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The morning inside the new Fairy Tail hall started with a loud explosion.
Yuri and Precht were arguing over who got the last piece of fried bacon. Yuri's hand flared with yellow lightning, and Precht used a quick flash of his weight magic. SLAM. The gravity around Yuri's plate suddenly multiplied by ten, causing the entire breakfast to violently crash straight down onto the table, splashing grease and eggs everywhere. Normally, a fight like that between two mages would have blasted a hole straight through a wooden house. But the moment the lightning hit the wood, the blue runes hidden under the floorboards flared softly.
The blast turned into a tiny yellow spark that didn't even leave a black smudge, and the table didn't even crack. The internal 90% damage dampening enchantment worked like a charm.
"Hey! Stop wrecking the breakfast!" Warrod yelled, trying to save his own toast from the flying grease.
"Tell grump-face to keep his gravity to himself!" Yuri snapped, his knuckles still fizzing with yellow sparks.
I was sitting at the master's table next to Mavis, casually sipping a cup of hot tea. Mavis wasn't even looking at the boys. She was staring at a heavy parchment document with a bright red wax seal sitting on the table. It had the official stamp of the newly formed Magic Council.
"What's that, blonde-y?" I asked, leaning over. "Did the Council finally send the legal registry paperwork?"
"No," Mavis murmured, her brow furrowing as her large eyes scanned the text. "It's a special request. A high-priority mission. The Council discovered an ancient dungeon hidden under the northern cliffs. They sent an elite squad of their new Rune Knights to clear it out last week to show off their authority. Their top three script mages spent twelve hours trying to break the front seal, and it almost blew their arms off before they failed. Horribly. Only three knights made it out alive."
Precht stopped glaring at Yuri, his ears perking up at the word dungeon. "The Council's elite squad failed? What's inside?"
"The report says the ruins are locked by an ancient, indestructible magical seal," Mavis explained, tracing her finger over the text. "And the inside is guarded by animated stone knights and gargoyles that eat standard magic. The Council wants us to clear it because we handled Blue Skull. They're offering a massive reward, but they specifically warned us that the layout is incredibly hostile."
I took a peek at the coordinates written at the bottom of the page. My jaw twitched as I tried not to burst out laughing.
The Labyrinth of the Iron King.
"Oh, man," I thought, taking another sip of tea to hide my grin. "Solomon, is that the one from the second century?"
[...Did you seriously forget your own layout? Yes, Merlin. It's the Labyrinth of the Iron King. The one you built because you were too lazy to farm materials manually. Honestly, my database is carrying your memory at this point.]
"What's the prize at the bottom again?" I asked mentally.
[The Codex of Heaven's Wrath. Contains the full orbital logic and blueprint code for the Etherion Satellite Matrix. Please tell me you aren't going to let these Council amateurs have it.]
I chuckled under my breath. I remembered writing that book. Two hundred years ago, I got completely bored, sat in a cave, and spent a month mapping out the mathematical code for an orbital laser strike just to see if I could do it. Then I stuffed the notebook in a chest at the bottom of a brutal dungeon and completely forgot about it. Now the newly formed Council had accidentally stumbled onto my old sandbox project, gotten their teeth kicked in, and were paying me to go clean my own basement.
I reached across the table, grabbed the document, and tore it right out of Mavis's hands.
"Alright, I'll take this one," I said, standing up and spinning Odin's staff. "It sounds like a fun little walk."
"You're going alone?" Mavis blinked.
"Nah, I'm taking the bag-carrier," I grinned, pointing the tip of my staff straight at Warrod's nose. "Get your boots on, greenie. You're coming with me."
Warrod almost choked on his tea. "Me?! But those Council knights almost died in there! Why can't Yuri go? He's the one who likes hitting things!"
"Because Yuri is too loud, and you need to practice your earth anchoring," I said, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and pulling him out of his chair. "Move it. Let's go see what the Council is crying about."
The journey to the northern cliffs took us a couple of hours. The entrance to the dungeon was cut deep into the side of a grey mountain, surrounded by jagged rocks and dead trees. The Magic Council had set up a perimeter, leaving a bunch of broken iron spears, shattered shields, and bloody bandages scattered in the dirt. A massive stone door, easily thirty feet high, blocked the cavern. The surface of the stone was completely covered in thick, glowing red chains of magical energy,the ancient seal.
Warrod stopped a few feet away, his legs shaking a bit as he looked at the angry red glow. "Wow. Look at the Ethernano density on that thing. It feels completely toxic. Merlin, are you sure we can just walk up to it?"
"That's because they don't know how to read a lock," I said, walking right up to the massive stone door.
I didn't draw a magic circle. I didn't use an unpacking spell. I just leaned my staff against my shoulder, lifted my right hand, and pressed my palm firmly against the center of the red seal.
Solomon, use the biometric bypass code from the second century. Admin override.
[Bypass successful. Though I must remind you, your choice of an admin password two hundred years ago remains incredibly immature. The door is opening.]
BEEP.
The thick, glowing red chains of magic didn't explode. They just turned green, hummed softly, and then completely dissolved into thin air like mist. The massive thirty-foot stone doors groaned, grinding against the mountain rock as they slowly swung open on their own, revealing a pitch-black tunnel that smelled like ancient dust and cold stone.
Warrod's eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of his skull. He looked at the door, then at my hand, his mouth wide open. "What... what did you just do?! You just touched it! The Council report said it was an absolute nightmare to bypass!"
"The Council is dumb, Warrod," I laughed, strolling into the dark tunnel without even looking back. "It's not a nightmare hex. It's just a door that requires good manners. Come on, keep up."
The inside of the labyrinth was brutal. The walls were made of smooth, dark iron-stone that didn't have a single seam. The deeper we walked, the more the air felt heavy and cold.
"Stay on my heels, greenie," I warned, my casual voice dropping just a bit as my Eyes of Gilgamesh started spinning in the dark. "Don't touch the floor tiles unless I step on them first."
We reached a massive, vaulted chamber. The ceiling was so high it was lost in the shadows, but as soon as our boots hit the center of the room, a loud, grinding sound echoed from the walls.
SCREECH.
High above us, perched on stone pillars, four massive shapes started to move. They were animated gargoyles, carved out of solid obsidian stone, with wingspans the size of small carriages. Their eyes suddenly flared with a cruel, glowing purple light. They let out a dry, rocky roar and dived straight down toward us, their stone claws scraping against the air.
"Merlin! Above us!" Warrod yelled, panic flaring in his voice. He instinctively raised his hands, trying to channel his Green Magic. "Rise—!"
"Don't bother," I snapped, catching his wrist before he could push his Ethernano into the floor. "Look at their hides. Those are Obsidian Gargoyles. They have an active magic-consumption aura. If you throw a root at them, they'll just eat the Ethernano right out of your spell and grow twice as big. Your magic is just a snack to them."
"Then how do we hit them if they eat magic?!" Warrod squeaked, ducking as the first gargoyle swooped down, its stone claws missing his head by an inch.
"You don't hit them with spells. You hit them with physical code," I said, a massive grin splitting my face.
I spun Odin's staff in a tight circle and slammed the heavy butt of it into the marble floor. BOOM. A gigantic, blinding golden magic circle exploded across the entire floor of the chamber, written in pure, glowing primordial runes.
I thought an entire line of code into the system, chanting it silently in my head as the letters linked together across the stones:
ᚹᛖᚱᚳᛖᚾ ᛋᛏᚨᚾ ᚳᚾᛁᚻᛏᚾᛖᛋᛋ ᛋᛏᚱᛚᛁᚳ ᚨᚾᛞ ᚠᚨᛋᛏ
Out of the solid iron-stone walls and the floor, a hundred massive runic stone knights violently erupted into existence. They were absolutely huge—twice the size of the Council's worst nightmares, glowing with gold runic veins. They moved with blinding, impossible speed.
The obsidian gargoyles didn't even know what hit them. They tried to open their mouths to suck the magic away, but the runic knights didn't use active energy spells. Their giant stone broadswords were enchanted with a physical rule.
SLASH. SHATTER.
The knights moved like a golden blur through the air. Their swords sliced through the obsidian gargoyles like they were made of soft butter. Because the strike was pure physical weight and runic acceleration, the gargoyles couldn't absorb a single drop. In less than five seconds, the four terrifying monsters were completely shredded, turning into a massive pile of harmless black gravel on the floor.
The hundred runic knights stood perfectly still in a neat line, their glowing swords resting on the ground.
Warrod fell backward onto his butt, his hands shaking as he stared at the army of giant golden knights. His voice was completely gone. He just pointed a shaky finger at them, his eyes wide as dinner plates. "A... hundred? You just summoned a hundred giant knights without even blinking? And they... they deleted them!"
"Told you, greenie," I laughed, spinning my staff casually. "It's all about how you write the code. Come on, let's keep moving."
We walked through a narrow corridor. The hundred runic knights marched right behind us, their heavy stone steps shaking the walls. Ahead of us, the path opened into a long, grand hallway lined with life-sized stone statues of knights in full plate armor. The moment our feet crossed the threshold, the statues' stone joints cracked.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
Twenty animated stone knights stepped off their pedestals, their blank stone faces turning toward us, raising heavy iron broadswords.
"Alright, boys, hold back," I called out to my golden runic army. The hundred giant knights instantly halted, standing like an unmovable wall. I looked down at Warrod, popping a nut into my mouth. "These guys are just heavy. My boys are sitting this one out, green-hair. This is your test. Show me what your iron roots can do."
Warrod swallowed hard, looking at the stone soldiers marching toward him in perfect, terrifying sync. "Fine. No running away this time."
He stepped past me, his eyes turning fierce. He slammed both hands firmly onto the dark stone floor, his green aura exploding around his boots so violently it blew his hair straight up.
"Rise!" he yelled.
RUMBLE!
The entire hallway violently buckled. Five massive, emerald-green roots erupted from the stones right beneath the marching knights. Warrod bared his teeth, channeling his reinforced Ethernano into the bark. Enchant: Iron Wood!
The roots instantly turned a dark, shiny, metallic green. One massive root whipped across the hallway like a giant baseball bat, slamming into the front rank of knights. CRUNCH! The sheer physical force shattered three of the stone soldiers into flying splinters of rock. Another root shot straight up, wrapping around the legs of four knights, anchoring itself deep into the bedrock, and then violently twisting—snapping the stone legs off at the knees.
The remaining knights tried to bring their iron broadswords down to hack through the wood, but Warrod's reinforced roots were too tough. The swords just sparked against the bark, leaving shallow dents. With a loud roar, Warrod clenched his fists, and the giant roots completely slammed together like a massive fist, crushing the last of the animated stone knights into a pile of grey gravel.
The hallway went completely quiet again, filled with nothing but dust and the smell of broken stone. Warrod fell to one knee, panting heavily, sweat dripping off his chin, but he was grinning.
"I... I broke them," he breathed, looking at his shaking hands. "The iron wood worked."
"Not bad, kid," I said, walking past him and ruffling his messy green hair. "Your density is getting better. But don't lay down yet. We just reached the boss arena."
At the end of the hallway stood a massive, circular chamber made of polished black marble. In the very center of the room, sitting on a high stone pedestal, was a small, dusty chest made of ancient cosmic wood. But standing right in front of that chest was the final guardian.
It was an animated stone dragon.
It wasn't a real dragon—it was a terrifying, fifty-foot-tall construct carved out of solid, grey mountain granite. It didn't have flesh or scales, just massive, jagged plates of stone that looked like armor. Its wings were solid sheets of rock, and its jaw was lined with teeth as sharp as swords. The moment we walked in, the dragon's hollow chest flared with a blinding, dark purple Ethernano core.
ROOOOAR!
The rocky roar was so loud it created a literal shockwave of wind that pushed us back. The stone dragon slammed its massive tail against the floor, shattering the black marble, its purple eyes locking right onto us.
"Holy crap," Warrod whispered, his face turning completely pale. "That thing is huge. It feels... it feels as heavy as a fortress."
"Yeah, I went a bit overboard with this one," I muttered, spinning Odin's staff. "Solomon, status check on the core."
[Analysis complete. The granite dragon's armor is maxed out. You went completely overboard when you programmed this thing, Merlin. If you try to punch it normally, you're going to break your hand. I suggest using a rune chain before you embarrass us in front of your student.]
"Alright, greenie, stay back," I said, stepping right in front of him. "This one is a bit too heavy for a baby sprout. Let me show you how a master handles a sandbox glitch."
The stone dragon dived forward, its massive granite claws coming down to crush me into paste. It was incredibly fast for something made of rock.
I didn't move. I didn't even raise my staff. I just waited until the claw was an inch from my face.
Space Magic: Fold.
Pop.
The space between me and the dragon completely warped. The giant granite claw hit nothing but empty air, the spatial distortion redirecting the force of the strike straight into the floor behind me, blowing a massive crater into the black marble. I appeared instantly right above the dragon's head, floating in the air.
"Hey, rock-head! Your reaction time is trash!" I called out.
The stone dragon spun its massive neck around, its giant granite jaws snapping shut right where I was floating. But I was already gone. Pop. I landed perfectly right on its stone spine, right above the pulsing purple core.
I slammed my bare hand flat against the rock armor plating. "Time to rewrite the file, lizard-breath."
I didn't use an active energy spell. I literally drove an entire linked line of primordial runes straight through the granite hide, chaining the commands directly into the glowing core:
ᛁᛋᚨ ᚻᚨᚷᚨᛚᚨᛉ ᛞᚨᚷᚨᛉ ᚠᚱᛖᛋ ᚻᚱᛖᛟᛋᚾ ᛋᛏᚨᚾ
The whole line executed like a brutal chain reaction. The first runes triggered absolute stasis, locking the Ethernano engine. The middle runes forced a violent internal structural disruption that vibrated the granite molecules until they cracked. The final runes executed the transformation rule.
HUMMMMMM.
The bright purple light inside the dragon's chest instantly flickered and turned grey. The monster froze mid-thrash, its jaw stuck open. A massive web of deep cracks shot out across its entire fifty-foot body, glowing with a soft gold light.
CRUMBLE.
The massive stone dragon didn't explode. Because of the full sentence of the rune chain, it literally just dissolved, turning into a massive, twenty-foot pile of harmless, fine grey sand that spilled silently across the black marble floor.
Warrod slowly walked out from behind a pillar, his eyes staring at the massive pile of sand, completely dumbfounded. "You... you just turned a giant monster into a beach."
"It's all about efficiency, greenie," I laughed, walking up the steps of the pedestal. I reached out and opened the dusty cosmic wood chest. Sitting inside was a single, ancient leather notebook covered in my own messy handwriting from two centuries ago.
The Codex of Heaven's Wrath. The blueprint for the Etherion Cannon.
I picked it up, flipped through the pages, seeing the messy orbital math formulas I'd drawn while bored on a Tuesday. I let out a short chuckle and tossed the heavy book straight to Warrod, who caught it against his chest.
"Here, carry this," I told him, walking past him toward the exit. "The Council wanted the dungeon cleared, and we cleared it. They can have their report, but this notebook stays with us. It's too dangerous for those bureaucrats anyway."
Warrod looked down at the ancient book, then looked back at the empty, ruined chamber. "Merlin... who built this place? The runes, the bypass codes... you knew exactly how every trap worked before it even triggered."
I stopped at the doorway, turned around, and gave him that classic, goofy fanfic smile. "Who knows? Maybe it was some ancient, handsome sage who had too much free time three hundred years ago. Come on, greenie. Let's go see if Yuri left any of that smoked ham in the new guild pantry. I'm still starving."
Warrod stared at me for a second, sighed, and shook his head, tightly clutching the ancient book as he ran to keep up with my steps. The dungeon was cleared, the cheat code loot was secured, and the era of Fairy Tail was officially rolling.
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If you want to read an extra chapter ahead, go check out the p@treon
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