Takeshi came to Lucy's side, snapped the ropes on her body, and freed her.
Simon put Erza down, raised his hands, and stepped back.
Mirajane hurried to Erza's side, supported her, and asked with concern, "Erza, are you alright?"
Erza shook her head. It was just a sleeping dart, which could make her sleep, but didn't have much lethality.
"Square bastard!"
Just then, Natsu suddenly rushed out from next door. Seeing Wally lying not far away, he grabbed Wally's scarf.
"You square bastard! Hurry up and give Happy back!"
Gray also rushed over with Natsu, and Juvia followed behind him. Seeing Simon, Gray's expression changed.
"It's you!"
Gray immediately prepared to act.
"Natsu, Gray, wait a moment!"
Natsu and Gray then noticed Mirajane, Erza, and Lucy were all there, as well as an unfamiliar guy.
"Who is he?!"
"It's me."
Takeshi released the transformation, returning to his original appearance.
"Takeshi?!!"
This was another new character unlocked.
"What's going on?!"
"They wanted to abduct Erza, so I beat them up."
Erza said, "Natsu, Gray, bring them over. I have something to ask them."
Natsu and Gray brought Wally and Shô over. Both of them had suffered some injuries from Takeshi's attack.
Erza said, "Wally, give Happy back to Natsu."
Although Wally was unwilling, he knew how terrifying Takeshi was. If he didn't return him, he would definitely be dead. So he opened his magic space and released Happy.
"Happy!"
Natsu immediately hugged Happy when he saw him. Happy was his most important partner and family, closer to him than a blood brother.
Gray asked Erza, "Erza, what's going on?!" That big guy earlier had asked where you were, clearly coming for you."
Lucy said, "These people are Erza's former companions."
"Companions?" Gray frowned.
He had witnessed Erza joining the Guild, where did she have any companions?
Erza explained, "Before joining Fairy Tail."
"You guys, why are you here?"
"Hmph!"
Shô turned his head away, not wanting to speak.
Simon said, "It's Jellal. Jellal told us to bring you back to the Tower of Paradise."
Erza's body trembled. "The Tower of Paradise? Could it be... has it really been completed?!"
Shô said triumphantly, "That's right. The Tower of Heaven has been completed. It took us eight whole years to build it."
"Tower of Heaven? What's that?" Lucy asked doubtfully.
Erza explained, "The Tower of Heaven, also known as the R-System, is a forbidden magic that revives a dead person using a living person as a sacrifice. It's an inhumane forbidden magic."
"What?!"
Lucy and the others were shocked to hear this.
Reviving a dead person with a living sacrifice, was there such magic in the world?
Shô said disdainfully, "Magic inherently has no humanity. All magic will extinguish humanism."
Erza said with a grim expression, "This is the ideology of Black Magic. What's the difference between you and those people?"
"Of course it's different. Those guys just see the R-System as ordinary necromancy, a spell to bring the dead back to life, but Jellal is different. He will lead us to the future paradise."
"Paradise?"
At this point, Shô's expression became frantic. "That's right. Jellal wants to resurrect him. This world will be completely new, and we will rule the entire world, bringing unprecedented fear and sorrow to the remnants of those who once deprived us of our freedom, the companions of the betraying nee-san, the ignorant commoners living in this world, and the incompetent Council."
"We will bring them unprecedented fear and sorrow. And we will strip away all freedom in this world. We are the rulers of this world, hahahahaha..."
Bang!
Erza grabbed Shô's head with both hands and forcefully slammed her forehead into his.
"Ugh!"
Shô's eyes rolled back, and he immediately fainted.
"Eeeh?!"
Everyone was startled by such a fierce Erza.
Erza's face was distorted. "A perfectly good person has become so twisted. Jellal, is it all because of you..."
Lucy asked, "Erza, what exactly is going on? What is the Tower of Heaven? And who is Jellal?"
"...This is my private matter. You don't need to get involved."
Erza's body trembled as she spoke, clearly having something unspeakable.
Gray looked at Erza and said, "Erza, if you don't want to say it, that's fine. But you're wrong to say we don't need to get involved. You're our companion. Knowing that a companion is in trouble, do you expect us to just stand by and do nothing?"
Lucy nodded. "That's right."
Natsu clenched his fist. "Did that guy bully you? I'll definitely give him a good beating!"
Mirajane squeezed Erza's hand and said, "That's right. Erza, no matter what, we will always stand by you."
Takeshi said, "This isn't like your style, Erza. Just say 'Don't nag, follow me' like you usually do, wouldn't that be better? We'll help you."
Erza looked up at Takeshi, Mirajane, Lucy, Natsu, and Gray. Their eyes all showed unconditional trust in her, which deeply moved her, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
It was the first time they had seen such a vulnerable Erza.
However, this finally gave Erza the courage to speak about her unknown past.
"Alright, I'll tell you. This matter goes back more than ten years ago. At that time, a magic cult that worshipped Black Magic wanted to build the R-System to revive the dead, so they plundered labor from various places and made the enslaved people work. I, who was a child at the time, was one of them."
"What?!"
Except for Takeshi, who knew the plot, everyone else was shocked by Erza's words. More than ten years ago, Erza must have been just a child then. Making a child a slave, those Black Magic Cults truly deserved to die.