With the Book of Demons removed, the Alchemical Transmutation Array that had covered the skies of Stella finally dissolved completely.
The disaster it had caused, however, was far from over.
Altair was only one of the regions struck by the wave of demonification.
Across the rest of Stella, cities without Fairy Tail's strongest fighters to protect them had suffered even worse tragedies.
Ankh and the others had reported the Dragon Cry operation to the Magic Council before entering Stella, so the Council had already been standing by.
Its forces mobilized quickly once the crisis began, spreading throughout the kingdom to suppress the rampaging demons.
Even with that preparation, the casualties were staggering.
At the center of Altair, Ankh, Erza, and the others emerged from the royal palace and looked across a city that had been almost completely frozen over to protect its civilians.
The sight was enough to make everyone sigh heavily.
Natsu and Gray's battle had ended as well.
Caught between the relentless attacks of the Fire Dragon and the Ice Devil, the demonified Animus had finally reached his limit and collapsed, bringing an end to the life he had stubbornly preserved for four hundred years.
Sonya stood before the dragon's ruined body, staring at the shattered remains with a complicated expression.
Ice had pierced through Animus's body from multiple directions, while Natsu's flames had burned away entire sections of his crystalline scales.
With Animus dead, his personality had finally separated from her consciousness.
Four hundred years ago, Sonya had undeniably been nothing more than a toy to the group of hostile dragons who killed her, Animus included.
Yet throughout the centuries they had spent sharing a body, Animus had also genuinely done everything he could to protect her.
It was an ugly, complicated attachment—almost a form of Stockholm syndrome.
Her murderer had become the being closest to her, and after centuries together, some degree of emotion had inevitably formed between them.
There was no simple way to describe it.
Fortunately, Ankh and the others had no intention of trying.
Once Animus was dead and the remaining Quartum soldiers had been destroyed by the returning Fairy Tail members, the Magic Council's troops finally arrived.
Natsu sat on a roadside boulder still covered in Gray's ice, breathing heavily as he watched Council soldiers surround the city.
"You guys are way too slow! We already finished everything!"
"Thank you for risking your lives to save this city!"
To everyone's surprise, the two officers leading the Council forces were both familiar faces.
Doranbolt, now sporting a mess of unruly hair that looked almost like a bird's nest, stepped forward with an unusually grave expression and bowed deeply to Ankh and the others.
Times had certainly changed.
In the past, the Magic Council had stood above the guilds, sending mages into dangerous battles while retaining control over the rewards, information, and dangerous artifacts recovered afterward.
That old hierarchy was long gone.
Now the Council and the legal guilds worked in increasingly close cooperation, to the point that the distinction between their roles had begun to blur.
Guild mages served as highly mobile elite units with exceptional individual combat strength, while the Council provided conventional forces, logistics, intelligence, and large-scale battlefield support.
Ankh raised an eyebrow at Doranbolt's formal attitude.
"The Master still hasn't restored you?"
Doranbolt looked genuinely confused.
"Restored what?"
"…Nothing."
Ankh shook his head.
'So the Master still hasn't undone Mest's sealed memories.'
He made a mental note to mention it to Makarov once they returned.
Relations between Fairy Tail and the Council were no longer nearly as tense as they had once been, so there was probably little reason to keep the old undercover operation going.
The other commander accompanying Doranbolt surprised the group even more.
"Whoa! It's that diamond-headed guy!"
Natsu pointed at the man wearing a warm, almost fatherly smile.
"Hoteye from the Oración Seis!"
Richard chuckled and greeted them cheerfully.
"Aye! My friends from Fairy Tail. The Councilors were gracious enough to show me leniency. Although I remain a convicted criminal, I am now serving as a captain within the Council's containment forces."
"Not bad." Gray grinned and casually slapped him on the shoulder. "You actually landed yourself a pretty decent job."
Doranbolt, still painfully serious as ever, explained, "Mr. Richard has made substantial contributions to our forces. Because of that, the Council has formally pardoned a significant portion of his past offenses."
It was much the same arrangement Sorano and the others now lived under.
The former members of the Oración Seis connected to the Tower of Heaven were effectively on a gray list these days.
They weren't treated as ordinary law-abiding citizens, but neither were they hunted as dangerous fugitives anymore.
They occupied something of an awkward middle ground.
Former underworld figures, perhaps.
"With someone like you here, the Council's frontline troops should be a lot more reliable," Erza said with a smile.
She had known many of the people connected to the Tower of Heaven since childhood, so seeing Richard find something resembling a proper place in society was genuinely welcome.
Doranbolt nodded solemnly.
Richard clasped his hands together and sighed with emotion.
"My sins are heavy. To be allowed to walk the path of love in this way is already more fortune than I deserve."
While they exchanged greetings, the rest of the Council forces had already begun recovering civilians frozen inside Gray's Devil Slayer ice.
With Gray's assistance, the frozen victims were carefully moved one by one onto Council warships.
Since no cure for the demonification had yet been developed, the only viable solution for now was crude but effective: remove the infected people from Stella, keep them frozen, and transport them somewhere secure until treatment could be found.
Once the rescue operation began in earnest, whatever small relief everyone had felt at seeing familiar faces quickly disappeared.
An entire small kingdom had been transformed into a land of demons in the span of a single night, and countless civilians had died in the resulting massacres.
For a Magic Council already under immense pressure from the Alvarez Empire, the implications were terrifying.
"I hope they can develop a cure soon…"
Lucy watched sadly as another group of frozen civilians was loaded aboard a warship.
Doranbolt stared at the innocent victims in silence, anger hardening his expression.
"If Alvarez can infiltrate Ishgar and wreak havoc whenever they please, why shouldn't we send our own people into their territory and do the same?"
Ankh shook his head.
"Deal with the problems inside Ishgar first. There's no point looking outward while cults are still running around causing trouble in our own backyard."
Doranbolt exhaled and nodded.
"At least you eliminated the Black Magic Cult's headquarters and most of its leadership while you were here. That's one major threat gone."
Then his eyes suddenly sharpened.
He focused on the green-haired woman standing casually among Fairy Tail as though she had always belonged there.
"And you…"
His tone became cautious.
"Brandish of the Spriggan 12. What exactly is your position now?"
Brandish gave him a lazy glance.
"My position is Brandish."
Her expression didn't change.
"As far as Alvarez is concerned, I'm probably already a traitor for interfering with their operation."
Doranbolt's gaze hardened.
"In that case, would you be willing to stay temporarily under the supervision of the Magic Council?"
"No."
Brandish answered without hesitation.
The surrounding Council soldiers immediately became tense, but she didn't seem remotely concerned.
"I'll cooperate with you if necessary, but I have no interest in being placed under house arrest."
"You're far too dangerous for us to simply leave unsupervised."
Brandish's expression remained flat.
"And your Council leaks people like a sieve. I wouldn't feel particularly safe staying there either."
Doranbolt's face stiffened.
He couldn't exactly argue.
The number of dangerous criminals who had escaped Council custody over the years was embarrassingly high.
"I'll stay at her place."
Brandish casually pointed at Lucy.
Lucy blinked.
"…Huh?"
Brandish continued as though the matter had already been decided.
"If you need me, you'll know where to find me."
Then she gave Doranbolt a faintly provocative look.
"Fairy Tail's guildhall is probably safer than your Council headquarters anyway."