Above Magnolia, amidst the rolling, dark thunderclouds that had gathered unnaturally fast.
The golden "Lightning Dragon" Laxus slowly opened his jaws, sparks flying between his teeth.
"Come on, kids! This is the final move! Show me what you've got!"
With that, Laxus widened his mouth, gathering the destructive heavenly lightning from the sky into his maw.
Directly below him, an equally matched power erupted from the church, far surpassing anything before.
On the left, the sky was dyed crimson with a sea of flames.
Beneath the fiery curtain, a pink-scaled monster seemed to raise its head, absorbing the flames like a vortex.
On the right, countless steel blades threatened to bury the city.
Within the steel storm, a dark, metallic shadow frantically stuffed iron debris into its mouth.
"Something's wrong..."
Ankh's eyelid twitched as he watched from the roof.
Although he had previously asked Freed to reinforce Magnolia's defensive magic formulas to contain the battle, judging by the current escalating situation...
No matter how skilled Freed was, there was no way his runes could withstand the collision of three full-power Dragon Roars!
"Holy fuck! We're screwed!" Ankh exclaimed in panic.
As he shouted, three dragon roars that seemed capable of shaking the entire city erupted simultaneously.
"Thunder Dragon King's..."
"Fire Dragon King's..."
"Iron Dragon King's..."
'I'm done for!! My wallet is going to cry!'
Ankh flew above the town beneath the three dragons, desperately holding up a massive gravity magic circle to create a barrier.
Then, three earth-shattering roars merged into one, echoing through the world.
"ROAAAAR!!!"
Flames, steel, and lightning—three forces each capable of destroying a city block—intertwined in the sky above the church.
Ankh, the frontline war correspondent (and damage control officer), noted grimly that the explosion wasn't all that impressive visually at first... because it was blindingly concentrated.
It was only about as powerful as the Etherion blast that had taken him out before... which meant it was catastrophic.
Crack.
Freed's amateurish Magic Formula managed to serve its purpose briefly before being violently shattered like glass by the earth-shaking, heaven-startling explosions.
BOOM!
Ankh bore the brunt of the impact, shielding the town.
As magical energies collided and erupted, the three distinct colors of Magic Power merged into a sky full of platinum radiance.
The entire Magnolia was instantly illuminated as bright as daylight, blinding everyone for miles.
The perfectly protected residents of Magnolia gazed at the sky from their homes, able to clearly see the sparkling starlight of the three magical energies clashing and exploding against Ankh's invisible barrier.
"Oh my," a grandmother said, sipping tea. "It's actually quite beautiful~ Like fireworks."
Those dragons and Dragon Roars from earlier were truly terrifying, but for some reason, they suddenly went silent moments ago, as if someone had intercepted them.
Ankh, floating in the sky with ringing ears: "..."
The magical explosion lasted a full half-minute before the eerie white light finally began to fade, revealing the sky's original appearance.
The clouds were gone.
Ankh lowered his slightly sore and stiff arms.
He wryly sensed the consumed Life God Power he had used to regenerate the barrier instantly against the assault.
"The explosive power of dragons is somewhat beyond expectations..." Ankh muttered to himself, shaking out his hands. "Miscalculation. Next time, I should slightly weaken the Dragon Gems. That was too close."
Just then, three figures fell from the sky like meteors.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
After three explosive impacts from the landings, clouds of dust billowed within the church ruins.
'Well,' Ankh thought.
'No need for church renovations anymore. With this level of damage, might as well rebuild from scratch.'
Ankh sighed, then descended toward the church ruins below.
After their initial stunned silence, the guild members snapped back to reality upon recognizing the three troublemakers who fell were their own.
They rushed toward the church rubble.
"Hey, Natsu! Are you still alive?"
Gray reached into the pile of rubble and pulled Natsu out by his scarf, unable to resist asking.
"Guh..."
Natsu was rolling his eyes back, foaming at the mouth, with his limbs convulsing continuously.
He somewhat resembled someone who'd been severely beaten while riding transportation—motion sickness on steroids.
Nearby, Gajeel, who had been rescued by Levy and Jet, was in similar condition.
He was twitching on the ground, his iron scales fading.
His miserable state worried everyone present.
Ankh landed. He placed his hand on Gajeel's head, using Life Power to assess his condition.
"Nothing serious," Ankh announced. "Though he probably won't be able to move for about a month."
Hmm, Ankh analyzed internally.
There are signs of muscle overexertion and severe Magic Power depletion.
Fortunately, the Dragon Gems were designed with a protection system from the start, forcing them out of dragonization when depleted while providing Divine Power protection, so no major permanent issues occurred.
Still, this experiment couldn't really be considered successful.
With side effects like these, the Dragon Gems probably can't serve as standard combat power for Dragon Slayer Mages yet.
Just then, Natsu's constantly twitching eyes managed to crack open slightly.
He weakly asked, his voice barely a whisper: "What about Laxus... did we defeat him?"
Lucy, who was supporting his head in her lap, said joyfully: "Natsu, you're awake? But we don't know where Laxus fell..."
Rumble...
Right then, another pile of rubble was pushed aside. A familiar, muscular figure emerged from the dust.
Natsu's barely open eyes widened slightly.
"La... xus..."
Laxus remained in his bare-chested posture, coat gone. But with arms crossed, walking steadily—compared to the other two, he looked as if he'd never been in a fight at all, aside from some scratches.
Laxus slowly approached Natsu.
As a faint mocking smile gradually appeared on his gloomy face.
"You brats," Laxus said, looking down at them. "You're still far from being able to beat me. Try again in a hundred years."
Natsu: ...
Gajeel: ZZZ
Then, only Lucy who was closest heard Natsu utter a rather low murmur before completely passing out.
Lucy scratched her head.
Though she didn't quite catch it clearly, his last words seemed to be swearing?
Ankh looked at Laxus with some surprise and asked, "How do you feel? Not uncomfortable? No nausea?"
Laxus flexed his wrist.
He spoke in a deep voice, "Not bad. My body's a bit numb, and my Magic Power was nearly depleted earlier, but I'm much better now. The gem... was interesting."
Ankh: ...
Well, it seems the side effects of the Dragon Gem vary from person to person based on their base strength.
But from what can be seen now, quasi S-Class Mages like Natsu and Gajeel would completely lose the ability to fight back after transforming into dragons due to exhaustion, while super S-Class like Laxus would only lose most of their combat power but stay standing.
How to put it... we've determined the scope of application.
Though the effect is astonishing, the universality is somewhat average...
After all, the reason Ankh researched the Dragon Gem was to give Natsu and other Dragon Slayer Mages below S-Class a trump card powerful enough to turn the tables against impossible odds.
But if Mages below S-Class can't even muster the strength to escape after using it and if the enemy happens to have surviving companions who can still move, these dragon kids would probably be done for...
Improvements to the Dragon Gem would have to be discussed later.
After the three had determined the winner, Ankh began arranging the aftermath.
First, of course, was to reassure the residents of Magnolia.
This incident was quickly explained as a "special warm-up activity" before the Fairy Tail grand parade.
Fortunately, because warnings had been given beforehand, the aftermath arrangements had been planned in advance, and Ankh had reinforced the defenses at the critical moment, the citizens didn't suffer much damage and had few complaints.
After all, as famous neighbors of the Fairy Tail guild, they were already accustomed to such things.
"Just another Tuesday," the mayor probably said.
Although those three dragons looked frightening, they were actually flying high in the sky.
Combined with Ankh's Divine Power barrier dampening the shockwaves, the people in the city couldn't really feel much pressure or destructive power.
In their view, it was probably just that rowdy guild putting on a "flying dragon" show and giving everyone a fireworks display.
As for the damaged houses and church, the guild didn't have to pay—it was all charged to Ankh's personal account.
In short, both sides were satisfied. Only Ankh's wallet suffered.
Most importantly, the estrangement between Laxus and everyone in the guild clearly dissipated after this farce.
Many people gathered around Freed, who had contributed the most to the chaos with his runes.
They were complaining about how he had troubled them, but Freed retorted that they were the ones who acted on their lustful impulses, making everyone blush with anger again.
Bickslow, who had been knocked out by Gajeel earlier, kept rubbing the head of the sleeping Gajeel while sneakily grinning, wanting to get revenge for earlier.
Levy anxiously shooed him away.
Mirajane stood smiling next to Elfman.
Evergreen pretended to be dead in Elfman's arms, not daring to open her eyes and look at Mira for fear of seeing the "She-Devil" again.
Laxus mocked Natsu's uselessness from the side, making Natsu so angry in his sleep that he seemed to show signs of waking up just to argue.
Ankh smiled while watching the busy, quarreling crowd.
He heaved a long sigh of relief in his heart.
Anyway, we've managed to get through the civil war crisis without anyone getting expelled or dying.
Everyone is happy, everyone is happy~
Although, Ankh paused, scratching his cheek.
'I can't help feeling like something's missing... or someone?'
...
Meanwhile, far away in the empty Fairy Tail guild hall.
BANG! BANG!
Master Makarov pounded fiercely against the invisible Magic Formula barrier at the door.
He shouted hoarsely to the outside, his voice echoing in the silence.
"What's going on?!!"
"I heard explosions! Is the town gone?!"
"Can someone get me out of here?!"
"HELP—!!"