(Mmm… so warm…)
(It feels like I'm wrapped up in soft winter sunlight.)
(Every inch of my body is cozy and comfy… it's seriously nice.
A gentle golden glow brushed across Roger's tightly shut eyes (eyes that had been closed from pure exhaustion and the shockwave). His eyelids twitched.
Man, they felt heavy, like someone had poured lead into them. He used every ounce of strength just to crack them open a tiny bit.
Through the blurry haze, he saw dozens of palm-sized, humanoid little creatures with translucent golden wings fluttering happily through the air, sprinkling sparkling gold dust everywhere.
(What the heck are those…?)
(Fairies…? Spirits…?)
The moment that thought hit him, an even deeper wave of tiredness crashed over him. His eyelids slid shut again, and he sank back into that warm darkness.
Some unknown amount of time later…
"Roger! Hey, wake up!"
"Roger! Roger! Can you hear me?!"
Erza and Mirajane's worried voices cut through the fog, getting louder and clearer until they finally yanked him out of his stupor.
He frowned, fighting the sleep that still clung to him, and slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw? Two ridiculously perfect, way-too-prominent "half-spheres" taking up like 90% of his field of vision.
He dragged his gaze upward and finally met Mira's gorgeous, worried face.
(…I can only see half the sky right now.)
He immediately booted that dumb anime meme out of his brain, pushed himself up with both hands, and awkwardly sat up from Mirajane's lap pillow.
Once he actually looked around… wow.
He was in the middle of a breathtaking sea of flowers—every color imaginable, stretching out as far as he could see. The air smelled sweet and refreshing.
Above him, the massive Tenrou Tree still towered proudly, except now it looked even more alive than before, its leaves and branches glowing faintly with golden light.
"I remember I was fighting Acnologia…"
"Then I think the explosion from my own attack sent me flying…"
"This is Tenrou Island, right? I'm pretty sure the area under the Tenrou Tree didn't look anything like this."
His head was still fuzzy and throbbing, so he instinctively tried to lift his right hand to rub his temple.
The second he raised his arm—whoosh!
A visible gray shockwave blasted out of his hand, shooting straight toward someone running in his direction!
"W-Wait, hold up!!" Lucy, who'd sprinted over after seeing the signal flare, stared in total disbelief.
"∑(°□° ) Why is it always me?!"
Right before the blast could hit her, she threw herself sideways in the most undignified dive ever and barely dodged the random catastrophe.
BOOM!!
A massive boulder not far behind her got absolutely pulverized into dust.
Roger blinked at the scene, stunned.
"My power… got stronger?"
He stared at his palm, feeling the ridiculous amount of magic power inside him—like it could overflow at any second. After a couple seconds of processing, he quickly pulled up his system panel and skimmed the logs.
『Ding! Successfully defeated the Dragon of the Apocalypse · Acnologia → Reward: 300,000,000 magic power』
『Acquired Magic: Dragon Slayer Magic (Non-Elemental)』
『Acquired Magic: Advanced Healing Spells』
『Acquired Special Ability: Devour (Can absorb almost any form of energy and convert it into your own power)』
『Acquired Law Fragments: Law of Malice (strand), Law of Destruction (strand)』
(Three… three hundred million?! It just shot up by three hundred million?!)
(I even got fragments of two different Laws?!)
(I… I actually beat Acnologia?! For real?!)
The short, earth-shattering system notifications left Roger spaced out, reality feeling a little fake.
That was THE final boss of the Fairy Tail world—the Dragon of the Apocalypse that even Zeref was wary of, the walking calamity that terrorized the continent for centuries… and he just… took it out?
It felt way too easy.
In every normal story, a big bad like that gets saved for the finale, after an insane, all-out battle with everyone cheering the hero on!
Before he could finish overthinking it, Makao's panicked voice rang out from the edge of the flower field.
"Did you guys find Roger yet?! Is he okay?!"
Roger turned and saw Makao leading a huge group of Fairy Tail members jogging toward him, all wearing the same worried expressions.
Roger stood up, carefully reining in the magic power that kept trying to leak out, then brushed the grass and petals off his clothes. He looked at the crowd gathering around him and scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Why's everyone here?"
"How long was I out?"
"It's not just you," Mira said softly, shaking her head. "It's all of us."
She paused, then dropped a bombshell.
"We've been asleep on Tenrou Island for four whole years. It's… X788 now."
"Four… years?" Roger's brows shot up, confusion exploding in his chest.
(It's not the seven years from the original story, but the system definitely said I beat Acnologia… so why were we still sealed here for four years?)
Erza picked up the explanation.
"Just a little while ago, Makao and the others arrived on the island and found the rest of us still sleeping."
"Everyone was accounted for… except you."
"So the moment we woke up, the very first thing we did was split up to search for you."
Mira smiled gently. "Erza and I vaguely remembered seeing a streak of light crash near the Tenrou Tree right at the end. We figured it might've been you, so we came straight here—and sure enough, there you were."
By now the rest of the guild had crowded around.
Roger swept his gaze over them and immediately noticed something different. He narrowed his eyes.
"Your magic power… it's all a lot stronger than before."
"Yep," Laxus grunted with a nod. "We noticed the second we woke up. At first we thought it was some side effect of the contract magic."
"But even the old man, who never signed the contract, has more magic power than four years ago. Not as big a jump as ours, but his physical condition is way better too."
"So we figured the magic density on Tenrou Island must've skyrocketed over these four years."
"Magic density?" The word snapped Roger out of his thoughts. He focused and immediately felt it.
The magic particles floating in the air were ridiculously active and abundant—at least twice as dense as when they first landed on the island four years ago, probably more.
Even back then Tenrou Island was famous for its thick Ethernano. Recovery speed here was insane compared to the outside world.
But now? It felt like soaking in a hot spring made of pure magic.
"Why did the island's magic density suddenly shoot up like this?"
"Allow me to explain that," a clear, ethereal voice echoed from above, like it was ringing inside everyone's heads.
Everyone looked up.
Standing on the trunk of the Tenrou Tree was a girl with emerald-green eyes and fluffy, pale-gold hair that flowed all the way down to her ankles like liquid sunlight.
Feeling everyone's stares, she hopped lightly off the tree and floated down like a feather, landing softly in front of the group.
"When Acnologia's severed foreleg landed right next to the Tenrou Tree four years ago, it exploded."
Her voice was gentle but carried an otherworldly echo as she recounted the past.
"The blood contained strange lightning energy mixed with Acnologia's own overwhelming magic power. The Tenrou Tree actively absorbed and fused with that power."
"Perhaps because it took in such an immense force, the Tenrou Tree… developed an extremely faint consciousness of its own."
She looked at the giant tree beside her with a tender, almost maternal expression.
"The tree was already imbued with protective power—it can shield guild members and temporarily boost their magic as long as the tree itself isn't completely destroyed. Anyone bearing the Fairy Tail emblem is basically immortal on this island."
"But that final attack that defeated Acnologia was simply too strong."
"Even the Tenrou Tree couldn't guarantee it could protect every guild member from the apocalyptic shockwave."
"If we'd taken a direct hit, most of us would've died in that explosion."
"So, following its newly born instinct to protect, the Tenrou Tree tapped into the massive reserves of Ethernano it had stored in the island's ley lines for hundreds of years."
"And using that power… I cast the super magic, Fairy Sphere."
"Fairy Sphere?!" Makarov's eyes nearly popped out of his head. His voice actually shook. "That's… that's one of the three legendary super magics of our guild!"
"But that magic was lost ages ago! There's no record of it anywhere—only the First Master, Mavis Vermillion, was ever said to—"
He stared at the girl in total awe, voice trembling with reverence.
"If you can use that magic… then you—you're—?"
"Yep, it's me~" The girl grinned, her eyes curving into adorable crescents.
"Mavis Vermillion, First Master of Fairy Tail."
"THE FIRST MASTER?!" ×N
Every single guild member's jaw dropped at once. You could've heard crickets.
Mavis giggled, raised one finger, and added, "Though right now I'm just a thought projection, not a real flesh-and-blood body."
Then she turned to the still-shell-shocked Makarov.
"Third Master."
"P-PRESENT!" Makarov instantly stood ramrod straight like a kid caught slacking in class.
Mavis chuckled at his reaction. "Relax, relax."
"I just wanted to tell you…" Her gaze swept across every familiar and new face, finally settling back on Makarov with warm approval in her green eyes.
"You've done an amazing job growing the guild."
"There are so many strong, wonderful, lively kids here. I can feel the bonds and friendships between all of you so clearly."
Her smile grew even brighter.
"This is exactly the Fairy Tail I dreamed of when I founded it."
"I love the guild you've all built. It's perfect."
Hearing the First Master praise them so openly, Makarov's face went from nervous to pure proud grandpa in 0.2 seconds. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, grinning like an idiot, all his wrinkles bunching up.
"Heh… heh heh… y-you flatter us, First… it's not that great… haha… hahaha—"
From the side, Happy tilted his head, covering his mouth with a paw but still loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Aye~ The Master looks like a little kid who just got praised by grandma."
"Next thing you know the First is gonna pat his head and say 'good boy~'."
"PFFT—"
The entire guild lost it, shoulders shaking as they desperately tried to hold in laughter out of respect for the old man.
"AHEM!" Makarov's face turned beet red. He coughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject, looking back up at Mavis with the same respectful tone.
"F-First! You didn't finish explaining why the island's magic density increased so much!"
Mavis nodded with an understanding smile, then turned her gaze to Roger, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
"The reason Tenrou Island's Ethernano became this dense… is because of you, Roger."
"Me?" Roger blinked, totally lost.
"But I was unconscious for four years just like everyone else. How could a guy in a coma raise the magic density of an entire island?"
"There's a very unique power inside your body," Mavis said, her gaze seeming to pierce straight to his chest—right where his magic core was.
"It's like an endless vortex that constantly, automatically absorbs Ethernano from the outside world."
"When you slammed into the Tenrou Tree at the very end, a lot of your blood—which contained faint purple lightning—splashed onto the trunk and soaked into the ground."
"Because you also bear the Fairy Tail guild mark, a special link formed between you and the Tenrou Tree."
"That link dramatically strengthened your body's natural absorption trait."
"With the Tenrou Tree's own power resonating and amplifying it, the combined force actually pierced through the absolute defense of Fairy Sphere and has been forcibly dragging Ethernano from the outside world into the sealed island this entire time!"
"Most of that pulled-in Ethernano was absorbed by you and the tree, but a small portion leaked out and filled the sealed space."
"Everyone else sleeping on the island has the guild mark too, so under the tree's influence their bodies passively soaked up the ever-increasing free-floating magic particles."
"And that's how—over four years of constant inflow and accumulation—turned the island into the magic-rich paradise you feel now."
(So it's the absorption…) Roger thought to himself.
(The core is probably the fused "Demon Heart," but even with the Tenrou Tree boosting it, the scale shouldn't be this crazy…)
Then it clicked.
(Devour! That new skill probably synergized with the Demon Heart, creating this absurd, almost predatory magic-gathering effect!)
"Man, that's awesome!" Makao said jealously, eyeing the massive magic power radiating off Natsu, Gray, and the rest of the younger generation.
"You guys slept for four years and woke up way stronger!"
"I knew I should've forced my way onto the S-Class trip!"
"For real," Wakaba agreed, blowing out a smoke ring. "And you all look exactly the same! Even Lil' Happy hasn't grown an inch."
"Getting stronger AND staying young? Where do I gonna find a deal that sweet?!"
Right then, a cheerful ringtone started playing from Makao's pocket.
He pulled out a glowing, palm-sized rectangular device, tapped the screen, and a young boy's voice came through.
『Dad! Did you find Roger and Natsu and everyone? Are they okay?』
"We found 'em, Romeo. Everybody's fine. We're heading back now."
Roger stared blankly at the super familiar object in Makao's hand.
"What… is that?"
"This?" Makao held it up with a grin. "It's a communication lacrima that Daphne invented about three years ago."
"You probably remember it from the manga we used to read—it's basically a magic version of those 'cell phones.'"
"It can do almost everything a phone can. Unfortunately there's some interference around Tenrou Island right now, so it only works like a walkie-talkie."
"Once we're back in Magnolia where the signal's good, you can take pictures, record video, even send messages and images over long distances. Pretty handy, right?"