"The king?"
Edolas Lucy stared wide-eyed at the terrifyingly huge evil dragon before them while exclaiming.
"You're saying this ugly, terrifying monster is that feeble old king?"
Ankh nodded, simultaneously looking up toward Faust's raised dragon head.
...
Time rewinds to when Ankh had just escaped from that troublesome Goddess.
He followed the secret door through which Faust had escaped, passing through a long, narrow passage before arriving at a deeply concealed and eerie underground palace.
Within the palace stood an utterly bizarre altar, surrounded by walls crudely carved with sinister inscriptions and murals depicting the founding history of the Edolas Kingdom.
The strange characters had long become illegible under the erosion of time, but the murals remained relatively well-preserved.
Yet, Ankh couldn't help but shudder at the sight.
According to the founding history of Edolas that Ankh had heard from Edolas Cana, the first king should have been a heroic young man with great ambitions, benevolent and tolerant.
Yet, the murals here clearly depicted a gloomy ugly old man obtaining legendary power through an evil sacrificial ritual.
One mural after another proved that the first king seemed to have used the entire city's civilians as sacrifices, making wishes to a legendary Evil God to gain power beyond the mortal realm—the "Dragon Force" he had long dreamed of, which he had read about in ancient texts.
Within just a few short years, the elderly first king restored himself to a youthful and vigorous state, often transforming into a vicious dragon to devour humans.
His temperament became extremely violent, cruel, suspicious, and merciless.
Thus, although he unified and established the kingdom, the nation remained in dire straits, with the people suffering endlessly.
Under this tyrannical rule, the old king later even planned to offer his own flesh and blood to the Evil God in exchange for greater power.
His children overheard this but, unable to resist, could only weep and pray devoutly to the heavens while awaiting death.
However... the Goddess descended.
Judging from the deity's appearance in the mural, Ankh believed this Goddess must be the troublesome Goddess from the statue.
Unable to bear the continued slaughter of the old king's subjects and children, the Goddess personally intervened and defeated the old king.
But because he was too powerful, the Goddess could only destroy the old king's inner soul and seal the immensely powerful external Dragon Force, thus completely eliminating this scourge.
At this moment, Faust stood on the altar, holding a prismatic crystal that shimmered with red, blue, and black hues.
That crystal was what the Goddess had transformed the old king's hollowed Dragon Force and body into after sealing them, exactly as depicted in the murals.
Frowning at Faust's expression, Ankh felt a vague sense of foreboding in his heart.
Faust raised the crystal with a look of absolute madness, muttering deliriously:
"This is the treasure the Goddess left for us! With it, I can possess the power of our ancestor!"
Ankh sneered and said, "That is your ancestor himself, not some treasure."
But before he could finish, Ankh stared wide-eyed as Faust unhesitatingly swallowed the crystal whole.
In other words, the old fool had just eaten his own ancestor's ashes!!
After that, Faust transformed into the vicious dragon he was now, engaging in a fierce battle with Ankh.
That basement layer was completely destroyed into ruins, burying the royal family's dark secrets forever.
....
After hearing Ankh's story, Laxus clicked his tongue and said, "That old man really went mad."
"What do any of you understand?!"
The stitched-together, vicious dragon Faust stood up, baring his fangs and roaring at everyone:
"Our royal family has worshipped that Goddess for so many years, yet when you attacked, she refused to lend a single hand! I had no choice but to rely on our ancestor's power to kill all of you!"
Ankh crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
'So Faust had sought the Goddess's help before.'
'It seemed Anko had been in contact with the royal family all these years, rather than just staying inside that statue...'
"Your Majesty!"
At that moment, a massive figure crashed down from the sky—the Nation-Destroying weapon, the Dorma Anim, clad in hard metal armor.
Byro piloted the Dragon Knight, his expression complex as he stared at the monstrous creature before him—neither dragon nor demon.
With a pained voice, he pleaded, "Your Majesty, please relinquish the power of the first king! This is the source of agony in Edolas's history!"
"Losing Magic Power is the real agony!"
Faust roared furiously at him.
Then, the king suddenly lunged at the Dragon Knight, his massive claw piercing straight through the armored chest and seizing Byro.
"Urgh—!"
Byro's small frame emitted the sickening sound of cracking bones, his ragged, wheezing voice screaming in absolute agony.
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
A scorching fireball struck Faust's dragon claw, and Byro fell from the tightly clenched grasp.
Faust's fierce draconic eyes fixed on the suddenly appearing Natsu.
He bellowed, "Dragon Slayer Mage! Must you interfere while I deal with my own subject?!"
Natsu, who had followed the Dragon Knight all the way here while panting heavily, met his gaze with fierce determination.
"This short old man is your companion, isn't he? He's helped you so much—why kill him?!"
"Fool! A monarch has the right to command everything at will, including the lives of these lowly commoners and all the Magic Power in the world!"
Faust turned around, the red and blue scales covering his body rapidly beginning to glow.
Simultaneously, the Dragon Knight armor on his hand seemed to respond to a summon, transforming into a fluid liquid that surged toward his body.
The grotesque form of the evil dragon was gradually enveloped by the Dragon Knight armor.
In an instant, Faust transformed into a super-armored evil dragon clad entirely in thick, impenetrable armor, radiating intense red and blue light.
"They merged?!"
Natsu stared blankly at the armor that had just given him such a tough fight, now fully fused with this new dragon monster.
"Hahahaha—this thing was originally created by our ancestor to enhance his own abilities, commanding the world's finest craftsmen and his own power to forge this armor. Now, I am truly invincible!"
Faust's monstrous, terrifying form stood upright, resembling a hideous and ferocious fallen knight.
"From now on, all Magic Power shall be mine to command!"
Faust threw his head back, his maniacal laughter echoing as the scattered Magic particles in the air slowly converged toward his massive mouth.
Although Edolas had limited Magic Power, bit by bit, it accumulated into an endless torrent madly pouring into Faust's mouth.
The surrounding environment began to visibly change.
Countless plants in the soil that relied on Magic Power started to wither, while the Magic Power lingering in the air from the earlier battlefield began to heavily saturate Faust's body.
Faust had never felt such immense power within himself.
He finally began to understand why his ancestor had been so obsessed with this strength.
Queen Shagotte watched this terrifying scene of chaos and darkness.
A flash of lightning seemed to strike her mind—a new vision of foresight.
"It's him! He is the one responsible for Extalia's crash!"
"He is devouring all of Edolas's Magic Power! The Floating Island is about to fall!"