"So it really is celestial magic," Rowan Mercer muttered as the meteor tore through the sky, its shadow swallowing the sea below.
There was no point pretending they could block something like that. Even combined, their defenses would shatter on impact.
"Everyone, to me," Rowan sent through their shared link.
They regrouped instantly, clustering around him as the heat from the falling star scorched the air.
"Natsu, now," Rowan snapped. "Use it."
Natsu inhaled hard. Flames surged up both arms, different in texture and color, then twisted together.
"Fire Dragon's Radiant Blaze!"
The combined fire roared upward, slamming into the descending meteor and slowing it just enough to buy a heartbeat.
Rowan struck the ice beneath their feet.
"Mirror World."
The frozen surface rippled like disturbed water. Reality inverted, and the entire group dropped into a reflected space just as the meteor smashed through the flames above. A world-ending impact followed, a tidal wave rising higher than the tower itself.
Inside the mirror realm, nothing touched them.
Lucy stared wide-eyed as destruction passed harmlessly through their reflections. "What… what just happened?"
"A mirrored pocket of space," Rowan said, keeping his voice steady. "For now, what happens outside can't reach us."
Hugh frowned, studying the warped horizon. "It's spatial magic. Similar to mine."
His own spell sealed enemies inside card-bound spaces, smaller and far more fragile than this. Even so, the resemblance was obvious.
Simon's gaze hardened. "Jellal won't miss this for long. He's too sensitive to distortions like this."
"We should leave," Simon continued. "We can't beat him head-on."
"No," Erza said immediately. "If Jellal succeeds, the entire world pays the price."
She turned to Rowan. "Get them out. I'll stay behind and look for an opening."
"I'm not leaving," Natsu growled.
"Neither am I," Gray added.
Juvia nodded, already forming water around her hands. "Juvia stays with Gray-sama."
Rowan exhaled slowly, recalculating. "That last spell cost him a lot. I have something that might end this, but I need time."
"How much?" Erza asked.
"At least seven minutes."
He didn't explain further. Ancient magic demanded preparation, and what he intended to do went beyond simply calling down a storm.
If it worked, Jellal would fall.
If it didn't, Rowan would abandon the crystal entirely and pull everyone out. Survival came first.
"We'll hold him," Erza said without hesitation.
She switched armor in a flash, twin blades in hand, her posture calm and lethal. Seven minutes, even if it killed her.
"Island," Rowan said. "Fight there. He won't risk destroying the crystal."
They moved, slipping through the mirror realm toward the island's reflection.
Outside, the sea finally calmed.
Jellal hovered above the wreckage, frowning as the last traces of their magic vanished.
"They shouldn't all be dead," he said quietly.
He knew their strength. Knew Erza's resilience. That spell should have crippled them, not erased them.
His eyes lit with rotating sigils as he scanned the surrounding space.
"Found you."
Within minutes, he tore open a flaw in the mirrored boundary and stepped through.
The moment Rowan sensed Jellal entering the mirror world, he acted.
"Now."
They emerged back into reality through the crystal's reflective surface just as Jellal arrived moments later, following their trail with ease.
"Running again?" Jellal sneered. "You're out of places to hide."
Erza charged first, blades flashing. Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Lucy, and even the injured Simon, Hugh, Wally, and Millianna followed, throwing everything they had into slowing him down.
Rowan stepped back.
His voice dropped into the steady rhythm of an ancient chant, words older than the tower itself.
Even without wide-area spells, Jellal dominated the fight, countering strikes with frightening precision. Still, they endured. Bruised, burned, bloodied, but unbroken.
Then the sky darkened.
"Storm, descend," Rowan intoned. "Form and obey."
Lightning split the heavens.
A colossal figure rose from the island itself, iron sand and stone torn upward and shaped by Rowan's will. Electricity flooded into it from the raging storm above, its body crackling with power.
A thunder giant stood between heaven and sea.
Rowan's eyes burned with focus.
If the storm fed it as he hoped, this would be enough.