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Precht didn't just open the cathedral doors, he blasted them right off their hinges with a heavy gravity push. The wood splintered into tiny pieces. The four kids stepped into the dark, cold church looking like they were ready for a boss raid. I walked in right behind them. Dust swirled around my boots as I tossed the last few roasted nuts into my mouth.
Geoffrey stood by the altar.
He was the master of Blue Skull, and he looked like a greasy old man who hadn't washed his clothes in a month. His face held a nasty grin, but nobody was looking at that. We were all staring at the glowing green rock in his hands.
The Tenrou Jade.
"You fools!" Geoffrey laughed, his voice echoing off the high stone ceiling. "You think you've won? This rock holds ancient power! I'll crush you all!"
He slammed his heavy metal staff into the stone floor, and a giant wave of red fire rushed straight at us. It was fast, but the kids didn't freeze like they used to.
"I've got the shield!" Warrod yelled.
He slammed both bare hands onto the church floor. Two massive roots tore through the marble tiles and crossed over each other to form a solid wooden wall. The fire hit the roots with a violent whoosh, scorching the bark black, but it didn't burn through.
"Precht, throw me!" Yuri shouted, his fists already crackling with yellow lightning.
Precht didn't say a word. He locked eyes with Yuri and used a quick burst of magic to lighten his weight, then threw his hand forward. Yuri shot ahead like a bullet, flying straight over Warrod's wooden shield. He cleared the fire in a second.
Geoffrey's eyes widened. He tried to raise his staff to block, but Yuri was far too fast.
"Take this!" Yuri yelled.
He spun in midair and drove a lightning-infused fist straight into Geoffrey's face.
BAM.
The punch landed with a loud crack. Geoffrey flew backward and slammed into the stone altar. His staff clattered across the floor. Groaning and dazed, nose bleeding, he scrambled to get back on his feet.
Precht moved next. He thrust out his right hand toward the groaning guild master and altered his gravity. Geoffrey was violently yanked forward, sliding across the floor on his stomach straight toward Precht's raised boot. Precht kicked him hard in the chest, sending the old man rolling back into the dirt.
Mavis stepped out from behind the roots, her eyes sharp. She raised both hands, and suddenly a massive glowing illusion of a giant silver knight appeared above Geoffrey, holding a sword the size of a tree.
"It's over!" Mavis called.
Geoffrey looked up at the towering knight and completely lost his nerve. Screaming, he crawled backward in terror until his back hit the altar wall. His magic was spent, and his face had gone pale as paper.
Then his eyes locked on the altar.
The Tenrou Jade sat there, pulsing with bright green light. A nasty, desperate look twisted across his face.
"If I'm going down, I'm taking this whole town with me!" Geoffrey shrieked.
He lunged out and grabbed the smooth green stone.
"Yuri, hit the stone!" Precht shouted, already running forward.
Yuri was moving before the words even finished leaving his mouth. His fists flared with lightning again. He didn't want the villain holding the treasure of his island. He dashed in, drove an elbow into Geoffrey's ribs to knock him aside, and snatched the green stone out of his hands.
"Got it!" Yuri laughed, raising the Tenrou Jade high into the air. "The treasure is ours!"
Then everything went wrong.
The moment Yuri's bare fingers wrapped around the smooth surface of the stone, the green light stopped looking beautiful. It turned thick and greasy, pulsing with a dark, sick purple shadow.
Yuri's laugh died in his throat. His eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. The yellow lightning around his knuckles twisted into sickly dark flame.
"Wait... what's happening?" Yuri groaned, sounding like he was swallowing glass. He started shaking violently, his knees buckling. "It... it burns! Get it off me! I can't let go!"
"Yuri!" Mavis shrieked, running forward.
"Stay back, blondie," I barked, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her behind me.
I wasn't smiling anymore. Through the Eyes of Gilgamesh, I could see the pure black sludge of ancient malice pouring out of the jade and drilling straight into Yuri's magic core. This wasn't just magic. It was a curse, marinated in hatred for centuries.
The green light exploded.
A massive shockwave of raw dark energy blasted through the cathedral. Every stained-glass window shattered instantly, raining millions of colorful shards down into the pews. Mavis screamed as the force knocked her off her feet. Precht and Warrod dropped to their knees, shielding their faces from the flying glass.
The dark light shot upward through the broken stone ceiling like a purple beam and slammed into the giant dragon skeleton perched on top of the cathedral.
ROAR.
The dead bones let out a massive guttural cry that shook all of Magnolia. The skeleton began to move, its empty ribs stretching outward. Dark purple smoke wrapped around the bones, building a false body of shadows and hardened scales. Yuri was pulled straight into the air, his body sinking deep into the center of the dragon's skull.
The monster was alive now, and Yuri was trapped at the controls.
The skeleton dragon burst fully through the roof, sending massive chunks of stone crashing down into the altar. It soared into the sky, circling over the town. With another roar, it fired a dark blast from its mouth and blew apart a row of houses down the street.
"Yuri!" Mavis cried, scrambling through the rubble. Tears streamed down her face as she stared up at the giant shadow in the sky. She looked shattered. "It's my fault... If I hadn't brought us here, he wouldn't have touched it..."
"Stop crying, Mavis," I said, stepping over a broken pillar and tapping Odin's staff against the stone. The green gem flared, instantly blowing away the falling rocks before they could hit her. "Your friend got greedy and grabbed a cursed rock. It happens. Crying won't get him out of that lizard's head."
Precht stumbled out of the dust, coughing and clutching his side. His black coat was torn to pieces.
"Merlin... can you kill that thing?"
"I could erase it in three seconds," I said, looking up through the hole in the roof at the circling dragon. "But if I hit that dragon too hard, Yuri dies too. The stone fused their life force together. If the skeleton is destroyed by force, Yuri's soul goes with it."
"Then what do we do?" Warrod shouted. His green hair was coated in white stone dust, and he looked terrified. The dragon roared again, its tail smashing through the main clock tower in the square. "We can't just stand here while it destroys the whole town!"
Mavis clutched her illusion book so tightly her hands trembled. She looked at the pages, then at the sky, then at me. Suddenly, her eyes cleared. She was still an amateur, but when her friends were in danger, her mind became razor-sharp.
"An illusion won't be enough," she muttered, voice shaking. "We need something that forces reality itself to change. Merlin... I have to use that spell."
Mavis froze. Her face turned completely white, even paler than the stone dust on her clothes.
The memory hit her like a physical blow.
Flashback—last week, just before Zeref left the training woods.
The moon hung high overhead, and Zeref was packing his single bag beside the dying embers of the campfire. He looked like he was carrying the weight of the entire world. He had spent the last six months teaching them the basics, but tonight, when he looked at Mavis, his deep, sad eyes seemed heavier than ever.
"There is a magic," Zeref whispered, his voice barely louder than the wind. "A spell that manipulates the very concepts of black and white, life and death. It is called Law. It demands a massive amount of Ethernano, and it forces a choice upon reality itself. If you cast it, you can rewrite an outcome."
Mavis looked up at him, her wide eyes full of wonder. "A spell that can change reality? That sounds beautiful, Zeref."
"It is dangerous," Zeref said, his expression turning grave. "It takes ten years to properly master the calculations so your container doesn't break. Keep it stored away until you are truly ready. The law of nature does not like being cheated."
He turned and walked into the dark woods. Mavis stood there for a long time, watching the trees swallow his silhouette while her genius mind locked the forbidden formula away.
The moment her footsteps faded as she headed back to her tent, I stepped out from behind a massive oak, leaning on Odin's staff. My gold eyes glowed in the darkness, fixed on the Black Wizard walking away.
"You think that was wise?" I asked, my voice casual but sharp. "Teaching a kid a spell that touches the absolute law of the world right before you disappear?"
Zeref didn't stop. He didn't even look back.
"She asked for a way to protect things. She has the talent to understand it."
"Talent doesn't stop the backlash, Zeref," I said, watching him through the dark. "You know there are consequences. If she uses that magic before her container is fully formed, it'll break her. The world always balances the scales. You of all people should know how much it hurts when a god decides to punish you."
Zeref said nothing. He just kept walking, his face like stone. He knew I was right, but he was too tired to argue.
I let out a short sigh and spun my staff once. "Whatever. It's your mess. Just don't say I didn't warn you when things get ugly."
I blinked out of the clearing, leaving him alone in the dark.
Present day—Magnolia Square.
Mavis snapped out of the memory, her hand tightening over her chest. She looked up at the roaring skeleton dragon, then at me.
"The spell... Law. Zeref said it takes ten years. I don't have ten years, Merlin."
"You don't need ten years," I said, a small grin returning to my face. "You've got a genius mind and a massive container." I tapped her forehead gently with one finger. "Forget the manual formulas and the heavy math. You have the raw power. Just picture the absolute logic of the spell. Force the world to choose light over dark. Tell reality a story, it has no choice but to believe."
"Okay," she whispered, voice shaking but eyes hardening. "Okay. I'll do it."
We ran out of the ruined cathedral and into the middle of the wrecked square.
The skeleton dragon spotted us instantly. It let out a deafening screech, its wings beating hard enough to whip up a miniature hurricane, then dove straight toward the street with its jaws opening wide to unleash another blast of purple destruction.
"Now, Warrod! Hold him down!" I shouted, stepping back to leave the pressure to them.
Warrod didn't hesitate. He let out a raw yell and poured every drop of his green Ethernano into the cobblestones. He wasn't growing one root this time. With what he'd learned, he could have split a mountain.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Dozens of massive pitch-black roots erupted from the street like giant wooden spears. They slammed into the dragon's wings and wrapped around its tail and heavy bone legs like iron chains. The monster crashed to the ground with enough force to throw dust and broken stone fifty feet into the air. It thrashed wildly, its tail smashing through a row of shops and splintering wood with raw strength, but Warrod bared his teeth and forced even more roots to coil around the beast.
When the dragon's tail tore loose and swung toward the boys, Warrod didn't panic. He snapped his fingers, and another thick root burst from the earth, intercepting the massive bone tail with a heavy thud and shielding Precht and himself.
"Precht! Shut its mouth before it cooks us!" Warrod shouted through gritted teeth.
Precht dashed forward, his boots skidding over gravel. His hands glowed with heavy dark-purple light. He locked onto the dragon's snapping jaws, where a bright violet sphere of destructive energy was already forming.
He focused and altered the localized gravity around the monster's snout. The invisible weight of a mountain slammed down on the dragon's head, forcing its jaws shut with a thunderous slam just as the blast fired. The attack had nowhere to go. It exploded inside the dragon's throat, sending thick dark smoke pouring from its nostrils and eyes. The monster whined, head pinned to the earth by Precht's gravity.
"Mavis! Go!" Precht shouted, his arms shaking with the strain.
Mavis stepped forward until she stood directly before the dragon's enormous glowing purple eyes. She didn't look like a frightened child anymore. She took a deep breath, lifted both hands into the air, and opened her magic container completely.
A massive circle of pure golden light erupted across the ground beneath her. It was huge, covering the entire square, filled with ancient letters she no longer needed to think about.
"Law!" she screamed.
A blinding flash of absolute white light swallowed Magnolia.
It wasn't beautiful in the way illusions were beautiful. It was a crushing wave of universal logic. The golden blast bleached the entire square, turning the world black and white for a single instant as it sought out the dark malice in the jade.
Holy light melted the purple fire right off the dragon's scales. The dark power binding the bones together couldn't withstand the spell. It cracked and peeled away like old paint under a furnace.
SHATTER.
The Tenrou Jade in Yuri's hand split into millions of tiny harmless green fragments, its curse finally exhausted. The dragon skeleton lost all life at once and collapsed into a huge heap of dusty old bones across the cobblestones. Yuri slipped free from the skull and fell through the air like a ragdoll.
Precht reacted instantly, catching him with a quick gentle pull of gravity before he hit the ground.
Yuri hung limp, unconscious, face streaked with soot, breathing hard—but the dark fire was gone. He was just Yuri again.
Warrod dropped backward onto the ground, utterly spent, his hands bleeding from the strain of his magic. Precht let out a long breath of relief, lowering his hands. Mavis fell to her knees beside Yuri, crying in relief as she pressed his hand to her cheek.
I walked over, leaning on my staff, and looked down at the four of them.
Magnolia's main square was a disaster. The cathedral no longer had a roof, and everyone looked like they'd been trampled by a team of horses. But the town had been saved. Blue Skull was finished, the cursed stone was gone, and the founders of Fairy Tail had survived their first real world-ending battle.
"Not bad, kids," I said with a grin, tossing my empty paper bag into the rubble. "You played on hard mode and actually won. Now let's see if there's any preserved food left in the Blue Skull pantry. I'm starving."
Mavis looked up at me through her tears, wiping her eyes as a small, shaky laugh escaped her.
"Thank you, Merlin. We couldn't have done it without your cheat codes."
"Hey, that's what a legendary master is for," I said, glancing up at the clear blue sky beyond the smoke.
The story was finally moving. The guild hall was going to be built. And for the first time in three hundred years, I wasn't bored at all.
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If you want to read an extra chapter ahead, go check out the p@treon
Search for foresight_geek or https://[email protected]/c/foresight_geek,
you can buy a membership for the entire month just for -- 1$