Rhode made a final check on Future Lucy's equipment, notebook, and her mastery of magic, and after confirming everything was in order, he went to see Future Rogue.
"Can you tell me my fate?" asked Future Rogue.
"If the magic power of the Eclipse Gate is sufficient, we'll send you back; if not, you'll be handed over to the kingdom, and you'll likely be secretly executed," Rhode said. "Do you have anything to say?"
Future Rogue said, "Send me back? What if I return to the correct past?"
Rhode shook his head: "Doesn't matter, Fairy Tail over there will stop you."
Future Rogue said, "There's no you over there, nor anyone who can summon dragons."
Rhode said, "It's just more effort, but there is a way."
Among the several battle plans prepared for Future Lucy, there was a plan against Future Rogue.
Even though the two of them are not from the same timeline, there is still a way to deal with Rogue.
Fairy Tail over there might have a magic power gap compared to this side, but they won't lose in terms of wisdom.
Besides, Rhode believed that if he wasn't there, his companions could still have a breakout moment, at worst, it would just be a more bitter victory.
Future Rogue sighed: "Clearly someone who shouldn't exist, but in this aspect, just the same as them."
Rhode said, "If that's all you want to say, then you should go."
"Can I ask you one last favor for the information I provided?"
"Tell me."
"After I die, please transfer my power to the present Rogue and Stinger."
"Hmm?"
As Rhode was confused, Future Rogue's body began to emit a faint glow, gradually becoming ethereal and transparent.
His magic power split into two visible streams, the black magic power gathering to the left, and the white magic power to the right.
"Hey! Your life force is draining!"
"Do you show this kind of expression? I finally have a magic you don't know about." Future Rogue laughed.
Meanwhile, Makarov, Laxus, Erza, Mira, and others barged in.
Mebius also followed, urgently asking, "What happened? We sensed very strong magic power!"
"Whether I return to my 'future' or get executed by the kingdom, it would be a meaningless death. So I might as well leave it for myself and Stinger here. I entrust you, Fairy Tail!"
Without waiting for further discussion, Future Rogue's figure completely disappeared, leaving behind a black and white magic crystal in mid-air.
The black and white streams of magic power injected into them, and when the magic power was fully injected, the two crystals became more rounded and fell onto the wooden floor.
Erza looked at Rhode: "What... what's going on?"
However, Rhode didn't know much more than she did: "I want to know too; he shouldn't have been able to use magic."
"It's life," Mebius said with some sorrow, "The weight of life is heavy, heavy enough to move many things, including the magic restrictions you've set."
Witnessing a life passing has never been an easy thing.
Rhode collected the two magic crystals and handed them to the two presidents and all the S-Class mages for inspection.
He then asked Fried to write the technique 'only one person can pass' at the door for testing.
He also wrote 'the person holding two magic crystals can pass' and tested it again.
It could be determined that these indeed were magic crystals, not objects possessed by consciousness.
There wasn't much time today, so Rhode decided to conduct more thorough tests later after handling important matters and confirm that there were indeed no issues before handing them to Sabertooth.
...
The Eclipse Gate had already been moved back underground before the king met with Lahar; it seemed that some mechanism was intentionally set at first.
The underground palace was spacious enough; they planned to directly build a secret chamber here in the future.
Rhode brought two Lucys to the underground palace where the Eclipse Gate was stored at dusk.
The king did not attend the scene; only Princess Jade and Minister of State Danton came to witness, Yukino brought the keys to help.
The door-opening process was almost the same as before; only the persons responsible for opening it were Lucy and Future Lucy.
Rhode placed the Crown of Insight on them, intentionally allowing Future Lucy to rest a bit before entering.
Future Lucy bowed deeply in front of the door: "Thank you all, thank you for your help!"
Lucy and Rhode waved her off, then Future Lucy stepped determinedly through the door.
The golden light swallowed her figure.
Lucy closed her eyes, and as one of the casters, she could feel the state of the magic.
A moment later, she opened her eyes, excitedly saying, "It worked!"
(How about a Future Lucy special after finishing the main story?)
Rhode smiled: "That's good."
He checked the state of the Eclipse Gate: "It seems the magic power is almost depleted; let's get ready to close it."
Princess Jade nodded: "Alright."
This time, she and Yukino were responsible for closing the gate, with Lucy stepping in to help reduce their burden.
The gate closed smoothly.
Rhode began drawing a magic array on the spot, laying out autonomously charging magic crystals.
Once activated, the entire Eclipse Gate seemed to disappear into thin air, and no one could get within five meters of it.
After that, Rhode absorbed the Mountain Dragon Soul, imitating how Jura does it by clapping his hands together; the land outside the magic array rose upwards, closing at the top, then expanded outward irregularly by more than ten meters, forming a small mountain.
Next, Rhode carved a magic array into the mountain wall.
He was busy for about an hour in total; Rhode clapped his hands, "Alright, the rest is up to you."
Princess Jade nodded blankly: "Ah, yes."
The whole process was too smooth, faster than she had imagined.
The Minister of State reminded: "Your Highness, the celebration banquet tonight is about to start, please prepare to return."
"Understood." Princess Jade nodded. "Mr. Rhode, Miss Lucy, please take a short break. Tonight there will also be an award ceremony for the winners of the Great Demon Fighting Martial Arts, so please be sure to attend."
After the two agreed, they returned to the hotel where the guild was staying.
...
The banquet was held in the ballroom of the Royal Palace, with representatives of each major guild in attendance, everyone dressed in their finest attire.
Though Jude was not a mage, he also received an invitation and entered the Royal Palace with Fairy Tail.
The typically carefree members of Fairy Tail were now all dressed to the nines. As for Gray... he was properly dressed in a suit when leaving the hotel entrance as well.
Obviously, the behavior of Fairy Tail wasn't constrained by their clothing.
The usually solemn and serious Royal Palace became lively because of these guests, and these people not only made noise themselves but also spread like a virus, easily infecting other guilds.
So much so that the servants within the royal palace further solidified their stereotypes of mages - a group of rustic people who worship strength.
Thanks to Fairy Tail, their strength lowered the image of mages nationwide.