Come out, Mountain Dragon!

"Jellal!"

Even after realizing she'd been deceived, Erza's first instinct was still to worry about his safety.

She took only a few steps forward before suddenly halting in confusion. "What… what is this?"

Dark red markings, like spectral serpents, or perhaps chains, slithered over her body, binding her in place.

"My body… I can't move!"

Not only that, but the ground beneath her cracked open. A jagged fracture revealed a large magic crystal hidden beneath the floor. The red chains began pulling her downward, her toes were already submerged in the crystal's surface, as if she were melting into it.

She couldn't move a muscle. Not even a finger. The spell bound her completely.

"Erza?" Mira stepped closer quickly. "This is a sealing spell… some kind of restraint sigil! When did it activate?!"

Erza's thoughts raced. Her memory snapped back to Jellal's subtle movements during their earlier conversation. She had assumed his twitching was due to his injuries, grimaces of pain from Rhodes' blow, but now she saw the truth.

It wasn't pain.

It was spellwork.

He had tricked her.

Everything… "open your heart," "twin brothers," all of it had been a lie. Right up until the very end.

"Ugh…" Erza bit her lip hard. A single tear traced down her left cheek.

The sensation of being absorbed into the crystal was painful—but it was nothing compared to the ache in her chest.

Mira didn't waste a second. She grabbed Erza and yanked her free from the encroaching crystal with sheer force.

She didn't know how to undo the seal, so she simply scooped Erza into her arms and prepared to get her out first. They could figure out the rest later.

"Mira…" Erza's voice was faint. She bit her lip again, trembling slightly.

The Titania, the strongest woman of Fairy Tail, now looked fragile and defeated. Her tears fell silently, full of pain and guilt.

Not only had she failed to save Jellal, she had endangered her comrades. If Rhodes had hesitated even a moment longer, Jellal's thought projection would have reconnected and restored his full power.

And then… they would have faced a monster.

They didn't have the entire guild with them this time.

Why… why had the Jellal she once loved—the gentle boy who offered her light, turned into this?

Mira must have sensed Erza's shame. She shifted her hold slightly, letting Erza rest her face against her shoulder, burying the evidence of her tears.

Gently, she patted Erza's back and whispered:

"It's okay now. We're here. Everyone's waiting for you outside. Let's go home, alright?"

Meanwhile, Rhodes, who had been watching, sighed.

First Happy. Now Erza.

'Why does everyone keep stealing my spotlight today?' he thought with mock frustration.

Still, given the kind of day it had been, Rhodes generously decided to let it go.

Just this once.

At that moment, all three of them suddenly received a magical transmission.

More accurately, it was Telepathic Communication Magic, but this one seemed a lot more courteous than Warren's usual loud broadcasts.

This call came with options: they could reject the transmission or even block the caster if they wanted to. Whoever it was clearly wasn't as aggressive as Warren.

All three accepted the call.

A familiar voice echoed in their minds.

"Can you hear me? It's Simon!"

"Simon?" Erza blinked in surprise. She hadn't known he was on their side, so the name caught her off guard.

"Erza! You're okay? That's a relief!"

"Stick to the important stuff," Rhodes interjected sharply. "How's your side?"

"The guards are down," Simon responded. "Wally and Milliana have joined us. Sho's unconscious, but we got him out. The voidworms have started eating away at the Tower of Heaven. We're ready to evacuate."

In truth, most of them were still in the dark. They had joined up while confused or unconscious, still operating on instinct.

The explanations could wait until later.

"Perfect. Pull back immediately. We still don't know how powerful Etherion will be. Get as far away as you can. Juvia can use her water magic to propel the boat. If that's not enough, let Lucy call on Aquarius."

"We'll all die out here at this rate!" came Lucy's voice—high-pitched and filled with exasperated worry.

"We know. What about you guys?" Simon asked quickly.

"We'll fly out ourselves. We're heading out now."

"You're not going anywhere!" came a growling voice from behind them.

Jellal.

He was still standing, barely. Blood poured down from his forehead, masking the red-etched curse marks along his face. One eye had swollen shut. His neck wound still bled, soaking his collar and shoulder red.

And yet... despite all that, the madness in his expression hadn't dulled. If anything, it had sharpened—twisted into something feral.

He looked like a demon that had just clawed its way out of hell.

"Give it up, Jellal!" Erza called out, her voice wavering. "It's over!"

But he didn't listen.

Instead, he raised both arms high.

"It's not over!" Jellal howled. "My dream has just begun! Great Zeref, accept this offering, her body and soul!"

A sinister pressure surged from his battered frame. He wasn't using his remaining strength to heal or escape.

He was using it all to attack.

To kill.

"You'll die!" Erza shouted.

"In paradise, death means unity! There's no fear in true freedom!" he cried, voice cracking like thunder.

His arms stretched upward, palms splayed. Above them, the air trembled, and a jet-black sphere began forming.

It crackled with raw, destructive energy, swirling like a miniature abyss. In mere seconds, it had grown to over a meter in diameter.

The black sphere spun slowly, like a miniature black hole, pulling at everything nearby: curtains, rubble, even the light from the wall lamps and shattered chandeliers.

A gust burst across the once-calm floor, howling in every direction.

Rhodes and Mira braced themselves, their boots scraping across the stone tiles. Their shadows didn't follow the light anymore—they stretched the wrong way, bending toward the growing orb of darkness.

Mira tightened her grip around Erza, stepping back carefully. "Be careful! If you get pulled into that thing, your whole body will be crushed to dust!"

"Then let him try!" Rhodes shouted. He grabbed the pendant at his chest, holding it forward like a badge of defiance. "Summon: Mountain Dragon!"

Bzzzmmmm—!

An earthen-yellow pulse of magic spread out from the pendant like a quake through the air.

Then the room shook.

A hulking shape dropped down, folding its wings close to its sides. The room, already strained, suddenly felt like a tiny box about to burst.

The pressure Jellal had been exerting vanished in an instant.

Jellal's lone open eye bulged in disbelief. "A... a dragon?!"

The Mountain Dragon—massive, rugged, ancient, lifted its head. Brown, vertical-slit eyes opened slowly like twin fault lines, locking onto Jellal.

Those reptilian eyes carried the calm dominance of a mountain range—still, patient, unyielding. And cold.

Jellal involuntarily took half a step back, his magic faltering.

"Ahhh..." The dragon gave a long, slow exhale through its nostrils, like wind rolling off a cliff.

It straightened lazily, lifting its torso and flapping its wings once.

BOOM.

That single flap shattered both side walls.

Its head hit the ceiling. A rumble followed as stone and glowing crystal chunks came raining down from above, some tumbling off the dragon's broad back like pebbles down a hillside.

Rhodes scrambled a few steps away to avoid the debris and looked up.

The dragon stared at him.

Its gaze plainly said: "Why summon me into a shoebox?"

Rhodes smiled sheepishly, knowing full well that even its mildest action was catastrophic.

The tower groaned. The outer walls had already cracked from the summoning. But now, with another casual shift of its wings—

CRRAAACK—!

The entire spire of the Tower wrenched upward, snapped off like a tree limb, and tilted.

BOOM—!

The top half of the tower flipped over, hurtling down toward the water like a collapsing mountain.

Rhodes didn't hesitate. He activated Simon's telepathic channel and shouted, "Everyone below, get out now! The tower top's coming down! Run!"

Then he turned to the Mountain Dragon, pointing toward Jellal. "That blue-haired lunatic is the enemy. Feel free to knock down the rest of the tower. Just don't get hit, there's a massive spell coming!"

The dragon grunted low and nodded—or at least, that's what it looked like. Then it turned its giant body, now unrestricted by a ceiling, with a heavy rustling of wings.

"You destroyed what took me eight years to build..." Jellal's voice trembled, full of wrath. "For Zeref... for absolute freedom... I won't forgive even a dragon!"

He screamed: "Dark Paradise!"

The giant black orb in his hands pulsed. He hurled it forward.

Now the sphere spanned two meters wide—stars, crescent moons, and celestial trails glimmering inside like a twisted cosmos.

It was no longer just a spell.

It looked like he had thrown an entire galaxy.

The Mountain Dragon did not flinch.

It braced itself and let the orb strike its chest—

KA-BOOOOOOOM—!