later. But her grandmother never liked wizards, never trusted them, and Nina had learned long ago not to push that boundary. Besides, going there alone would not have been that enjoyable anyway.
Still distracted by her thoughts, she failed to notice someone walking toward her until it was too late. She ran straight into a solid wall and bounced back slightly from the impact.
"Ow—"
She looked up, only to freeze when she realized she had slammed headfirst into Zenith. More specifically, into his bare chest. Her eyes instinctively dropped for a second, registering the firm muscle she had collided with before her brain caught up to the situation. At the same time, Zenith had subconsciously wrapped an arm around her waist to steady both of them so neither would fall.
"Why do you boys never wear anything on your upper body?" Nina asked without thinking. This was the second time today she had been confronted so abruptly with a shirtless male torso, and her patience for it was wearing thin.
Zenith tilted his head slightly, genuinely confused. "Um… because I'm not a girl? We don't have to worry that much about it?"
He did not see the issue. He was wearing pants, after all. He had just finished training and had taken off his shirt to wipe the sweat from his body. To him, that was normal.
Nina stared at him as if he had just said something profoundly stupid. She let out a long sigh before her eyes drifted downward again for a brief moment.
Do all wizards have bodies like this or something…? In a way, Zenith's body was even more toned than Astro's… But Astro had the advantage of height too…if she had to rate it…
"What are you two doing?"
A cold voice cut in from the side. Both Zenith and Nina turned to see Lumina standing a few steps away. She was no longer wearing the long coat Astro had given her the night before. Instead, she had changed into a simple white shirt and short jeans, dressed as if she were about to head out.
"Wait, no, this isn't what it looks like," Nina blurted out suddenly, pushing herself away from Zenith in embarrassment.
Zenith blinked in confusion before shifting his attention fully to Lumina. He didn't know why Lumina seemed a bit upset, but…seeing her dressed up as if she was about to go out…
"Where are you going?" Zenith stepped forward, his expression turning serious. "Your condition isn't stable yet. Bro said you need to rest for a few days."
Even now, Lumina's face was paler than usual. There was a faint weakness in the way she held herself, even though she tried to hide it.
She looked at him and Nina quietly for a moment before shaking her head.
"I have to stop my father. He cannot have that lacrima."
"But even so…" Nina said quickly, stepping closer as well. "You don't have to push yourself like this."
Lumina's eyes lingered on their worried faces, and for a brief second, something softer flickered in her expression. Then it hardened again.
"You don't understand," she said in a low voice. "I'm not trying to stop him because we disagree or because our ideals are different. If I don't stop him now, he'll move one step closer to his goal."
"But there would still be time after that," Nina insisted.
Lumina's jaw tightened.
"No…Nina…if what you said was right…that that big brother used purple wind magic to heal me….then he…he might be the… last piece of the puzzle my father is looking for."
Her voice rose in frustration as she looked directly at Zenith, then gradually softened toward the end, as if the weight of what she was saying had finally settled on her shoulders.
Nina didn't have the full picture, so she just tilted her head, trying to understand what Lumina was talking about… But Zenith on the side understood… his eyes widened as he finally understood why, in his vision, the old man of Lumina was after Astro….
The figure at the center of all of this… Astro himself… had absolutely no idea what was unfolding beyond his sight. He was currently racing across the sky island on Alvi's back, the giant Duni crow… cutting through the air with powerful wingbeats.
Astro's objective was simple: win the tournament and obtain the Poison Devil's Lacrima. He still did not understand why people had been willing to infiltrate a royal gala just to steal it. Power alone did not justify that level of risk.
"There's still too much I don't know," Astro muttered, frowning as he scanned the terrain below. "It's hard to plan without information."
Three armored rhinos were charging toward them across the open field, their heavy bodies shaking the ground with every step, and their horns were lowered with clear intent to destroy anything in their path.
Astro lightly tapped Alvi's back.
Alvi understood immediately.
The massive crow folded his wings and dove sharply toward the ground, aiming straight at the lead rhino. The air whistled around them as they descended at frightening speed.
The rhinos saw the incoming threat and, instead of slowing down, increased their speed. The lead rhino suddenly leaped upward, trying to meet Alvi head-on and crush him midair with a headbutt.
Astro looked at them and blinked once, studying the creatures carefully. These monsters were known as Armored Rhinos. Aside from their enormous size—each nearly as large as Alvi—they resembled ordinary rhinos at first glance. Thick legs, heavy horns, dense muscle. The difference lay in their ability.
They could generate a metallic armor over their entire bodies, forming layered plates that drastically increased their defense. The drawback was weight. Moving while fully armored consumed more energy and reduced their speed, so they rarely activated it unless they sensed a genuine threat.
Right now, none of the three had formed their armor yet.
Astro narrowed his eyes slightly. It would be better if he could keep it that way for a while longer.
At the last possible second, with Astro's command, Alvi surged forward with a burst of speed and pulled upward. His talons snapped shut around the leaping rhino's armored body. With a powerful flap of his wings, he dragged the massive creature upward into the air. The sudden lift forced Alvi into a near-horizontal climb as he struggled against the rhino's weight, wings beating hard to gain altitude.
Behind them, the remaining two rhinos couldn't help but continue charging forward. Their size worked against them now. They had been running at full momentum and could not stop immediately. Their hooves tore through the ground as they tried to slow down, clearly not expecting one of their own to be carried off into the sky.
Astro saw the opportunity that he was waiting for and leaned backward and let himself drop from Alvi's back.
He fell headfirst toward the ground.
Mid-fall, he untied the bo staff from his back. Still descending headfirst, he twisted his body in a controlled flip. In the same motion, he kicked the staff downward with precision and force.
The spinning bo staff shot like a spear and pierced straight through one rhino's exposed head.
Because the beast was still in the middle of stopping, it had not looked up. It had not raised its defensive armor to shield its skull. The impact was immediate and fatal. The rhino collapsed forward, dead before it hit the ground.
Astro completed his rotation and landed on his feet with his legs spread at both sides. The earth cracked slightly beneath him from the force of the drop.
The last rhino froze for a split second at the sight of its partner collapsing. It heard the sharp crack of impact beside it and instinctively began turning its heavy body.
But Astro was already moving.
The moment the rhino shifted its focus toward the cracked ground where Astro had landed, he vanished. In a blink, he reappeared midair, standing sideways atop the embedded bo staff that still impaled the fallen rhino. He gripped the weapon and pulled it free in one clean motion.
At the same time, he left behind a small, compressed sphere of swirling purple wind directly above the last rhino's head.
The rhino stared at the spot where Astro had stood moments earlier. Confusion flickered in its eyes. It glanced toward its fallen companion and noticed the staff was gone.
A realization slowly dawned.
The enemy was attacking from outside its line of sight.
It immediately began reinforcing its body with armor, thick plates spreading across its hide in preparation for impact. But then it sensed something above.
A faint purple glow.
The rhino lifted its head just enough to see the rotating wind sphere hovering inches over it.
It had no time to react.
"Aero Dominion."
The wind sphere detonated.
The explosion tore through the head from above before it could reinforce its head, the compressed energy blasting downward with focused force. From beginning to end, the two remaining rhinos never understood what had killed them.
Astro, who was behind the rhino, now exhaled slowly and looked up.
Alvi released the third rhino from high above. The massive body plummeted at least a hundred feet before crashing into the ground beside the others with a thunderous boom. Even though it had fully armored itself midair, the sheer force of the fall shattered bone and armor alike.
Silence returned to the field. Astro looked at the rhinos for a bit. He personally didn't like killing them, but… he had to win and get that poison devil's lacrima…
"I wish there was a way to see the scores," Astro muttered after a long sigh, watching Alvi descend to feast on the fallen monsters. "I don't know how the others are doing."
He did not stop Alvi from eating. The crow needed energy, and Astro needed a moment to think.
Whatever danger Zenith had sensed earlier… it still bothered him. There was not enough information to determine how or when it would unfold.
"How it would happen…" Astro repeated quietly.
A thought flashed through his mind. He reached toward his pocket subconsciously, but…
His eyes dimmed slightly. This was not enough…
He knew his parents could do that…
He still could not. But… wait… did it have to be him?...
Astro's eyes suddenly widened.
If he remembered correctly… last night there was a—
It was unknown what was going through Astro's mind, but he stayed still for a moment… After a short moment, a small smile formed on his face…
He turned toward Alvi, who was still tearing into raw meat.
"Don't eat too much, Alvi. Let's move. We'll find something better along the way."
Alvi paused, tilted his head, and picked up a chunk of meat before dropping it at Astro's feet, as if assuming Astro was upset about not getting any.
"..."
He was not going to eat it!
Somewhere else in the Sky island,
"There are so many monsters around here… but none is taking the initiative to fight me, it seems like…"
A yellow-haired man in a long, fluffy coat walked calmly across the rocky terrain of the sky island, hands in his pockets as if he were on a casual stroll rather than inside a battlefield filled with monsters.
Suddenly, he looked up.
Five large white birds were circling overhead, right above him
Laxus lazily opened his eyes and watched them. They flew in tightening loops above him, their shadows crossing over his body again and again. Then, without warning, all five dove at once.
But…
He did not move…
He did not shift his stance…
He did not even seem to have any expression on his face…
For a brief second, the birds themselves seemed uncertain about who the predator truly was. That hesitation turned into anger, and they accelerated, beaks aimed straight at him.
"It would be boring to just use my magic for you…. You are not strong enough."
Laxus murmured the words quietly.
His eyes turned bright yellow.
Lightning began leaking from them in thin streaks, crawling across his skin. The sky above darkened instantly, heavy clouds forming out of nowhere. Before the birds could comprehend what was happening, the heavens split open.
"Raging Bolt Arena."
Hundreds of massive lightning bolts crashed down around Laxus in a violent storm.
The birds were struck mid-dive.
They did not even have time to scream.
Their bodies were vaporized in flashes of yellow light.
The storm did not stop there. More lightning slammed into the surrounding terrain, obliterating nearby monsters that had been creeping closer with the intent to ambush. Some of them had not even committed to attacking yet, but the difference did not matter. Anything within range was erased.
Inside the Fairy Tail guild hall, everyone's jaws dropped.
Most members knew Laxus was among their strongest, but seeing this live was something else entirely. If Astro fought with precision and layered strategy, Laxus chose complete domination. Absolute and overwhelming.
"He's still like this," Erza said helplessly. She was one of the least surprised people in the guild seeing Laxus's attack.
Mirajane nodded in the same way. She wasn't surprised either.
During their respective S-Class exams, they had faced Laxus and lost. They had pushed him far enough to earn promotion, but neither of them had ever defeated him. Among the guild, only Gildarts and Master Makarov could probably win against him in a fair fight.
That alone showed how monstrous Laxus truly was. On top of it… both of them knew deep down, Laxus didn't even go all out against them.
The crowds watched as with a single spell, he jumped from near the bottom of the scoreboard to first place. His individual points surpassed Astro's instantly. Fiore's total score shot past thirty out of the available hundred, completely dominating the competition.
Yet Laxus did not smile.
The sky cleared slowly. The lightning faded.
He, however, stood still.
"Come out," Laxus said calmly in a deep voice. "If I can't see you, I won't know how much I need to hold back to avoid killing you."
He turned his head slightly, indicating that he was talking to someone behind him.
"Well. Attacking from behind wouldn't be my style either. I was only checking whether you were worthy."
Heavy footsteps sounded across the scorched ground.
Laxus turned fully this time.
A muscular man roughly his size approached without hesitation. His upper body was fully bare, but there were golden armored pants on his lower body. He casually flipped two axes in his hands as he walked forward, boots stepping over charred earth from Laxus's last attack. But there was no fear in his eyes.
He stopped several meters away, leaving deliberate space between them.
"Who is that?" Gray asked from inside the guild hall, staring at the screen.
"I don't know," Mira replied, narrowing her eyes. "But with the pressure Laxus usually emits after a powerful magic attack… the fact that he's standing there so casually means he's not simple."
"It's fine," Natsul said with a wide grin. "It's Laxus after all. He won't lose."
"Yeah, Laxus won't lose…" Freed muttered from the second floor, looking at the screen.
The announcers' voices boomed through the screen all of a sudden.
"Oh, My God…. We are witnessing a clash between Laxus of Fiore and Percival of Seven! Ladies and gentlemen, get ready!"
"Percival of The Seven Kingdom?…"Loke on the side muttered, brows furrowing as he focused harder on the screen.
On the Sky Island…
Laxus and Percival didn't know how much shock and excitement their meeting caused… Instead, they kept their focus on each other.
"I was waiting for your friend, actually, I saw him in action last night, he seemed really strong…" Percival said in a deep voice, studying Laxus carefully. "But looking at you… You might be even stronger."
He paused before continuing.
"I have a feeling that out of every being on this sky island… nothing here is more monstrous than you."
"Oh? I'm flattered, so does that scare you?" Laxus asked with a slow smile as lightning began crackling around his body again.
"An angel does not concern itself with fear," Percival said in a slow voice, raising one axe and pointing it toward Laxus. "Whether facing monsters, devils, or gods."
Laxus studied him for a moment. The man truly had no fear in his eyes. Even Astro had shown shock the first time they clashed. But this…this only made Laxus more and more excited.
"What about dragons, then? Are you scared of them?" Laxus asked with a grin.
"What?" Percival responded, confused.
Laxus's grin widened.
"I thought this competition would get boring and I'd have to fight Astro for some excitement. But maybe I can spare some time to teach an angel how to fear dragons."
Lightning exploded outward from him in all directions.
Percival narrowed his eyes. A massive white wing manifested behind his back, radiant and solid. Golden light began flooding the area around him as he flipped both axes into a ready grip.
"As I said, there is nothing that concerns an angel…even if it is a dragon."
"Then let's put it to the test, will we?"
"Haha."
Laxus laughed, wild and sharp, as yellow lightning engulfed him, clashing with the golden light coming out from Percival.
Across the entire sky island, the ground trembled violently. It was as if two forces of nature had begun colliding head-on.
High above, Astro stood on Alvi's back and stared toward the distant explosion of yellow lightning and rising golden light.
"Is that Laxus… and Percival?"
He remembered the muscular man from last night. It seemed like the fight still hadn't started yet… but the pressure they were emitting just from standing….
Even from this distance, the pressure was very obvious. Neither of them was backing down.
For a brief moment, Astro considered turning toward their direction to help Laxus, but suddenly…
"I know you love the thrill of battle, too. A wizard who's tasted real battle can't walk away from it."
Astro blinked and exhaled softly.
Knowing Laxus, he would rather fight alone. Interference would only annoy him.
And Astro did not have time to waste either.
He scanned the sky island carefully from above. After several seconds, he caught sight of the person he had been searching for. If he could convince that person…
"I am going to believe you then, Laxus."
He took one last look at the distant clash of lightning and gold, then tapped Alvi's back.
"Let's go, Alvi."
Alvi turned sharply and shot off in the opposite direction, wings cutting through the air at full speed as they disappeared across the sky island…
"Yeah, leave it to me… if I can not defeat the losers here, then how can I become the guild master of Fairy Tail?"
Astro, with his super hearing sense, could hear Laxus mutter from a distance, faintly… Astro blinked for a moment…
"In second thought, I am counting on you, Percival. I believe you."
"Do you want a lighting on your face too, you bastard?"