"Hold it! Who dares trespass into the royal palace?"
A knight in silver armor stepped forward, flanked by soldiers with drawn weapons. The moment his eyes landed on the intruder, his expression tightened.
"So it's you."
Rowan Mercer. Fairy Tail's captain. The mage who had crushed five guilds in seconds earlier that day. The Kingdom's intelligence bureau had already classified him as Saint-tier.
Rowan lifted a paw and waved casually. "Good evening. And you are?"
The knight paused, then returned the gesture with a courteous smile.
"I am Arcadios, commander of the Sakura Holy Knights, charged with the defense of the palace. Sir Rowan, may I ask why you've entered restricted grounds without permission? If there's no urgent matter, I must ask you to leave."
If it had been anyone else, Arcadios would already have given the order to arrest them. The Eclipse Gate was the Kingdom's highest secret. No witnesses were permitted.
But this wasn't just anyone.
"It can't be that simple," Rowan replied, gesturing toward the massive door behind him. "During the tournament, I noticed something beneath the arena siphoning off magic. Turns out, it's this gate. I think I deserve to know why the royal family is harvesting the mana of every mage in the Kingdom."
His gaze sharpened.
"And if you don't feel like explaining, I can always explain it for you. I doubt the palace will enjoy being surrounded by angry mages tomorrow morning."
For the first time, the balance of power tilted.
Arcadios exhaled slowly. "Since you've noticed… then we have no choice."
He raised his hand. "Take him."
The soldiers surged forward.
Rowan cocked his head. "You honestly think ordinary soldiers can restrain me?"
Arcadios smiled, calm and confident. "Normally? Of course not. But near the Eclipse Gate, magic is meaningless."
He gestured toward the door. "This system absorbs all magic in its vicinity. Any mage who casts a spell here will be drained dry in seconds. Saint-tier or not, without magic, you're just a cat."
Rowan chuckled.
"Oh, so that's your trump card."
He shook his head. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"
As an alchemist, Rowan had already mapped the gate's properties. The mana drain was obvious. Impressive. Deadly, even.
For other mages.
Unfortunately for the Kingdom, Rowan was not built like other mages.
First, his core magic regenerated continuously. Even if the gate siphoned endlessly, it would never empty him completely. Second, his control was absolute. If he didn't want his mana leaking, it wouldn't. Third…
Even without magic, he didn't need it.
Psychic force. Electromagnetism. A body reinforced beyond reason.
And even ignoring all that, his physical strength alone was monstrous. Countless incarnations, countless battles, all compressed into a body small enough to sit on a shoulder.
A cat with the weight of an army behind every step.
"One. Two. Three…"
Rowan vanished.
He bounced from shoulder to shoulder, nothing more than a blur. Each landing came with a light tap of his tail.
By the time he finished counting, every soldier collapsed unconscious.
Rowan stood amid the fallen guards and glanced back at Arcadios.
"See? I don't need magic to dismantle you."
Arcadios drew his sword, eyes sharp. "Then I'll handle this myself."
He was no novice. His blade technique was among the finest in the Kingdom, refined to lethal precision even without enchantments.
Rowan spread his wings and floated forward.
"Oh, I almost forgot to mention," he said lightly. "The gate can't drain my magic unless I let it."
Arcadios froze.
Then, very slowly, he sheathed his sword.
"…In that case," he said stiffly, "perhaps we can resolve this through discussion."
Rowan didn't bother answering.
He vanished again and reappeared above Arcadios, placing a paw gently on the man's head.
A moment passed.
Then Rowan's eyes narrowed.
"So that's it," he murmured. "You're trying to kill Zeref. By rewriting history."
From Arcadios's memories, the truth unfolded.
The tournament existed to gather mana. All of it was meant to fuel the Eclipse Gate. Seven years from now, on the day of a lunar eclipse, the gate would open.
Using the power of the twelve Zodiac keys, the Kingdom planned to exploit the Celestial Realm's distorted time flow and send mages into the past.
A desperate gamble to erase Zeref before everything went wrong.
Rowan withdrew his paw, silent.
"…This just got a lot more complicated."