The banquet lasted until late at night, the liveliness only gradually fading away.
Natsu and Gray were fast asleep, slumped against each other with silly smiles on their faces. Gajeel, lying in the shadows of a corner, snored softly, a trace of grease still clinging to the corner of his mouth.
Lucy and Levy had fallen asleep leaning on each other's shoulders. A drunken Juvia clung to Cana's arm, while Laxus sat in his chair with his eyes closed, his posture still upright but his breathing steady and slow.
The Dragon Eaters were also sprawled out in various unseemly positions.
Hope looked at his companions scattered across the hall and then at Makarov, who was asleep on the table, and shook his head gently.
Mirajane leaned against Hope and asked, "Aren't you going to rest for a bit?"
"He doesn't need rest," Erza remarked from Hope's other side. "This guy's energy has always been incredibly boundless."
"It seems you know me well, Erza."
Hope leaned down to kiss the scarlet-haired girl and whispered into her ear, "Why don't we find a place where I can show you both exactly how boundless my energy is?"
A world for the three of them...
At the thought of the plots from the romance novels she'd read, Erza's face instantly flushed and her heart raced.
Mirajane was also slightly taken aback before she chuckled. "Either we all do it together, or no one does. No sneaking off, or I'm afraid Cana will be so angry tomorrow she'll unleash 'Fairy Glitter'."
"Heh..."
Hope recalled how, during the banquet, a drunken Cana had suddenly gone wild and almost used 'Fairy Glitter' to blow the place sky-high.
...
Early the next morning.
Hope explained to everyone that their next target was to subjugate the Wood Dragon God.
He had originally planned to send Makarov back to Ishgar first, but the old man wanted to catch up more with Reis, so he stayed at Diabolos for the time being.
Meanwhile, Kirin and the others planned to renovate the gloomy guild building. After all, the original decor looked too much like a Dark Guild's, and this was their way of saying a final goodbye to the old Dragon Devourer Guild.
Thus, only the original Hundred Year Quest team set out to subjugate the Dragon God.
After saying their goodbyes, Hope used 'Wings of Water.' Surrounded by swirling currents, he teleported the group to the central region of the Northern Continent.
In the blink of an eye, everyone arrived at their destination: the city of Drasil.
Before they even had time to marvel at the magic of spatial jumping, they were captivated by the sight before them.
It was a bustling city so vast that its boundaries were beyond sight. With its towering spires, scattered dwellings, crisscrossing streets, and swarms of people moving like ants, it clearly held its status as the most prosperous town in Giltina.
"There are so many people, Lucy."
"Aye!"
"Levy, there's a bookstore over here. Do you want this Great Me to accompany you?"
"Don't get lost, Wendy."
"Eh? Me?"
"Gray-sama, look! Such a cute bakery!"
"Laxus, don't keep such a stiff face."
"..."
Seeing how enthusiastic her companions were, Erza generously suggested they explore Drasil first and search for the Wood Dragon God once everyone had their fill of fun.
Hope had no objections. According to the information provided by Selene, the Wood Dragon God wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Unfortunately, before everyone could cheer, the entire city of Drasil suddenly experienced a violent tremor.
Erza made a judgment based on her intuition, "The ground is rising! Is it an earthquake?"
"What's going on with this city?!"
"By the way... the people here..."
Lucy ignored Natsu shouting beside her. She noticed that the pedestrians on the street were either sitting down where they were, hugging lamp posts, or even more extremely, just lying flat on the ground.
Faced with the earthquake, these locals even seemed to be in the mood to joke around, as if this natural disaster was something they were quite used to—so commonplace it wasn't even worth mentioning.
Mirajane asked a nearby elderly man, "Excuse me, sir, do earthquakes happen often here?"
"You must be travelers from out of town. Did you really come to Drasil without looking it up first?"
The old man sat on the ground, explaining with total composure, "We locals have been used to these vibrations for a long time. It's like an alarm clock, happening at the same time every day. But for those experiencing it for the first time, it can be a bit frightening."
"Every day at the same time?"
"Yes, but it'll be over in a moment."
The old man looked up, his eyes full of devotion. "As long as we pray silently to the Great Wood Divine Beast, everything will be fine..."
Hearing the mention of the Wood Divine Beast, everyone immediately thought of the Water God Dragon worshipped by the residents of Ermina. That Wood Divine Beast must be the Wood Dragon God.
Hope observed the faces of the residents of Drasil, noting a level of devotion that clearly surpassed even that of the Ermina residents for the Water God Dragon.
Could the Wood Dragon God also be following the same path as Melkobia?
But didn't Selene say the Wood Dragon God was an out-and-out Evil Dragon?
Was the information wrong, or...
"Everyone! Something's wrong here!" Lilly's voice came from above as he flew to observe. "The shape of this city is a giant palm!"
"That's right, it's a hand," the old man who had kindly answered them earlier said calmly. "The Drasil beneath our feet is built precisely on the back of Lord Aldoron the Wood Dragon God's right hand."
Upon hearing the Wood Dragon God's name, Hope immediately flew high into the sky.
He saw a massive dragon, as vast as a continuous mountain range, crouching on the ground. Drasil was situated on its right claw, and there were actually four more such towns!
The earthquake from earlier was merely the Wood Dragon God stretching.
Before such a colossal creature, humans were as insignificant as ants.
Hope returned to the ground and told the others what he had discovered.
Everyone was shocked. Although they hadn't seen the whole picture with their own eyes, the fact that a city as prosperous as Drasil occupied only the back of one of the Wood Dragon God's hands allowed them to imagine just how enormous his body must be.
Although they had some prior knowledge, the sheer scale of the creature far exceeded their expectations.
The good news: they had successfully found the Wood Dragon God.
The bad news: he was too big.
Even Hope found it a bit tricky. It wasn't that he couldn't defeat the Wood Dragon God, but the hundreds of thousands of people across the five towns on its body presented a massive problem.
If a fight broke out, relocating such a vast number of residents would be a daunting task for any Mage, and those hundreds of thousands of people also risked being used as hostages.
Fortunately, Hope had many skills at his disposal. After a moment's thought, he came up with a solution.
With a large-scale 'Sleep' magic combined with a wide-range 'Wings of Water,' he was certain he could teleport an entire town, people and all, to a safe location.
Using 'Enchantment,' Hope could attach the power of magic crystals to himself, so teleporting five towns in succession would place no burden on his own magic power.
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