"Send him to… the Guild! Find… a healing Mage!" Natsu rushed over, shouting urgently.
Just then, hurried footsteps and the neighing of horses echoed from deep within the forest. Master Makarov arrived with a large contingent of Guild reinforcements. Seeing the chaotic battlefield and several fallen individuals, especially the seemingly lifeless blue colloid in Lucy's arms, his expression changed drastically.
"What happened?! Erza! Natsu! Lucy! Is that… Christian?!"
Inside the Guild.
The Fairy Tail Guild hall had never been so chaotic, yet filled with a fearful silence, as it was today.
Upon learning that Eisenwald's plot to attack the train station and control the dark magical artifact lullaby had been thwarted, most ordinary members cheered, then fell into a heavy silence due to the artifact's potential danger and their comrades' severe injuries.
The Guild's healing Mages formed a circle. Lucy leaned against a nearby chair, exhausted. Natsu paced restlessly, Gray leaned against the wall, eyes closed in rest. Erza stood silently outside the healing circle, her armor retracted, her eyes under her trench coat fixed on the center of the treatment.
One healer wiped her brow and shook her head: "No. We've never seen this life form before! His core… the structural principle… and the biological magic we're familiar with… are fundamentally different systems! Pure life energy input… is like a stone sinking into the sea… or… is it being… rejected by something?"
The gentle life energy the healer tried to guide, when nearing Christian's dry, cracked gelatinous surface, was like water droplets sliding off an extremely hydrophobic lotus leaf; it couldn't effectively penetrate! The faint blue light within remained despairingly weak.
"Damn it!" Natsu slammed his fist on the table.
"Is there… really no way?" Lucy's voice was tearful.
"Perhaps…" An old, hoarse voice, full of impatience yet with a hint of curiosity, came from the stairs on the Guild's second floor. Everyone looked up.
Porlyusica—the reclusive, ill-tempered, and eccentric potion master, whose medical skills even the Ten Wizard Saints found formidable—had appeared unnoticed. Her wrinkled face and murky but sharp eyes pierced through the crowd, precisely fixing on the deep blue "substance" in the healer's hand.
"Elder Porlyusica?!" Makarov was startled.
The old woman slowly descended the stairs, leaning on her cane, and the crowd automatically parted. "So noisy! A bunch of brats!" she grumbled irritably, ignoring everyone, walking straight to the center of the healing circle, and directly reaching out her wrinkled hand to Christian, "snatching" him from the healer's grasp. Her movements were rough and far from gentle.
"Hey! Be careful!" Lucy couldn't help but exclaim.
Porlyusica gave her a cold glance, snorted, yet her age-spotted fingers were unusually nimble and steady as she gently pressed and felt the cool, dry gelatinous surface, occasionally tapping near the core area with her fingertips and listening intently. A flicker of almost imperceptible interest crossed her murky eyes, like a research fanatic encountering a rare experimental sample.
"Hmph… interesting…" she muttered, her voice barely audible, "Undying colloid… mutated rule core… shattered by a powerful impact… and mixed with the scent of Tartaros's pollution?" She pinched a tiny piece of detached gelatinous debris (the healers were terrified), sniffed it at her nose, and her brow furrowed deeper.
"Fairy brats! Prepare a quiet, clean room for me! Immediately! Now!"
Finally, on the Guild's third floor, outside a room temporarily cleared and arranged according to Porlyusica's requirements by Makarov's order (enchanted with a barrier array to block external magic fluctuations).
Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and Erza stood guard in silence.
Through the one-way magic crystal window, they could only vaguely see the scene inside: Porlyusica, wearing thick magic isolation gloves, carefully placed Christian, core area facing up, onto a central platform in a large glass container filled with a peculiar emerald-green medicinal liquid.
She took out a set of extremely delicate alchemy tweezers and tubes, shimmering with different magic runes, and began connecting them around Christian's core. Complex magical instruments surrounded the container, emitting a low, rhythmic hum, with light flowing around them.
"Analysis: Target individual… core structure reconstruction plan loading… external energy conversion interface adaptation… estimated regeneration process… long and… requires stable environment…"
Discontinuous, extremely faint thoughts, like gossamer threads, came from the Celestial Spirit key on Lucy's waist! It was Christian! With the help of the lab instruments, he had recovered an extremely weak ability to transmit signals!
Lucy instantly covered her mouth, tears silently streaming down her face. Her companion… was still alive!
A few evenings later. The Guild was still boisterous, but everyone's mood was somewhat low due to Christian's injuries, especially Lucy's. She was forbidden from entering the sterile room and could only watch the operating instruments from outside every day, silently praying. The golden glow of the setting sun passed through the stained-glass windows of the hall, illuminating the large mission request posted on the bulletin board. Makarov stood in front of it, his plump face unusually serious.
"Lucy! The Master is by the bulletin board! Looks like a big mission!" Happy flapped his wings and flew over, still clutching half a dried fish in his mouth.
Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and others gathered around at the sound.
The sun sank into the horizon of Magnolia Port, leaving only a deep orange hue in the sky, reflected on the calm sea, then cut by the magic crystal lights of the port. A salty, slightly cool sea breeze blew through the Guild doors, stirring a few strands of Erza's fallen scarlet hair across her forehead.
Erza had not changed, still in her neat red trench coat, standing as straight as a pine. She had her back to the gradually lighting port, facing her Guild mates, holding a rolled-up magic parchment brief. The last rays of the setting sun outlined her heroic profile and illuminated the unwavering resolve in her eyes.
She ignored Happy's complaints and her comrades' varied expressions, unrolled the brief, and her voice was clear, steady, and distinct, like striking steel, every word clear:
"Mission Codename: Eclipse Operation · Curse Break."
"Mission Rank: S-Class." As those two words fell, a suppressed gasp and intake of breath instantly echoed through the hall.
"S-Class?!" Lucy's gasp was the loudest, with obvious shock and a hint of unease. "Can we… can we do it in our current state?" She subconsciously touched the keychain hanging at her waist, then thought of Christian, still slowly recovering in the sterile room. An S-Class mission was simply a fantasy for a newcomer.
"Aye! Lucy's voice changed from fright!" Happy swallowed his dried fish, chuckling mischievously to lighten the mood, but his small eyes also showed a hint of tension.
"Hmph. Just S-Class, that's all."
Natsu's fists instantly burst into roaring flames, his face showing pure excitement and a desire for challenge. "Demons or curses, just burn them all to ashes!"
Gray habitually crossed his arms and snorted coldly, his bare, muscular upper body seemingly unaffected by the sea breeze: "S-Class is just right for a warm-up. Ice will also solve all troubles."
The two rivals exchanged glances, sparks flying in their eyes; even the pressure of an S-Class mission became an excuse for rivalry.
"Analysis: S-Class mission… according to Guild database… survival rate statistics… significantly lower than… A-Class missions… average attrition rate nearly ninety percent…" A familiar voice, though still weak but at least coherent and stable, spoke. Everyone instantly looked at the source of the voice with surprise!
Beside Erza, a figure—Christian—whose volume had roughly recovered to the size of a basketball, whose deep blue colloid had regained its flowing luster, but whose core area still flickered with a faint blue light requiring precise instruments to assist its operation, floated silently in mid-air.
He didn't seem to be back to his best state, but he had clearly recovered from the brink of death as a "blue ore" to a "recovering Slime" with basic vitality, thanks to Porlyusica's special treatment and his own efforts.
Beneath the colloid, the core area was still externally connected to two extremely thin, almost transparent magic conduction threads, which led to a palm-sized small magic energy box on Erza's belt—that was a temporary external power supply unit provided by Porlyusica.
"Potential risk factors: unknown curse mechanism… high-level dark magic source… possible… hostile Mages… environmental abnormal interference…" Christian fluently listed the risk points, finally adding, "Recommendation: All personnel… combat power module self-check… status confirmation… resource supply point planning… emergency plan… prioritize… highest."
"Chris! You've regained consciousness! That's great!" Lucy was so excited she almost jumped, tears welling up in her eyes again.
"Barely… maintaining… basic functions… insufficient to… operate independently…" Christian's voice conveyed clear analytical logic, but also explicitly admitted his weakness. "During the mission… will need to rely on… Lady Lucy… and… the team's… defensive system." This was a testament to his trust in Lucy's abilities and an honest tactical requirement.
Erza looked at Christian, giving an almost imperceptible nod, acknowledging his analysis and current state. Then, the brief in her hand projected a magic display, unfolding into a detailed geographical and intelligence view in the air.
"Core Intelligence and Target Confirmation." Erza began her narration, concise and clear:
"Client: Moka, representative of Garna Island residents (identity verified by Mystogan's remote projection identity crystal, reliability A-Class).
Location: Isolated island in the outer sea of Three Moon Bay, northeast of the Kingdom.
Curse Phenomenon: Confirmed to exist. During fixed periods each month (key point: around the full moon night), under moonlight, island residents undergo widespread, indiscriminate beastial transformation (eyewitness reports recorded by enchanted videostones: individuals exhibit keratinized skin, grow bone spikes or fur, sharp teeth and claws, lose sanity, aggression skyrockets, varying forms, resembling mixtures of different species).
Lucy watched the grotesque and terrifying distorted human figures, raging and attacking under the moonlight in the projection, her face turning pale.
"Root Cause Analysis Clues (based on information provided by Moka and Elder Porlyusica's preliminary 'curse examination' inference): The core mechanism of the curse is highly suspected to be directly related to a certain 'secret ritual' regularly held within the abandoned temple in the center of the island. Ritual Codename: 'Moon Drip'."
"Final Mission Objective: Lift the Garna Island curse. Necessary Condition: Reach the island's central temple, ascertain the true nature of 'Moon Drip,' and interrupt its ritual operation." Erza raised her wrist, and the projection froze on a uniquely shaped, medium-sized magic-powered ship docked beside a port pier.
Erza paused, her scarlet hair tied back fluttering in the sea breeze, her words carrying a warning etched into her bones, "It has devoured S-Class elites!"
She said no more, turned, the hem of her red trench coat sweeping a sharp arc, pointing towards the port.
"All personnel! Board the ship! Depart!"