The trek through the East Forest toward Porlyusica's secluded treehouse was slow, quiet, and exceptionally agonizing.
Kai wasn't even being allowed to walk. Despite his hoarse protests about "maintaining his dignity," Mirajane and Cana had unceremoniously strapped him onto a lightweight folding stretcher they had dug out from the guildhall's emergency supplies. Erza marched ahead like a heavily armored honor guard, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, scanning the treeline for any non-existent threats.
"Hey, keep your eyes open, Architect," Cana teased, adjusting her grip on the front handles of the stretcher. "If you drop off into unconsciousness right now, Mira here might have to give you emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."
Mirajane giggled softly from the rear handles, her tone dripping with sweet amusement. "Oh, I don't know about that, Cana. I think I'll pass... unless he explicitly asks for it, of course."
Kai, despite looking like a walking corpse covered in bandages and splints, opened one golden eye and offered a shamelessly tired smirk. "I am officially asking for it. Write it down in my medical bill."
All three girls burst out laughing, the lighthearted banter temporarily cutting through the thick lingering tension of the war.
"You really are unbelievable," Cana chuckled, shaking her head. "In all seriousness, Kai... you really pushed yourself past the red line this time. When Jose threw you into the stratosphere, we genuinely thought you were gone. And then you came dropping straight back out of the clouds like a falling star."
"Yeah..." Kai rasped, his voice rough and laced with a faint wet rattle. "And it cost me pretty damn badly. My nerve clusters feel like they've been washed in acid."
"Don't worry," Erza chimed in from the front, glancing back over her shoulder with genuine concern. "We are almost at Lady Porlyusica's clearing."
Kai let out a low, miserable groan, his head loll-ing back against the canvas stretcher. "Honestly... I'm far more terrified of her than the nerve damage."
A few minutes later, the dense canopy opened up, revealing the familiar, massive treehouse built into the giant branches of the East Forest.
Standing right at the base of the wooden ladder was Porlyusica herself. The grand healer's arms were tightly crossed over her chest, her pink hair pulled back, and her sharp eyes glaring down her nose with enough sheer hostility to wither a forest. She looked about one minor inconvenience away from beating Kai senseless with her walking stick.
Kai looked up from his stretcher and offered a weak, shameless wave with his uninjured left hand. "Hey, Granny. Long time no see."
A massive, visible vein throbbed violently on Porlyusica's forehead. She stared at the bloody, broken boy for three long seconds before snapping coldly, "Bring him inside. Now."
Mirajane and Cana carefully carried the stretcher up into the cozy, herb-scented cabin, setting Kai down gently onto the clean medical cot in the center of the room. Erza stood near the doorway, looking tense.
Porlyusica stepped into the room, took one look at the three girls, and instantly puffed up with absolute disgust.
"GET OUT!" Porlyusica shrieked, waving her arms aggressively as if shooing stray pests. "What the hell are you still doing here?! Out! Out! I can't stand the smell of human pollution in my home! Leave!"
Accustomed to her infamous hatred of humans, the three girls didn't take it personally. They quickly bowed, offered Kai a swift wave of encouragement, and practically scrambled out the front door, leaving the healer alone with her patient.
Silence settled over the treehouse.
Porlyusica stood over the cot, letting out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to age her ten years. She pulled a stool over and began examining Kai's body, her scowl darkening with every passing second as her hands moved over his shattered shoulder, fractured leg, and raw, inflamed nerve pathways.
Suddenly, she paused. Her sharp eyes narrowed as she felt the internal state of his organs.
"Your severe structural trauma has already been stabilized," Porlyusica noted, her voice surprisingly sharp. "The deepest fractures were forcibly stitched together before you got here. Who did this?"
Kai offered a faint nod toward his waist. Pixie, his tiny mechanical spider, scurried out of his shredded pouch. In its delicate metal legs, it carefully held out the three-eyed, brass-bound black flute.
"I tinkered with Lullaby recently," Kai admitted, his lips twitching into a tired smile. "I didn't have time to show you before the war broke out, but I re-engineered its sound-wave array into a localized, aggressive healing frequency."
Porlyusica froze. Her eyes locked onto the dark artifact, genuine shock flickering across her face. True healing magic was absurdly rare in Earth-land, and the fact that this insolent boy had re-bound a Zeref demon into a portable medical unit was borderline absurd.
She grunted, hiding her surprise behind a scoff, and immediately went back to work.
For the next half hour, the cabin was filled with the pungent smell of crushed herbs, boiling ointments, and medicinal poultices. Porlyusica worked with practiced, brutal efficiency, applying remedies and pastes that Kai was intimately familiar with.
After all, Kai had been visiting Porlyusica's treehouse since he was a young child. Back then, his reckless training and experiments had resulted in countless injuries, and Porlyusica had been the one to patch him back together every single time. During those painful recovery sessions, Kai's insatiable curiosity had kicked in; he had memorized her herbology, studied her medical terminology, and absorbed her anatomical knowledge like a sponge.
Even as he grew older and suffered fewer accidents, he had continued visiting her—not because he needed healing, but simply out of routine and fun. He would fix her broken household devices, sharpen her tools, or bring her rare mountain herbs as gifts. Naturally, Porlyusica had yelled at him to get lost every single time, yet Kai couldn't help but notice that she kept and used every single item he had ever brought her.
Once she finished wrapping a fresh layer of thick medical gauze tightly around his torso and leg, Porlyusica finally sat back on her stool, wiping her stained hands on a cloth. She stared at him silently for a long moment, remembering the countless times this exact boy had laid on this exact cot.
"I told you before, Kai," Porlyusica said softly, her voice carrying a rare, heavy sternness. "Your original arts are far too dangerous for your body. I explicitly warned you not to force higher-dimensional output. Yet you ignored me. Again. And again."
Kai winced awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand. "Well... I didn't ignore it, Granny. I improved the system so I could handle it! And see? My efforts worked. I'm alive."
Porlyusica glared at him, her eyes narrowing. "This time, your internal injuries were somehow far less severe than they should have been after taking a Saint-level impact. How did you survive that falling velocity?"
Kai raised his left arm, pointing to the glowing, intricate blue tattoos etched across his skin. "These runes covering my body... I extracted the formula from the ancient Kaldor Ruins a week or so ago. They function as an independent, automated nervous system and localized intelligence. The ancients originally created them to support an entire city's infrastructure and keep it self-sufficient. I adapted the sequence and integrated them into my own body."
Porlyusica completely froze. A second later, she slammed her hands onto her knees, shrieking at him. "ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY INSANE?! Fusing yourself with a complex, ancient runic network meant to manage a city?!"
"Hey, jeez!" Kai raised a defensive hand, exhausted. "It was the only way to save myself, Cana, and the research team trapped inside the collapse with thousands of watermelon-sized monsters waiting to chew through our bones! So i really didn't have the luxury to design a safer, slower integration process! But see? It turned out to be remarkably useful."
Porlyusica stared at him, utterly dumbfounded, before rubbing her temples. "Fine. But how on earth did you survive the backlash of Dark Singularity? Converting an entire army of a wizard saint level spell should have bounced that massive energy feedback straight back into your own core and destroyed your insides!"
Kai chuckled faintly, nodding. "That's where the Kaldor runes really shine. They allow me to passively absorb, manipulate, and redirect ambient ethernano inside my body. When the energy feedback hit me during the explosion, the runic network vented seventy percent of the raw backlash straight out of my body and back into the atmosphere."
Porlyusica sat in complete silence. In all her long years of living in isolation, the sheer volume of heart attacks and shocks this single boy had given her probably doubled the total amount caused by the rest of Fairy Tail combined.
She let out a long, defeated sigh. "So... that massive energy vent is what burned out your neural pathways and caused the internal nerve damage."
Kai nodded calmly. "That, and the fact that I engaged Runic Overdrive right before casting."
Seeing her sharp, questioning gaze, Kai explained, "The Kaldor runes naturally help my body safely absorb ambient ethernano without overloading me. Runic Overdrive temporarily strips away all internal safety limiters, forcibly pumping an absurd amount of raw magic straight into my core. That's what strained my pathways—the technique is still in its developmental phase."
Porlyusica stared at him, looking infinitely annoyed, exhausted, and strangely proud all at once. She stood up from her stool, picking up her medical tray.
"You are forbidden from using magic for the near future," Porlyusica declared in a tone that left no room for argument. "Your neural pathways need time to rest and stitch themselves back together."
"Yeah, I was expecting that," Kai nodded casually, closing his eyes.
Porlyusica paused at the doorway, glaring back at him. "If you ever do something this foolishly reckless again, Kai... I cannot guarantee the magic damage will remain temporary."
Kai offered a sleepy, faint smirk, his voice fading into a mutter. "No worries, Granny... I'll have the efficiency improved by next time..."
"You stubborn little—!" Porlyusica snapped, whirling around, only to stop dead in her tracks.
Kai had already dropped off into a deep, peaceful sleep, his shallow breathing evening out as his body finally began its natural recovery process.
Porlyusica stood there for a moment, her scowl slowly melting away into a quiet, fond expression. She gently pulled a warm blanket over his chest, turned off the magic lamp, and walked out of the room, shaking her head. "Brat..."
Meanwhile, back in the heart of Magnolia, Erza, Mirajane, and Cana had returned to find the city center completely transformed.
Dozens of heavily armored Rune Knights from the Magic Council's enforcement division had completely surrounded the ruined Fairy Tail guildhall and the harbor. Armored wagons, ward-casters, and high-ranking captains were actively investigating the area, securing evidence, and rounding up mages for formal questioning.
The entire Fairy Tail guild—including a thoroughly terrified Makarov—had been led to a temporary military command outpost set up on the outskirts of the plaza.
When Erza, Mira, and Cana approached the perimeter, three high-ranking Council captains immediately stepped forward to intercept them. However, their demeanor was far from hostile.
"Pardon us," the lead captain spoke, bowing his head respectfully to the three girls. "We are looking for Lord Kairos Sunveil. Can you inform us of his current whereabouts?"
Unlike their rough treatment of the rest of the guild, the Rune Knights spoke of Kai with immense deference and respect. Kai wasn't just a rogue guild wizard—he held the official, high-ranking government title of Minister, reporting directly to the King himself. In the military hierarchy, his political rank sat far above these Council captains.
"Kai was severely injured during the conflict and is currently undergoing emergency medical treatment under strict quarantine," Mirajane replied smoothly, offering her signature gentle smile.
The lead captain nodded in understanding. "I see. We were instructed to secure his official statement regarding the unprovoked assault by Phantom Lord, as well as any relevant evidence."
Cana stepped forward, reaching into her coat, and pulled out a small, glowing lacrima crystal.
"Kai knew you'd be coming," Cana said, tossing the crystal casually to the captain. "He handed us this recording lacrima before we took him to the healer, just in case you guys needed proof."
The captain caught the crystal carefully.
Upon activating it, a high-definition, three-dimensional projection erupted into the air above the outpost. It was Pixie's personal visual log—capturing every single moment of the battle with crystal-clear clarity.
The projection displayed the full, terrifying extent of Jose Porla's Call of the Abyss, the dark magic portal, and Jose's explicit, recorded declarations of unprovoked war, extortion, and intent to murder Fairy Tail's members. It also captured the exact moment Kai stepped in, dismantling the Saint's ultimate spell, followed by Jose's desperate, point-blank attempt to execute Kai before being shut down.
The Rune Knights stared at the projection in absolute, stunned silence.
The lead captain slowly closed his hand, deactivating the lacrima, his face turning deathly serious.
"This is conclusive," the captain declared firmly, turning to his subordinates. "Master Jose Porla has committed high treason, attempted murder of a State Minister, and violated the Inter-Guild Non-Aggression Pact. Issue a Class-S arrest warrant for Jose Porla. Suspend Phantom Lord's legal guild status pending investigation and authorize immediate seizure of its assets."
Hearing this from across the camp, Master Makarov stopped weeping, blinking his big eyes in utter disbelief as he realized Fairy Tail wasn't going to jail after all.
"He really thinks of everything, doesn't he?" Cana chuckled, looking back toward the distant East Forest with a smirk.
Erza exhaled a soft sigh of relief, a rare, gentle smile appearing on her face. "That's our Kai."