Rhodes did not plan to enter from the arena side.
Instead, he estimated the location based on what he had scouted the previous night, confirmed the coordinates using Void Vision, and pinpointed the exact place they needed to dig through.
Then he placed a hand on Natsu's and Gajeel's shoulders and told Wendy to grab onto his coat tails.
A yellow-brown magic circle formed beneath their feet. It flashed once, then vanished.
And the four of them dropped straight down, as if sinking into water.
"Woaaah—!" ×3
The three Dragon Slayers gasped at the sudden weightlessness before landing lightly on solid ground.
Natsu and Gajeel sprang back up, about to complain, but the words died in their throats.
Wendy, used to falling thanks to her time with Rhodes, simply brushed dust off her knees, until she looked up.
Her breath hitched.
Giant skeletons. Hundreds of them.
Stretching endlessly through the underground cavern.
Seeing it firsthand was far more overwhelming than hearing Rhodes describe it.
The three Dragon Slayers fell silent, completely stunned.
Rhodes let them absorb the sight at their own pace while quietly deploying void-sentinels to guard their surroundings.
After a long while, Natsu finally found his voice.
"What… what is this place?"
"Good thing these skeletons are ancient," Gajeel muttered. "Our Dragons only disappeared seven years ago, no… fourteen."
Natsu and Wendy nodded quickly, relieved.
Even so, the enormous remains made something cold stir in their chests.
"Let's start, little one," Gajeel said, looking at Wendy. "He said you have magic that can talk with Dragons who've passed on."
"En…" Wendy nodded softly. Then she turned to Rhodes, quietly seeking permission.
Rhodes had been strict earlier about not wandering.
"It's fine," he said. "I brought you here for exactly this. Hopefully, we'll get useful information."
"En!"
Wendy knelt down and began etching a magic circle onto the ground. Soon, the circle lit up, and she placed her hands together in prayer.
"Wandering Dragon souls, your voices, I shall hear."
A gentle radiance filled the cavern. The cave ceiling shimmered like a starlit sky.
Wendy raised her hands, searching for lingering traces of Dragon souls.
The bones around them trembled faintly, then tiny glimmers began rising from the remains.
Light-spheres drifted upward like fireflies in the darkness.
"These are the Dragons' souls," Wendy whispered.
Most had faded too much over the centuries, either from excessive time or from dying in terrible agony. Many could no longer be communicated with.
Wendy searched carefully, her magic scanning deeper and deeper, then she gasped softly.
"Found it! Dragon Slayer Secret Art, Galaxy!"
Whoooosh
Wind surged through the cavern. Wendy's long hair lifted; her skirt fluttered like petals in the breeze.
The drifting soul-lights were pulled together, merging into swirling streams that gathered in midair, expanding, distorting...
"Something's forming!" Gajeel warned, bracing himself.
A pair of glowing green Dragon claws emerged from the mass of light.
Then wings.
A tail.
A long neck.
And then;
"ROOOOOAR!!!"
A massive Dragon, emerald-green and translucent like a spirit, towered before them.
Natsu's and Gajeel's eyes widened.
"She really summoned a Dragon's soul!"
The Dragon blinked down at the four humans. He lowered his head and roared again.
But their reaction, calm, unfazed, left him visibly disappointed.
"Really?" he grumbled. "None of you are afraid of Dragons?"
Natsu tilted his head.
"Why should we be?"
After sparring so often with Rhodes's Dragons lately, fear wasn't even on the list of things they felt.
"Ugh, I miss the old days," the Dragon sighed, scratching his chin. "Humans used to make such funny terrified faces."
He cleared his throat, preparing to introduce himself.
"My name is Zirconis. Some people also call me Jade..uh… what was it again…?"
He stopped mid-sentence and stared blankly.
"What did they call me? It was right there a second ago…"
Natsu couldn't hold himself back.
"You can't even remember your own name?! Are you an idiot?!"
"No! I remembered it, then I forgot, then I remembered, then I forgot again!" Zirconis complained, speaking so fast it was like a tongue twister.
Rhodes glanced at Wendy, wondering whether the fault lay with the unstable summoning or simply the Dragon's damaged soul.
Zirconis eventually gave up trying to recall and let out a sigh.
"To awaken me while I'm in spirit form, that must be the Sky Dragon's magic. Where is the caster?"
Zirconis looked left, then right, then finally lowered his head toward Wendy.
"Is it this little girl?"
Wendy focused just enough magic to maintain the summoning and bowed politely.
"Hello, Mr. Zirconis. I'm sorry for awakening you without permission."
"Such a tiny Dragon Slayer?"
He leaned in, eyes narrowing as he examined her. Then, in a deep rumble, he said:
"What a cute little girl. I want to eat you."
Rhodes didn't even blink, but Natsu and Gajeel immediately lunged in front of Wendy like guard dogs.
"Hahahaha!" Zirconis burst into laughter.
"As expected, foolish humans! I'm just a soul. I can't do anything."
To demonstrate, he swung a massive claw through Natsu and Gajeel, the ethereal limb passing harmlessly through their bodies.
Both of them froze…then scowled, stomping their feet in frustration as they realized they'd been tricked.
Rhodes stepped between them and the Dragon, knowing Wendy's summoning time was limited.
He asked directly,
"Have you heard the names Igneel, Grandeeney, or Metalicana?"
Gircunis's expression changed instantly, his voice turning cold.
"I have nothing to say to humans. Leave."
Rhodes exhaled slowly. Then he stroked the Murk Wolf resting beside him and allowed his left arm to transform into a black wolf's claw.
"You can pretend you're not talking to a human," he said evenly."Or simply, don't consider me one."
He clearly intended to use force if he had to.
Unexpectedly, the Dragon's attitude flipped immediately.
"Oh, well, that I can do."
Rhodes blinked.
'Did he sense danger? Or is his personality simply fractured?'
Perhaps centuries of death, and isolation, had driven him slightly mad.
Zirconis continued as if nothing odd had happened.
"The Dragons you mentioned are famous, especially Igneel, the Fire Dragon King. But they belonged to the coexistence faction. I was with the opposite side."
Wendy tilted her head.
"Coexistence faction?"
"That story goes back…" Zirconis paused to ask the current year."yes, more than four hundred years."
"At that time, the Dragon race ruled the world. Humans were, well, food. But a number of Dragons believed humans possessed intelligence and should coexist peacefully. Those were the coexistence faction.
The rest of us, the opposition faction, believed the opposite."
As he spoke, his tone grew deeper, darker.
"What started as discussion became argument, then conflict, then war. A full-scale Dragon war."
He sighed, a long, heavy exhale from a creature who had died centuries ago.
"I was part of the opposition faction. I've heard the names of the Dragons you mentioned, but I was never familiar with them. I only know they were planning some, scheme. I don't know the details."
The lack of solid information made the three Dragon Slayers deflate slightly.
But there was also something else in their expressions.
For the very first time, they had heard any news about their missing Dragons, even if the information was ancient.