The wind of Garna Island, carrying the salty tang of seawater and the scent of gunpowder from battle, swept over the charred ruins of the temple. Sunlight pierced through the smoke and dust, illuminating the edge of the deep crater.
Lucy knelt on the rubble, her palm cradling a deep blue fragment, now only the size of a thumb, covered in spiderweb-like cracks, its light completely extinguished.
The touch was cold and dead, like the hardest mineral, yet so fragile it seemed it could shatter with a squeeze. Tears fell silently, dripping onto the fragment's surface, instantly evaporating without a trace.
"Christian..." Lucy's voice choked.
Erza stood to the side. Her Adamantine Armor was dispelled, her trench coat torn and dusty. She looked at the fragment in Lucy's palm, her heroic face expressionless, but her knuckles, gripping her sword hilt, were slightly white. "He... completed his mission," her voice was low, with an almost imperceptible hoarseness. "As a member of Fairy Tail... he fought to the very end."
"Aye..." Happy's ears drooped as he landed on Lucy's shoulder.
Gray struggled to his feet, his face still ashen despite Horologium's starlight healing. He looked at the fragment, a flicker of pain and respect in his ice-blue eyes. "This bond... will not disappear."
"Ugh..." Nearby, Natsu lay sprawled on the rubble, his back charred, his consciousness blurry, letting out unconscious groans. Taurus's massive form had long since dissipated.
"We must... return to the Guild immediately!" Erza forcefully suppressed her emotions, resuming her leader's demeanor. "Natsu is severely injured! Gray is overdrawn! Lucy... you also need rest! Happy! Contact Ms. Porlyusica! Prepare for the highest level of treatment!"
"Aye! Understood!" Happy flapped his wings and flew up, pulling out a communication lacrima.
"Let's go!" Erza crouched down, carefully carrying the unconscious Natsu on her back. Gray gritted his teeth and propped himself up. With trembling hands, Lucy carefully placed the deep blue fragment into a velvet pouch close to her body, tying it tightly around her waist. The cold touch permeated through the fabric, like a final solace.
The team began their journey home. Each step was exceptionally heavy. The cost of victory was etched into everyone's wounds and hearts.
____
Magnolia. Fairy Tail Guild.
The main doors were flung open! The boisterous Guild instantly fell silent!
Erza entered, carrying the charred and unconscious Natsu on her back! Gray stumbled in, supported by Lucy! Happy circled anxiously!
"Natsu?! Gray?!" Macao exclaimed.
"Lucy!" Mirajane immediately rushed forward.
"Ms. Porlyusica!" Erza urgently called out.
A side door in the Guild's corner opened. Porlyusica (Granny Porlyusica) walked out quickly, a medicine box floating behind her. Her sharp gaze swept over the injured, finally landing on the velvet pouch at Lucy's waist, her brow imperceptibly furrowing. "Bring them to the back! Quickly!"
Inside the treatment room, the fresh scent of herbs permeated the air.
Porlyusica's fingertips glowed with a emerald light as she examined Natsu's charred back wound. "Magical energy impact... internal organ tremors... Dragon's constitution saved his life... but he needs complete rest." Green light flowed, and gentle healing magic seeped in.
Gray lay on another bed, his Cold Air weak. "Life force overdrawn... Ice-Make backlash deep into his bones..." Another healing spell from Porlyusica fell, suppressing the Cold Air backlash. "His willpower... is quite tenacious."
Lucy sat in a corner chair, her hands clasped on her lap, the velvet pouch at her waist cold and hard. She looked at her companions' grim state and thought of Christian, who had turned into fragments, her heart clenching.
"Little Dried Fish..." Aquarius's voice echoed in her mind, with a rare somber tone. "That devourer... what a pity."
"Lucy-chan," Horologium's voice also came, "His will... will become a star... guiding your path."
Lucy nodded softly, biting her lip.
After treating the injured, Porlyusica washed her hands. She walked in front of Lucy and held out her hand. "That... fragment. Let me see it."
Lucy paused, then carefully untied the velvet pouch and placed it in Porlyusica's palm. The old woman's withered fingers picked up the deep blue fragment, bringing it close to her eyes. In the dim light, the cracked fragment reflected no light whatsoever.
"Completely dead?" Porlyusica's voice was flat.
Lucy's heart twinged. "Yes..."
Porlyusica said nothing. A tiny probing light gathered at her fingertip, covering the fragment. Green light flowed over every crack. Suddenly, her fingertip paused imperceptibly! An extremely rare look of surprise flashed across her withered face!
"Hmm?" Porlyusica narrowed her eyes, bringing the fragment even closer, almost touching it to her eye.
That probing green light... deep within the fragment... at the end of a subtle crack... seemed to have captured... a trace... so faint as to be almost nonexistent... yet extremely resilient... energy pulsation?!
It wasn't residual magic! Nor was it a curse! It was a... core will... pure to the extreme... resisting complete annihilation? As if dormant... yet also... silently absorbing something?
Porlyusica calmly withdrew the probing green light. "Just a common... magic ore fragment," she said, tossing the fragment back into Lucy's hand, her tone returning to its usual coldness. "Keep it safe. Don't lose it."
Lucy numbly took it, looking at the still lifeless fragment. Was the granny's remark meant as comfort? She didn't know.
Porlyusica turned to prepare potions, her back to Lucy, but in the depths of her cloudy eyes, a storm of turbulent thoughts raged.
Devouring magic... could a core will remain in such a fragment? This form of existence... unheard of! What was that fragment absorbing? Air? Light? Or... life force? I must... observe!
Late at night. The Guild was quiet. Only the steady breathing of the injured remained in the treatment room.
Lucy had fallen asleep by Natsu's bedside, tear stains still on the corners of her eyes. The velvet pouch at her waist came undone, and the deep blue fragment slipped out, falling onto the cold floor.
Moonlight streamed through the high window, illuminating the fragment.
On the fragment's surface, deep within those spiderweb-like cracks, a faint, imperceptible, ethereal blue light. Extremely slow. Extremely weak. Like a dormant ember, it flickered once.
Around the fragment, the faint magical particles floating in the air... as if drawn by an invisible vortex... silently... entered the fragment.
Being absorbed.
Being transformed.
Becoming the fuel... for that ember.
Inside the fragment, the dormant data core. A bottom-level instruction was activated: [Energy absorption... lowest power... initiating... core logic repair... 0.0001%...]
In a dark corner, a pair of invisible eyes seemed to be watching it all.