As the Queen knelt pitifully on the ground, everyone present fell into a stunned uproar.
Some stubborn Exceeds still called out to their Queen.
"What are you saying?! Use your Divine Power to eliminate these humans!"
"Yes! As long as Your Majesty's Divine Power protects us, we are still the divine race!"
"Please stand up! We beg you, Your Majesty!"
Queen Shagotte did not rise in response to their pleas.
Instead, she kept her head bowed and implored the terrifying mage before her:
"To divert Faust's obsession with Magic Power, it was indeed I who proposed the idea of extracting Magic Power from another world. I am the one who led your companions into dire straits, but my people knew nothing of this."
"I am willing to atone with my death. I only ask that you grant my people a chance to live."
Mystogan grabbed Laxus's arm.
He looked down at the kneeling Shagotte and asked solemnly.
"How do you know about Anima and Earthland? And if you have no combat abilities, how did you become Queen?"
Shagotte felt the bewildered and disbelieving stares of her people all around her.
She smiled bitterly and explained.
"The Exceed race is born with innate Magic Power, but we do not possess the superhuman combat abilities that Magic Power typically brings. On the contrary, our race is exceedingly weak. A powerful Exceed like Lily has not appeared in many years."
Lily looked at the Queen in surprise, never expecting Shagotte to mention him so openly.
"Although I do not possess formidable physical strength, I have the ability to foresee the future."
Beside Shagotte, an elderly cat who had been wearing a pained expression sighed.
"To protect the Exceeds from being hunted and domesticated as exotic pets by humans, we had Shagotte foresee the deaths of certain humans. Then, we deceived them into believing it was divine punishment, all to preserve ourselves."
"Over time, as Shagotte's prophecies came true one after another, humans grew fearful and began worshiping us as actual deities."
The four elderly cats beside Shagotte staggered to their knees, choking back tears as they pleaded.
"But these were all decisions made by the Elder Council! Shagotte is a good queen! If you seek revenge, Mage, please take the lives of us old bones instead!"
All the surrounding Exceeds, hearing the elders and Queen pleading for death, stood frozen as if struck by lightning, completely refusing to move.
"Our queen isn't a god?"
"We've always been a weak species?"
"How could this be! Your Majesty!"
The Exceeds, unable to accept the truth, cried out in total collapse.
Yet, seeing Shagotte's silent demeanor, they plunged even deeper into despair.
Soon, wails and panicked screams filled the air.
A race revered as gods had awakened to find themselves still mere ants, still facing the terrifying fate of being hunted and toyed with by humans.
This staggering gap and hopeless future created complete chaos.
Laxus had long since dispersed the light of Fairy Law.
His face was etched with unmistakable mockery, as if delighting in the foolish cats' panic.
"Serves them right."
After watching silently, Gajeel finally spat out a cold observation.
"Even if the Queen truly possessed Divine Power, did they think she was immortal? That she could protect them forever?"
"They are too weak to recognize their own weakness. Blinded by their leaders' lies without seeking the truth. Deceiving themselves... utterly foolish."
He then immediately grinned at Lily. "Not you, Lily! Though you are an Exceed, you are different from them."
Lily gave him a weary look but nodded. "You're not wrong. They were indeed deceiving themselves. The Queen's strategy protected them, but... it bred blind arrogance in our people. Really..."
Lily trailed off, unable to find the right words.
The elders, noticing him, bowed their heads and murmured.
"When we exiled Lily from Extalia, it was because he saved humans. We feared Shagotte's secret would be exposed, so we took matters into our own hands... we did something truly heartbreaking."
Lily turned away without looking at them—what was done couldn't be undone by empty apologies.
"You think this is over?" Laxus's cold voice cut through the cats' self-absorbed panic.
His words made them realize the gravity of their situation: without their so-called Divine Power, the immense Magic Power this human had displayed earlier could single-handedly wipe out all of Extalia.
Every cat's life hung on one man's whim.
Laxus turned, pointing at Happy and Carla behind him and spoke gravely, "Because of you, these two foolish cats of mine were abandoned in Earthland and forced to become orphans."
Carla, who had been restless all along and was being shielded by Happy, suddenly found strength from somewhere.
She rushed before Queen Shagotte while shouting.
"That's right! You made the decision on your own to send me to Earthland, and you implanted the mission target of killing the Dragon Slayer Mages right into my mind! All the pain I've endured over these years—is that something a 'good queen' would do?!"
Queen Shagotte looked at the tearful Carla, suppressing the tremor in her heart as she lowered her head and said.
"Actually, several years ago, I foresaw that Extalia... would fall and perish."
The surroundings sank into an even deeper layer of despair.
Almost all the cats believed this would be the doing of the human before them—that humans had discovered the Exceeds' deception and, in a fit of rage, annihilated the entire Exceed race.
Laxus, of course, didn't think this way.
He suddenly furrowed his brow.
Destroy Extalia?
To put it bluntly, an enraged Laxus was certainly capable of doing it.
But... there was no need.
Just like before, an emotionally uncontrolled Laxus could easily send all the Exceeds to the feline afterlife with a single Raging Bolt.
'So, are there still enemies to come? Had Ankh not resolved things on his end?'
Laxus fell into deep thought, while Carla, too distraught to care about such matters, continued shouting.
"So what?!"
Queen Shagotte went on.
"After realizing this future was inevitable, the elders and I discussed the matter and made a decision—to send a hundred unborn children still in their eggs to Earthland via Anima, preserving the last bloodline of the Exceed race."
A cat nearby suddenly understood and exclaimed, "But at the time, the Queen said..."
"That's right." Queen Shagotte's eyes dimmed as she said, "I publicly declared that sending a hundred children to Earthland was to deal with the otherworldly monsters—the Dragon Slayer Mages."
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