"Natsu, Gray! Go find those two demons you defeated and bring them back to the tavern! Erza, we're heading back to the tavern now! Lucy and the others might be in danger!"
"What's going on?" Natsu and Gray were completely baffled by the sudden order. "Isn't the fight already over?"
Erza, quick to catch on, responded, "Are you saying the remaining demon might devour its three companions?"
Natsu, unable to wrap his head around it, shouted in disbelief, "No way! They're supposed to be allies!"
"Natsu, they're demons!" Gray, accepting the situation faster, grabbed Natsu and started running toward where Snoy and Ferg had been sent flying. Happy trailed close behind.
"Wait… let me go, Gray! I'm gonna—"
Natsu's voice faded into the distance as Kira ignored him, conjuring wings for Erza. The two of them soared toward the tavern.
Kira's hunch was spot-on. When Ace saw Snoy and Ferg fall in battle, he knew he couldn't take on all four of them for now. He made the swift decision to retreat.
Devouring the Sea Demon King had significantly boosted his power, especially physically, transforming him from a magic-focused demon into one skilled in both magic and combat.
"Absolute Freeze lives up to its name as a god-given magic. Its vanishing attribute nearly drained the Sea Demon King's life force and magic completely."
After escaping the battlefield, Ace immediately tracked down the barely alive Snoy and Ferg. Under their shocked gazes, he revealed his true form and mercilessly drained them dry.
"In terms of quality, they're definitely tastier than the 'scraps' I've devoured before, but in terms of quantity, they're nowhere close!"
With the Demon Cannibalism Magic at his disposal, this wasn't Ace's first time consuming his own kind—it was one of the reasons he'd survived so long. "As expected, without the refinement of cannibalism, regular demons can't compare to the Sea Demon King. Still… better than nothing!"
Initially, Ace had considered treating these demons as allies, but since the Sea Demon King's power fell short of expectations, he had no choice but to treat his underlings as "rations."
"Damn humans, ruining years of my plans!" Ace muttered, frustrated. "Luckily, there's still time. I can still claim half the victory."
Ace was in a foul mood. His years-long scheme was only half complete. First, Silver unexpectedly killed the Water Demon Wort, whose power was then claimed by someone else. Then Fairy Tail showed up, defeating and capturing the Cloud Demon Chloe. And now, these humans had the audacity to come knocking at his door. It was an insult to demonkind!
"Next, there's only that 'traitor' left!"
…
To pull off his plan to devour the Sea Demon King, Ace had initially sent the Snow Demon Snoy and Mist Demon Ferg to distract the other mages.
When he sensed Kira and the others nearing the base's entrance, he unleashed his full power, using the "Beast Control Technique" to command all his snow wolves to launch an all-out assault on the Forgotten Tavern, aiming to retrieve Chloe.
The Beast Control Technique was a magic that could manipulate living creatures. Its origins and creator were long lost to history, but it was at least centuries old. Over time, it had been refined and evolved into various forms—some controlling humans, others non-human creatures, and even some capable of controlling dragons!
The most common application, however, was controlling animals and magical beasts. Ace's version of the technique was one such variant.
By infusing a small amount of his tissue and magic into a beast and cloning it through a secret ritual, he could create a loyal and powerful pack. The massive pack of snow wolves in Zonia was the result of this magic.
In the snowy landscape, thousands of snow-white wolves now surrounded the Forgotten Tavern. Kana, Lucy, Loke, and Elfman, forced into a defensive stance, each guarded a direction, holding out for Kira and the others to finish their fight and return to help.
"Damn it! They just keep coming!" Kana cursed.
Though her Five Elements Formation was powerful, it had its limits when her magic ran low. Facing this endless wave of enemies, she didn't dare activate her stronger cards, which lacked stored magic. Instead, she fell back on her older, less magic-intensive cards. Even so, since they were made by Kira, they were strong enough to handle the situation.
On another side, Lucy hadn't yet unlocked the power of her Celestial Spirit Clothing, so she relied entirely on her spirits in combat.
Facing the charging wolf pack, Lucy, unable to open two gates at once, struggled to keep up. She could only rely on Taurus to hold the line.
"Come on, Taurus!" Lucy cheered from behind a wall.
"MOO! For Miss Lucy!" Taurus bellowed, swinging his axe with every shout, cutting down wolves left and right.
Despite the overwhelming numbers, Taurus, the muscular bovine spirit, fought fiercely for his beloved Lucy, determined to keep going until he collapsed.
Boom!
Elfman, still recovering from heavy injuries, pushed his body to the limit. Using the Beast King Arm he'd wielded for over a decade, he sent wolf after wolf flying.
"I swear on my pride as a man, you won't take a single step forward!"
Something felt off about these magical wolves. They were different from any pack he'd faced before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Though Elfman was now a muscle-bound powerhouse, he'd once been a gentle, detail-oriented man, and his sharp instincts picked up on the wolves' strange behavior.
In the final direction, Loke's ring unleashed a barrage of flashing beams, piercing the wolves like skewers, dropping them in rows.
"What's with these guys? Their attacks are completely disorganized. Don't they have a wolf king?"
Among the four, Loke was the most experienced and perceptive. He quickly noticed something the others hadn't.
"If there's no wolf king here, then who are they following? And how do we drive them back?"
Wolves were highly organized creatures, moving and retreating under the command of their leader. Without a leader's orders, they'd fight to the last wolf—unless the wolf king was killed.
"To repel the pack, the best way is to take out the wolf king!" Loke reasoned, fighting while analyzing. "Based on what Natsu and the others ran into yesterday, these wolves are probably under the demons' control. They're here to rescue the demon inside! We just have to hope Kira and the others take care of those three demons soon—I'm running out of steam!"
Surprisingly, Loke was the first of the four to falter.
After the battles on Galuna Island and this mission, his strength was nearly depleted. He was barely holding on, thanks to Kira's ring sustaining his last bit of energy.
Another golden flash shot out, and Loke gave a bitter smile. "Man, I should've just stayed behind!"
…
At the demon base, after Kira and Erza left, only one small figure remained.
Wendy was left behind!
"That jerk! He went back without me! He did it on purpose!" Wendy grumbled, stomping her short legs as she took the stairs two at a time.
As she hopped down, she calculated: a staircase with ten thousand steps, where she could jump one or two steps at a time—how many ways could she descend? And how long would it take?
Thud! Wendy's tiny fist slammed into the wall.
She wasn't angry about the math problem—she was furious because she knew the tavern and her uncle were in danger, and she wasn't there to help.
"I shouldn't have come. I haven't been any help anyway!"
Crack! The wall split under her punch.
"Huh? Did I hit it that hard?"
Even a mountain peak, thousands of years old, couldn't withstand the destruction caused by Fairy Tail's three chaos agents. After Wendy's punch, it crumbled further, collapsing inward.
"What's happening?!" Wendy's hair stood on end as cracks spread from the wall to the stairs beneath her. "Did their fight break the mountain's support structure?"
Before she could process it, the stairs shattered, revealing a massive abyss dozens of meters below!
"AHHH!"