Chapter 135: Damn It!
Ren, still in his Gojo Satoru form, came to Lucy's side. With a simple, casual snap of his fingers, the magical cat-ropes binding Lucy's body tore apart as if they were rotten threads, freeing her.
Simon, seeing the overwhelming, untouchable power of the man before him, slowly put the unconscious Erza down. He raised his hands to show he was not a threat and stepped back, his face grim.
Mira hurried to Erza's side, gathering her into her arms. She looked at Ren, then back at Erza, and asked with concern, "Erza, are you alright?"
Erza's eyes fluttered open. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog. "I'm... I'm fine. It was just a sleeping dart, which could make her sleep, but it didn't have much lethality."
"Square bastard!!"
Just then, Natsu suddenly rushed out from the next room, his eyes blazing. Seeing Wally, who was still groaning on the floor, he ran over and grabbed Wally's blocky scarf.
"You square bastard! Hurry up and give Happy back!!"
Gray also rushed over with Natsu, and Juvia, looking worried, followed behind Gray.
Seeing Simon, Gray's expression also changed, and he dropped into a fighting stance.
"It's you! One of the Element 4!"
Gray immediately prepared to act, his hands chilling.
"Natsu, Gray, wait a moment!" Erza called out, her voice still weak.
Natsu and Gray then noticed Mira, Erza, and Lucy were all there, as well as an unfamiliar, incredibly tall guy with white hair... whose handsomeness was a bit annoying.
"Who is he?!" Natsu asked, pointing at Ren.
"It's me!" Ren said, releasing his Full-Body Take Over. The form of Gojo Satoru dissolved, and he returned to his original appearance.
"Ren?!!"
This was another new character stance unlocked.
"What's going on?!" Gray demanded.
"They wanted to abduct Erza, so I beat them up," Ren said simply.
Erza, with Mira's help, struggled to her feet. "Natsu, Gray... bring them over. I have something to ask them."
Natsu and Gray, still confused, brought the injured Wally and Sho to the center of the room. Both of them had suffered some injuries from Ren's attack and were looking at Ren with pure terror.
Erza said to Wally, "Wally... please, give Happy back to Natsu."
Although Wally was unwilling, he knew how terrifying Ren was. He had seen him move. If he didn't return him, he was certain that the white-haired man would reappear and kill him this time.
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 looked at Erza, his expression serious. "Erza, what's going on?! That big guy earlier had asked where you were. They clearly came for you."
Lucy, her voice shaking, said, "These people... they're Erza's former companions."
"Companions?"
Gray frowned. He had witnessed Erza joining the Guild; where did she have any companions?
Erza explained, her voice heavy with a shame he had never heard before, "Before... before I joined the Fairy Tail Guild."
She turned to Simon, her oldest friend. "You guys... why are you here?"
"Hmph!" Sho turned his head away, not wanting to speak, his eyes full of hatred.
Simon sighed, his deep voice filled with resignation. "It's Jellal. Jellal told us to bring you back... to the Tower of Heaven."
Erza's entire body trembled violently, as if she had been struck by lightning. "The Tower of Heaven? Could it be... has it really been completed?!"
Sho said triumphantly, his voice cracking with a manic energy, "That's right! The Tower of Heaven has been completed! It took us eight whole years! Eight years of sweat and blood, all for his sake!"
"The Tower of Heaven? What's that?" Lucy asked doubtfully.
Erza explained, her voice a low, horrified whisper. "The Tower of Heaven... also known as the R-System. It's a forbidden magic... a 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?
Sho said disdainfully, "Magic inherently has no humanity. All magic will extinguish humanism. That's what Jellal taught us!"
Erza said with a grim expression, "This is completely the ideology of a Black Magic cult! What's the difference between you and those people?"
"Of course it's different!" Sho screamed, his eyes wide. "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! To paradise!"
"Paradise?"
At this point, Sho's expression also became frantic: "That's right! Jellal wants to resurrect that adult. This world will be completely new, and we will rule the entire world! We will bring unprecedented fear and sorrow to the remnants of those who once deprived us of our freedom! To the companions of our betraying sister! To the ignorant commoners living in this world, and to the incompetent, pathetic Magic 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, in a flash of rage, grabbed Sho's head with both hands and forcefully slammed her forehead into his.
"Ugh!!"
Sho's eyes rolled back, and he immediately fainted.
"Eeeh—?!"
Everyone was startled by such a fierce Erza.
Erza's face was distorted, her shoulders shaking. "A perfectly good person... would 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," Erza whispered, her whole body trembling as she spoke. "You don't need to get involved."
Gray looked at Erza's shaking form 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, Erza! We're your friends!"
Natsu clenched his fist, his voice low and serious. "Did that guy, Jellal, bully you? I'll definitely give him a good beating!"
Mira also squeezed Erza's hand and said, "That's right! Erza, no matter what, we will always stand by your side."
Ren said to Erza, "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 Ren, Mira, Lucy, Natsu, and Gray. Their eyes all showed unconditional trust in her. This... this was the light she had been searching for. It was the light she had been so afraid of losing, so afraid of tainting with her dark past.
This support finally gave Erza the courage to speak about the past she had kept locked away, the past that gave her nightmares.
Tears streamed down her face, not of sadness, but of relief.
It was the first time they had seen such a vulnerable Erza.
"Alright," she whispered, taking a shaky breath. "I'll tell you. This matter... it goes back more than ten years ago. At that time, I was just a child in my home village, Rosemary... At that time, a magic cult that worshipped the Dark Mage Zeref wanted to build the R-System to revive him."
"To revive Zeref?!" Lucy gasped.
"They plundered labor from various places and made the enslaved people work. I, who was a child at the time, was one of them. My village was burned, and I was taken."
"What..."
Except for Ren, who knew the plot, everyone else was shocked by Erza's words. More than ten years ago, Erza must have been just a small child. Making a child a slave... those Black Magic cults truly deserved to die.
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