"Saint-tier. Absolutely Saint-tier."
As Rowan Mercer stepped down from the platform, the leaders of the major guilds wore the same expression. Kagura of Mermaid Heel. Ichiya of Blue Pegasus. Gajeel's former rivals from Sabertooth. Even Minerva had gone quiet.
The first bout had raised eyebrows. The next three erased doubt.
That tri-colored dragonfire had been felt even across the arena. It wasn't just heat. It was pressure. The kind that pressed against the soul.
"He's reached Saint-tier, hasn't he?" Lyon asked quietly, glancing at Jura beside him.
Jura clasped his hands together and slowly closed his eyes.
"Saint-tier… and not an ordinary one," he said at last. "If I'm right, this tournament may already be decided."
Among the Saint-tier mages, Jura ranked near the bottom. He had seen them all. And above them stood the four monsters of Ishgar, beings spoken of less as humans and more as calamities.
The strongest among them had been Acnologia's equal once. A dragon slayer who wielded multiple elements like divine authority itself.
When Rowan unleashed his dragon magic, the feeling had been disturbingly familiar.
Snow White of Lamia Scale waved her hands, trying to lighten the mood. "He's strong, sure, but we're not weak either. You're Saint-tier too, Jura. And we've got Lyon."
Jura didn't answer.
Across the arena, Gildarts' former rivals were far less optimistic.
"That cat…" the Sabertooth master muttered, anger laced with envy. "How can something like that exist?"
Minerva's lips curved faintly, eyes sharp with calculation.
"So what if he's Saint-tier? Strength without restraint is a flaw. Tomorrow's free-for-all will deal with him. Once everyone turns on him at once, even he won't hold."
Her father nodded, pride flickering across his face.
But Minerva's smile never reached her eyes.
Rowan didn't notice any of this.
As the cheers washed over him, his gaze drifted toward the royal palace. Something felt wrong.
When he'd released his dragon magic earlier, a subtle pull had tugged at the released mana. Not toward the sky. Not into the ground.
Toward the palace.
Now that the battles had ended, perched quietly on Levy's shoulder, he focused. It wasn't just his magic.
Every spell cast in the arena had bled power in the same direction.
Like something beneath the palace was drinking it.
"I'll check tonight," he murmured.
He wasn't invincible. There were still beings in this world he hadn't measured himself against. If something was being prepared behind the scenes, he needed to know before it bit back.
By nightfall, the team battles ended. Fairy Tail remained in first place. Sabertooth matched them point for point. The other defending guilds followed closely behind.
It had been enough to show everyone the truth.
Top-tier guilds weren't just better trained. They lived in a different world.
When the palace finally slept, Rowan vanished from the dormitory.
Invisible and silent, he followed the thread of siphoned mana past patrol routes and wards, slipping beneath the palace into a sealed underground chamber.
There, he found it.
A massive door, etched with twelve golden symbols.
The Zodiac.
Rowan circled it slowly, eyes narrowing.
The metal alone was priceless. Magical alloys layered with alchemy so refined it bordered on the alien. Techniques he hadn't seen even in ancient grimoires.
More troubling were the patterns woven into it.
Celestial magic. And beneath that, time.
"This door…" he whispered. "It's not just a seal."
The tournament wasn't the goal. It was the battery.
Every spell cast had been feeding this thing.
"An eclipse gate," Rowan muttered. "So what are you trying to open?"
He straightened, preparing to locate the king and read the answers directly from his memory.
Before he could act, a magic circle flared beneath his feet.
His invisibility shattered.
Footsteps echoed from every direction.
Rowan looked up.
A floating magical eye stared back at him from the ceiling.
"So that's it," he said calmly. "Surveillance magic. Clever."
If subtlety was gone, so be it.
He stretched once, power humming quietly beneath his skin.
"Guess we're doing this the loud way."
...
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