The ribbon-like streamers stilled and winked out.
Shane and Erza slipped out through the breach Gildarts had made, dragging the unconscious server.
Outside was the same street they'd walked after the hot spring, moonlight laid like gauze over the cobbles—calm, clear. No suffocating curtain of darkness in sight.
"We… made it out?" Erza wasn't sure.
She reached into where the "barrier" had been—her fingers slid through air without resistance.
"Huh?" She pulled back, then simply stepped through again. When she tried to return, the pitch-black night dome reappeared—forcing her back out through the torn gap.
"What's going on?"
Shane didn't answer right away. Head tilted, brow pinched, he stared up into the seemingly empty sky. "Suggestion: don't touch that 'thing' again…"
In Clairvoyance, the street wasn't empty.
A vast, grotesque, green-skinned organism covered the sky like a living dome. What Erza had touched wasn't a barrier—it was slick, mucous-coated hide.
Which meant… they'd been in its stomach.
A wave of nausea rose; gooseflesh prickled his arms. He rubbed them and glanced at Erza.
She still wore a hint of puzzled curiosity. He decided not to share that particular discovery.
No point in stoking the temper she'd just managed to forget.
Thwarted, Erza turned—right into Shane's unreadable look. "What? And the people inside—can they be saved?"
"It's fine," he said, masking the unease. "Don't know. You know I haven't studied magic properly—I'm bad at this kind of thing."
He pointed into the breach. "Leave it to a professional."
No sooner said—
Crack… craaack—
A crisp shatter ripped across the air, like a glass dome breaking from within.
Webbed fissures bloomed and raced upward; something unseen was collapsing.
"Rrraaah—!"
A low, pained roar shook the sky and stabbed their eardrums.
"Where's it coming from?" Erza dropped low and scanned—but found no source.
Shane just looked up again.
In his sight, the huge demon blanketing the street writhed in agony, green flesh veined with splitting cracks.
A breath later, a voice boomed through flesh and air alike, clear in their ears:
"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Empyrean!"
BOOM—!
Blinding mana flared like a miniature sun from the center of the "empty" street, a pure crushing force ripping the abnormality apart in a heartbeat.
Snap!
Even Erza felt it—the heavy, sticky something around them popped; the air went light.
The barrier was gone.
The street… went with it.
Stone and dust fountained, swept to powder by an invisible shock.
One look at the thorough, pulverizing style and Shane's eyelid twitched.
One hundred percent—this was the same hand that trashed the commercial lane earlier. Gildarts.
As the light ebbed, Gildarts stood where there'd been no one. He let his right fist—still glowing with spent mana—drop, dusted his hands. The tavern's warped patrons lay strewn around him.
"All done," he said, pleased with the "result." He swung a grin at Shane and Erza. "Come on—drinks on me!"
A little later, in a nearby tavern.
A foaming mug of cold beer sat in front of Gildarts. Shane and Erza had green apple juice.
Shane could've mooched a sip this time, but one look from Erza shut that down.
Do not—ever—become a Gildarts-tier uncle, warned her eyes.
"No follow-up? We're just leaving them there?" Shane sipped juice and asked. "Also—what was that?"
His trial hadn't marked complete; he worried Gildarts's interference might flag it a fail.
Gildarts took a long draught, sighed happily, and waved it off. "Relax. Just an uppity dark guild playing with demons. The jokers behind it are all down. As for the greedy saps—we'll let the Council sort it out."
"And the street?" Shane pressed.
Gildarts chuckled, conspirator's low. "Mountain-man has clever means."
He didn't elaborate—just drained the mug and bellowed, "Another!"
Wiping foam from his lip, he glanced between Shane and Erza, curious. "So, you know Grandpa Rob?"
Shane nodded. "He's done a ton for us." Then, surprised, "You know him too?"
"Hah! Rob's a senpai in the guild." Gildarts laughed and took the fresh beer. "Don't let the retirement fool you—he was a beast when he was young and knew everyone."
He counted on his fingers. "Bob from Blue Pegasus, Goodman from Quattro Cerberus, Council's Yajima… I hear they adventured together. Thick as thieves!"
He got rolling. Shane and Erza didn't know a single name—but nodded along.
Figuring a formal member was a rare chance, Shane took the shot. "Gildarts-san, we want to join Fairy Tail. What does it take?"
"Pff—cough!" He hadn't expected that pivot and nearly choked on his beer.
He put the mug down and looked them over, taken aback.
One was young, but his combat sense and mana weren't below a grown mage's. The other… even he felt a prickle of threat.
Two first-rate seedlings.
He caught his breath. "Weren't you just worried about our reputation? Why the change of heart?"
That synchronized step-back still stung; it had even put a damper on his drinking.
Shane shook his head, face going serious. "I trust Grandpa Rob. A guild he's proud of isn't a bad place. So I'll trust Fairy Tail."
Erza nodded; her red hair swayed. "Me too."
The naked trust and sincerity stopped Gildarts cold.
Then he barked a huge laugh.
"Ha! Trusting the people your comrades trust—if the old man heard he was getting two rookies like you, he'd jump for joy and cry his eyes out!"