"Hopeless! Answer me!"
Lucy struggled, the magic crystal chains leaving red marks on her wrists. "You used to be a kind person. Why are you imitating Faust's atrocities? Plundering Aslant's magic, oppressing your own people, destroying Extalia..."
"What is all this for?!"
Hopeless quietly gazed at the magic crystal in his hand, which was constantly churning with black mist, completely ignoring Lucy's questioning.
Although Erza was also bound, she maintained a soldier's composure. Her sharp gaze swept over the strange magic crystal in Hopeless's hand, then looked toward Gajeel, who was hanging opposite her and grumbling.
Since being captured ten days ago during the battle in Extalia, they, as rebels, had not been subjected to any interrogation or torture, but had simply been kept locked up in the Black Prison.
It was as if they had been forgotten.
This treatment wasn't reserved for just the two of them; all prisoners held in the Black Prison were treated the same way. However, due to the oppressive atmosphere of the Black Prison and the fear of Hopeless, the other prisoners gradually succumbed to despair.
On the walls of every cell in the Black Prison, there were countless tiny pipes that extracted wisps of despair and channeled them into the Ancient Crystal in Hopeless's hand.
"You are already so powerful, why do you still need prisoners as batteries?"
Erza suddenly spoke. "Could it be that the power that crystal gives you is only temporary?"
Hopeless finally reacted. He lifted his head, and his black eyes, similar to Hope's, held a completely different kind of weariness.
"You are very sharp, Knightwalker, but you guessed wrong."
His voice was low. "This 'heart of the abyss' can absorb all despair and convert it into power—a power sufficient to reverse the destiny of this world."
"Stop talking nonsense!"
Lucy spat. "Using the suffering of others as nourishment, you are even more disgusting than that old man Faust!"
Hopeless didn't get angry; instead, he managed a nearly self-mocking bitter smile. "Disgusting? Perhaps. But do you know what Edolas is facing?"
He tilted his head back, his gaze seemingly passing through the dark walls to see the gray-purple Sky outside.
"The magic in this world is drying up, and Faust's plan to use 'Anima' to plunder Aslant's magic is merely a temporary fix."
"'heart of the abyss' tells me that every world has a self-protective barrier, which can isolate it from malicious visitors from other worlds."
"But every time 'Anima' is activated, it creates a small hole in our world's self-protective barrier. Now that our magic is depleted, our world has lost the ability to self-repair..."
Lucy and Erza were stunned simultaneously.
One was the guild master resisting Faust, and the other was Faust's trusted general. They knew all too well how many times 'Anima' had been activated since Faust announced the "Magic Plundering Plan."
It was only in recent years that Faust had to reduce the use of 'Anima' because the prince he had abandoned was causing trouble in Aslant.
But the total number of times over the years was no less than thirty.
Lucy's voice trembled slightly. "Then our world must already be..."
"Riddled with holes."
Hopeless's tone was frighteningly calm. "The small holes created by 'Anima' have now accumulated, tearing a huge gap in our world's barrier."
"If the world barrier largely disappears, Edolas will lose its separation from the parallel world, Edolas."
"At that time, our world will collide with the magic-rich Edolas like a shattered bubble, and then... while being completely crushed, it will also cause significant casualties to the other world."
"So you want to save the world?"
Erza's voice was cold as ice. "Creating despair, nourishing that crystal, and then what? What can it do?"
Hopeless turned and raised the crystal to his eyes.
Black mist churned within it, faintly revealing countless twisted human faces: citizens struggling in pain under despair, Exceed whose homes were destroyed, soldiers forced to separate from loved ones... All despair was collected in this tiny crystal.
Including Hopeless himself.
"For our world, which has no future, only a god can save it."
"And this 'heart of the abyss' is the heart of the ancient deity, 'Despair God Anti-Hope.' It can allow me to become the new God of Despair."
He closed his eyes. "Therefore, I need a sufficiently massive amount of despair energy to repair the world barrier before it shatters."
Dead silence fell in the cell.
Lucy opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound. Erza also fell silent, and even Gajeel, who had been struggling, stopped moving.
Was this the truth?
Performing acts of Hope in the name of despair.
"Then why didn't you tell everyone?"
"If you explained clearly, perhaps everyone would be willing to cooperate..." Lucy's dry voice faltered, and she immediately gave a bitter smile at her own foolishness.
Make thousands of people willingly fall into despair?
Make mothers separate from their children, friends betray each other, homes be destroyed... and then expect them to "understand" that all of this is to save the world?
Complex emotions mixed with understanding and sacrifice—that is not despair.
For Hopeless, only sudden and senseless tyranny was the fastest way to cultivate pure despair.
Erza finally understood. "So you played the Tyrant, making everyone afraid of you."
"Hey, Hopeless."
Gajeel's tone was no longer so aggressive. "What if your plan fails? If becoming a god were that easy, the world would already be full of gods running around."
Just then, hurried footsteps and the clang of metal sounded outside the Black Prison. A Royal Guard soldier rushed in and knelt on one knee.
"Despair Emperor, sir! An unidentified Fleet of Flying Ships has been spotted outside the Royal City, four ships in total. They bear... the Fairy Tail emblem!"
"Captain Shugboy and his subordinates... seem to have defected!"
Hopeless stroked the crystal, took one last look at the three people in the Black Prison who were among the very few not engulfed in despair, then turned and vanished into the dark corridor.
The Black Prison returned to silence once more.
Lucy slid down the wall and sat on the ground, looking defeated. She locked eyes with her former mortal enemy, "Fairy Hunter" Erza, and neither spoke.
Suddenly, the ground outside their cell collapsed, and a Pink-haired Girl in a maid uniform popped out from underground. She looked around, confirming there was no danger.
"Master, you can come up now."
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