Chapter 329: The Way to Save the Village

Fairy Tail is currently the most prestigious Mage Guild in the Kingdom of Fiore.

Among adventurers, there are many different kinds of guilds, such as Treasure Hunter Guilds and Mercenary Guilds. Because they lack magic power in their bodies, they cannot use magic, but by training their physical bodies and Martial Skills, along with some weapons, they can also defeat some Mages.

Since most Mages do not heavily physically train their bodies, these people might be dealt with instantly by their opponents before they can even cast a spell.

But these two types of guilds are actually just the rejects who didn't have the magical potential to become Mages. If someone has the aptitude to become a Mage, who wouldn't join a Mage Guild?

The Mage Guilds are undoubtedly far superior to these two types of guilds.

Under the nationwide festival known as the Grand Magic Games, the attention on Mages has reached its absolute peak.

Who in the Kingdom of Fiore doesn't know Fairy Tail now? Who doesn't know Ren?

"No way, even if you are from the legendary Fairy Tail, we won't give it to you!"

The sniper of Sylph Labyrinth sneered, tightly clutching the small glass bottle of Moon Drip to his chest. His goggles glinted in the pale light reflecting off the frozen village.

"You dare call us simple thieves? I think you Fairy Tail Mages are more like arrogant bandits!" the giant hammer user, Lala, roared in agreement. "Forcing hardworking people to hand over super rare treasures they worked so hard to collect! Super!"

So what if they knew the other party was from Fairy Tail? They were the absolute elites of the Sylph Labyrinth Treasure Hunter Guild. In their minds, they had absolutely no problem dealing with a few arrogant Mages who relied too heavily on flashy spells.

"I need to save this frozen Village, so I'm really sorry about this."

Natsu said calmly, his onyx eyes narrowing as he looked at the hostile treasure hunters standing in front of him. He wasn't in the mood to play games while innocent giants were trapped in ice.

Bang—!

Natsu forcefully stomped his foot against the frozen earth, shattering the thick layer of magical ice beneath his sandals. Using the explosive kinetic energy, his body blurred and quickly rushed directly in front of the three men.

"What?!"

Swordsman Hong and the giant hammer user Lala gasped in sheer disbelief. They hadn't even registered his movement before Natsu's burning presence arrived right in their faces.

"Take this, you brat!"

Swordsman Hong reacted purely on instinct. He swung the massive steel blade in his hand with all his physical might, slashing viciously toward Natsu's unprotected neck.

But the moment the cold steel blade touched the very edge of Natsu's skin, a terrifying wave of draconic heat erupted from the Mage's body. In a fraction of a second, Swordsman Hong's heavy sword completely melted away.

"What?! My... my sword!!"

Swordsman Hong shrieked, his eyes bulging out of his skull. He couldn't believe what he was seeing; his prized weapon had turned into liquid slag, dripping harmlessly onto the freezing ground. Just how absurdly high was the temperature of this kid's flames?

Seeing his comrade disarmed instantly, the giant hammer user Lala immediately raised his massive weapon to attack from behind.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Natsu didn't even turn around. He simply ignited his right fist with roaring crimson flames and punched backward, directly meeting the descending hammer head-on.

Crack————!!

Lala's prized weapon, which was forged from reinforced steel and could originally withstand powerful magical attacks, shattered into countless blazing fragments with a deafening bang.

"My super hammer!! It's ruined!!" Lala cried out, falling to his knees as the shockwave threw him backward.

Bang!

Taking advantage of the chaos, Sniper Drake aimed his customized rifle from a distance and fired a high-velocity magic bullet straight at Natsu's head.

But as soon as the deadly projectile entered Natsu's thermal domain, the intense, blazing aura radiating from the Dragon Slayer caused the bullet to melt into a harmless splash of liquid lead before it could even touch him.

"How can this be possible?! The bullet actually melted mid-air..." Sniper Drake stammered, his hands trembling violently as he tried to chamber another round.

"Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!"

Lucy's clear voice rang out across the frozen courtyard. A brilliant golden light illuminated the icy mist, accompanied by the chiming of a celestial bell.

Shoo————!

In the very next instant, a perfectly aimed arrow streaked through the air and shot directly down the narrow muzzle of Sniper Drake's gun.

Crack!

The arrowhead expanded upon impact, directly and permanently destroying the internal mechanisms of Sniper Drake's prized rifle. The expensive weapon splintered in his hands, rendering it completely useless.

Sagittarius stood tall behind Lucy, maintaining his flawless archery stance despite wearing a bizarre horse costume. "Moshi moshi, I am also a master of the bow, hello."

"Great job, Sagittarius!"

Lucy said happily, offering a bright smile to her reliable Celestial Spirit.

"Alright, playtime is over. If you don't want to get seriously hurt, hand over the item right now."

Natsu cracked his knuckles, looking at the three trembling treasure hunters triumphantly. His fists were still wreathed in flickering, terrifying flames.

Before, because his opponents were ordinary people without magic, Natsu had been somewhat dismissive and hadn't used much of his true strength. But seeing that they had some decent martial skill and tricky weapons, he decided to apply a bit more passive draconic power.

There was still an insurmountable, terrifying gap between ordinary people and true Fairy Tail Mages.

"Here! Just take it!"

Swordsman Hong obediently handed over the small bottle of Moon Drip, his hands shaking like leaves in a hurricane. Natsu had destroyed their life's work and weapons with such terrifying ease that it had truly terrified them to their very souls.

"Great! We finally got it!!" Natsu cheered, instantly dropping his intimidating aura and grinning like a child.

"Now we can go rescue those giants from this awful ice!" Happy flew up into the air, doing a happy little spin.

"Aye!!"

Natsu, Lucy, and Happy completely ignored the three broken men on the ground and turned their backs, walking cheerfully toward the center of the frozen Village.

"It's totally over! Not only did we fail to get the super Eternal Flame, but we also lost the super secret treasure, the Moon Drip," Sniper Drake sobbed, burying his face in his hands.

"Not just the Moon Drip, but also our expensive weapons... super dong—!" Lala wept bitterly, looking at the shattered handle of his hammer.

"Is this the true, monstrous strength of the Grand Magic Games winning guild, Fairy Tail?!"

The three of them were close to tears, their pride completely shattered. They didn't expect to be so horribly unlucky as to run into the continent's strongest guild on this remote mission.

A short while later, Natsu and the others navigated through the towering, frozen structures until they saw Ren standing calmly in front of a massive iceberg.

"Ren!!"

"We got it!! We really got the Moon Drip!!"

"The Giant Village is totally saved now!!"

The three of them ran excitedly toward Ren, holding the glowing violet bottle high in the air as if it were the ultimate prize.

Suddenly!

Natsu's sandal caught on an exceptionally smooth patch of magical ice. His foot violently slipped out from under him, sending him tumbling forward.

In agonizing slow motion, the precious glass bottle in his hand flew out into the air.

"Noooo...!" Lucy screamed, her eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated horror as she reached out a futile hand.

Crack————!!

The small glass bottle fell onto the hard, frozen ground and shattered instantly. The glowing violet liquid of the Moon Drip splashed uselessly across the icy dirt.

"It broke—!!"

Natsu, Happy, and Lucy all froze in place, utterly dumbfounded. The color completely drained from their faces, leaving them looking like comical, pale ghosts.

"It's over!! We're doomed!!" Happy cried, clutching his head in despair.

They had been thinking that they finally obtained the legendary Moon Drip and could successfully complete this bizarre S-Class mission. They didn't expect such a stupid, incredibly avoidable accident to occur at the very last second.

"Wait... but... look!"

Lucy suddenly noticed something strange and pointed down at the shattered remains of the glass bottle.

The potent Moon Drip had completely spilled onto the ground, covering a decent area of the magical ice. However, only a remarkably tiny, insignificant patch of the frost had actually melted away.

Happy flew closer and inspected the spot. He also sighed and said, "Only that tiny little bit of ice melted. There's so much colossal ice here covering entire mountains; we absolutely couldn't save the Giant Village with just this tiny amount of Moon Drip anyway."

Hearing that, Natsu let out a massive sigh of relief, instantly recovering from his guilt. "Oh, thank goodness! So it wasn't my fault after all!"

"Eh, wait a second. Who is this guy? Is he a companion of those treasure hunters we just beat up?"

At this point, the three of them finally noticed a massive, imposing figure collapsed on the frozen ground not far from where Ren was standing.

"This guy... has been completely taken out!!"

Several people walked over and noticed a horrifying, perfectly round hole blasted straight through the man's chest. The wound was cauterized cleanly, and his entire person had completely lost the aura of life. His eyes were rolled back, his face frozen in a mask of sheer terror.

Who was this demonic-looking guy, and what had he done to make Ren actually kill him without hesitation?

"His name was Doriath. He was a subordinate working under Tartaros," Ren stated calmly, his hands tucked casually into his pockets as if he had just swatted a mildly annoying fly.

Ren hadn't heard clearly exactly which dark guild Doriath officially belonged to—Succubus Eye or otherwise—and even if he had, he wouldn't have bothered to remember it. To him, they were all just stepping stones.

"Tartaros?!!"

Happy and Lucy were both startled when they heard this ominous name. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran down Lucy's spine.

"Tartaros... what's that? Sounds like a weird type of sauce," Natsu muttered, scratching the side of his head with a look of genuine confusion.

"Natsu, you idiot! Tartaros is one of the strongest Dark Guilds in the entire Balam Alliance!" Lucy yelled, waving her hands frantically. "Along with Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart, they make up the three pillars of the Balam Alliance that rule the underworld. Have you seriously forgotten?!"

Lucy had only been a naive newcomer back when they fought the Oración Seis, but after surviving Tenrou Island against Grimoire Heart, she was now considered a veteran Mage. She wasn't a complete novice regarding the dark forces of the world anymore. Crucially, Mirajane had explained this very lore to them before.

"Oh, right! I totally forgot!" Natsu laughed, slamming his fist into his palm.

He never paid much attention to such complicated political things. He had no good feelings toward any Dark Guilds anyway; those guys were always plotting something very bad in the shadows and hurting innocent people.

However, looking at the dead body, Natsu completely understood Ren's action of taking the opponent out permanently. For genuinely evil guys like that, taking them out of the picture was definitely for the best.

Lucy hugged her arms, asking in deep confusion again, "But why would a powerful guy affiliated with Tartaros appear all the way out here in this remote wasteland?"

Ren looked up at the frozen giants. "If I'm not mistaken, the magical freezing of this entire area is directly related to Tartaros's movements."

Natsu frowned, his fiery aura flaring up in anger. "Related to Tartaros? But why would those creepy guys want to freeze the Giant Village? Is there some kind of ancient grudge? This kind of behavior is just way too much, even for them."

"Alright, that's not something we need to deeply consider for right now. We'll deal with it properly if we encounter the rest of them later. Our primary mission is to break this ice and rescue this Giant Village."

Ren said to the group, his authoritative tone instantly snapping them out of their dread.

"Right! But without the magic of the Moon Drip, how in the world are we supposed to save this massive Village?" Natsu asked, kicking the shattered glass.

The group returned to the seemingly impossible problem at hand.

"Regarding how to completely break this magical ice seal, I do have a guaranteed way."

"What way?!"

Several people looked up at Ren with wide, hopeful eyes.

"I can Take Over Escanor, the Lion's Sin of Pride. That's the character I took over during the finals of the Grand Magic Games."

"Oh right! Ren can also Take Over characters that use fire magic. I remember one was called Ace. This one is called Escanor—is he related to Ace?"

"No."

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