Rudra stared at the empty space beside him, letting the silence settle for a few lingering seconds. He glanced down at the liquor bottle in his hand, took a heavy gulp, and carelessly tossed the empty glass aside. Pushing himself up, he stepped off the ledge and vanished, heading straight toward the shattered remains of the Eclipse Gate.
Near the crumbling debris, Future Lucy stood frozen, overwhelmed. Before her eyes, the massive dragon Natsu had brought down began to glow, its imposing form dissolving into a rain of golden light. One by one, the remaining dragons followed, fading out of existence as the timeline forcibly asserted itself. Tears spilled over Future Lucy's cheeks as the weight of their victory finally sank in.
Seeing her future self break down, the present Lucy stepped forward and pulled her into a tight, grounding embrace, softly whispering words of comfort. Princess Hisui and the surrounding mages watched in respectful silence, honoring the quiet grief of a dark timeline coming to an end.
A few minutes passed before Future Lucy's body began to shimmer with the same radiant light.
Natsu, watching cluelessly from the sidelines, instantly panicked. "Lucy! What's happening to your future self?! Why is she glowing?!"
"The Eclipse Gate is destroyed," a calm, grounded voice cut through the commotion. "The anomaly is resolving, which means she's returning to her proper time. I thought I already explained this to you, Natsu."
The group turned to find Rudra strolling casually toward them, his hands tucked loosely into his pockets.
Natsu rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a boisterous, sheepish laugh. "Oh! Right, right! I totally forgot!"
Present Lucy shook her head at Natsu's short memory, but her attention quickly shifted back to her future counterpart. Overcome with immense relief, Future Lucy stepped forward and impulsively grasped Rudra's hands, holding them tight.
"Thank you, Rudra... Thank you so much," she whispered, her voice trembling. "For everything."
Rudra offered a faint, reassuring smile. "You did the hard part by surviving. Go back and enjoy the peace you fought for."
He reached out, gently sweeping a stray tear from her cheek. Future Lucy smiled through her tears, gave a small nod, and with a quiet breath, completely dissolved into the morning light—leaving behind a profound, peaceful silence under the clearing sky.
With Future Lucy gone, a quiet stillness settled over the ruined plaza.
Wendy looked around at the battered battleground, her voice soft in the calm that followed. "So... what should we do now?"
Natsu grinned, thrusting a fist into the air. "What else, Wendy? We just won a massive fight! It's time to party!"
Thwack!
Lucy's fist connected sharply with the back of his head, sending him staggering forward. "Read the room, Natsu! Everyone is completely exhausted, and the city is in ruins!"
Sighing, Lucy turned to see what Rudra thought, but stopped short. He stood near the shattered remains of the Eclipse Gate, quietly running his gaze over a fractured fragment of the massive structure. She walked over, stopping at his side. "Is something still wrong with the gate?"
Rudra glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Nothing like that."
"Then why are you staring at it so seriously?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Just admiring the craftsmanship," Rudra replied smoothly, lightly tapping the reinforced metal with the toe of his boot. "Creating a bridge through time takes serious magic."
Lucy gave him a skeptical look. "Right... and you just happen to be an expert on ancient magical engineering."
Before she could press him further, Rudra shifted the subject, gesturing toward Princess Hisui, who was already issuing rapid commands to her royal guards. "Anyway, we should rest here and wait for the rest of Fairy Tail to gather. Princess Hisui has her hands full over there coordinating relief efforts."
Natsu rubbed his sore head with a loud groan. "What?! Wait around? But I'm not even tired!"
Ignoring him, Rudra walked over to a fallen stone pillar, leaned against the masonry, and slid down into a seat. "Well, I am," he murmured, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back.
Lucy looked at Natsu, then back at Rudra. Giving up on the fire slayer, she walked over, pulled her knees to her chest, and sat right beside Rudra on the dusty ground. "Honestly, a few minutes of quiet sounds amazing."
Wendy smiled softly, joining them to settle on Rudra's other side. "I agree with Lucy." She let out a contented sigh and let her eyes drift shut.
Natsu stood alone in the middle of the courtyard, looking back and forth between the three of them in utter disbelief. "Seriously? You guys are really gonna sleep right now?!"
"Shut up, Natsu," Lucy muttered, not bothering to open her eyes.
Grumbling under his breath, Natsu crossed his arms in defeat. Realizing no one was going to spar or celebrate with him, he slumped onto the ground beside them with a heavy thud. "You guys are no fun," he huffed, throwing a sideways glance at Lucy. "We literally just defeated dragons today, and all you want to do is take a nap?"
"Natsu, if you don't stop talking, I'll let Erza handle you when she gets here," Lucy warned, her tone dangerously calm.
That shut him up instantly.
As the chatter died down, a serene rhythm took over the ruined plaza. Rudra kept his eyes shut, his breathing steady and slow. To anyone watching, he looked fast asleep. Internally, however, his mind was sharp and clear as he addressed his System.
'So? Find anything?' Rudra asked mentally.
'Host, after a thorough sweep of the Gate's residual energy, I can confirm with absolute certainty that the Eclipse Gate was tampered with prior to its activation,' the System's voice resonated in his mind.
A faint twitch stirred Rudra's brow. 'Interesting... so there's another player on the board. Someone other than a demon running errands for Mundus, huh?'
'The energy signatures don't align with standard demonic magic, Host. It's far more discreet.'
'Whatever—or whoever—it is, it can wait until tomorrow,' Rudra thought with a silent exhale. Worn out from the battle, he finally let his guard down, letting his consciousness drift into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Far from the Kingdom of Fiore, on a desolate, rain-swept island, Zeref abruptly came to a halt.
He turned his head toward the sea, his dark, unreadable eyes fixed on the distant horizon in the direction of Crocus. The sea breeze tugged at his black robes, carrying the faint scent of ozone and distant ash.
"What now, Mundus?" Zeref murmured, his voice utterly devoid of warmth. "This scheme of yours crumbled... just like the rest."
He stood motionless for a long moment, listening to the ambient roar of the ocean as if expecting an answer from the void. When only silence met him, he turned away, taking a measured step forward.
"With this, my debt to you is paid," he whispered into the wind.
As he walked, dark, shadowy wisps began to peel away from his form, dissolving his silhouette into the air until nothing remained. Only a final, unuttered thought lingered in his wake:
'Another anomaly walks this world... one who bends time to his will. How troublesome.'
In the dark, oppressive depths of the underworld, the air cracked with unstable crimson lightning. Massive obsidian spires crumbled into dust as a towering figure shattered the ground with a single, furious blow.
Mundus was completely crashing out.
"How?!" his voice roared through the void, rattling the very foundations of the realm. "How did that bastard survive?!"
A high-ranking demon knelt on the trembling earth, his head bowed low in desperate submission. "Lord Mundus... the timeline has stabilized. The dragons have been forced back to their era, and the Eclipse Gate is completely obliterated."
"I don't give a damn about the dragons or the Gate!" Mundus thundered, his multi-faceted eyes flaring with primal rage. "The Gate was meant to drag Sparda out from the past! A Legendary Dark Knight ripped from his prime—consumed by confusion and duty, forced into a death match against that parasite Rudra!"
He hovered into the sky, six divine wings expanding as hellfire surged violently around him.
"It was the perfect trap!" Mundus snarled, pacing through the air as his crimson aura flared out in destructive shockwaves. "If Sparda killed Rudra, my greatest obstacle in this timeline would be erased! If Rudra managed to kill Sparda, time itself would collapse—wiping his very existence from history and preventing my seal from ever being forged! Either way, I was supposed to win!"
He slammed his fist into a nearby floating landmass, atomizing it instantly into microscopic ash.
"So explain to me," Mundus hissed, descending back to the ground as the oppressive pressure doubled, "how did both of them walk away unscathed?!"
"I... I don't know, Master!" the demon blurted out, bowing so low his snout scraped the scorched obsidian floor.
Why are you asking me?! the demon screamed internally, sweating buckets of foul black slime. You were the one watching the whole damn mirror projection! You sat on your oversized throne, puffing your chest out and gloating for two hours about what a brilliant, inescapable trap you'd set! You should know better than anyone why it fell apart!
Wisely, he kept every single one of those thoughts buried beneath six layers of silent self-preservation. He wasn't about to get disintegrated just for pointing out the obvious.
Mundus didn't even register the demon's stuttered reply. A burst of blinding hellfire exploded from his back, searing the vaulted cavern ceilings as he paced back and forth, each step shattering the stone beneath his feet.
"Sparda!" he roared, the sound echoing endlessly through the abyss. "Curse his treacherous, miserable soul! Curse him, curse his spawn, and curse every last drop of that wretched, stubborn bloodline!"
The demon remained pressed flush against the floor, breathing as softly as possible, praying the dark lord's violent tantrum would pass before Mundus remembered there was someone else in the room to take it out on.