"Sho and the others... they were the only family I had back then," Erza continued, her voice trembling with the weight of a decade-old secret. "We survived by leaning on one another, finding tiny sparks of joy in a living hell just to keep going."
"But those days felt endless. We lived in constant fear, never knowing if we'd see the next sunrise. Eventually, someone proposed an escape, and we all agreed—it was our only hope. But the cult found out before we could even begin. They took me to find the 'mastermind' behind the plan, and Jellal... Jellal allowed himself to be captured just to save me."
"In a desperate bid for freedom and to rescue him, we finally rose up. We took up whatever tools we could find and fought back. Every slave in that tower had reached their breaking point. Together, we tore the cult down from the inside. We won."
Her expression clouded with a deep, haunting pain. "But when I finally reached Jellal, he wasn't the boy I knew. Something had changed—something dark. He had gained a terrifying magic, and he refused to leave. He told me he intended to stay and complete the R-System... to resurrect Zeref."
"I tried to stop him, but I was no match for his power. I don't know if a shred of his old self remained, but he spared my life. He cast me out and gave me an ultimatum: I was never to speak of that place or return. If I did, he promised to destroy the Tower of Heaven and everyone in it—including Sho, Wally, and the others—just to erase the evidence."
Suddenly, Sho lurched to his feet, swaying unsteadily. "What kind of fairy tale is that?! You think some pathetic sob story is going to win us over?! Stop lying!!"
"Eight years ago, Sis... you planted bombs on our ships and left us to die while you escaped alone! If Jellal hadn't seen through your betrayal, we would've been blown to pieces right then and there!"
"Jellal told us the truth! He said that was the fate of those who didn't understand the true path of magic. He said you were obsessed with power—that you wanted to burn your past and discard us like trash!" Sho turned to the others, his eyes wild. "Isn't that right, Wally? Millianna? Simon?"
Wally and Millianna looked on, torn and confused, their certainties crumbling. Only Simon remained silent, his expression unreadable.
"Say something!" Sho snapped.
Gray stepped forward, his gaze steady and cold. "Jellal told you all that, huh?"
"Is the Erza you grew up with really the type of person who would do that?" Lucy added softly. Even though she hadn't known Erza for long, she knew the woman's heart was as solid as her armor.
Sho broke into a cold sweat. Deep down, he knew the answer, but acknowledging it meant his last eight years had been built on a lie. "You don't know anything! Jellal's word is the only thing that kept me alive! We spent eight years building that tower for him!"
"And now you're telling me it was all a lie? That Sis is the good guy and Jellal is the monster? Don't make me laugh!"
"Actually... she's telling the truth."
Everyone froze. The voice belonged to Simon.
"Simon?!" Sho gasped.
Gray's eyes narrowed, his hands beginning to frost over. "You bastard... you're the one who attacked us earlier."
"Wait, Lord Gray," Juvia interrupted, placing a hand on Gray's arm. "He used Darkness Magic, but it was calculated. He must have seen through your ice clone, yet he attacked anyway."
Simon nodded solemnly. "As expected of a former Element 4. I never intended to kill anyone. To keep my cover and deceive Sho and the others, I had to make my attacks look as lethal as possible."
"You... you were deceiving us?" Sho stammered.
"Sho, Wally, Millianna... Jellal has played us all for fools," Simon said, his voice heavy with regret. "The truth is right in front of you. If Erza had truly betrayed us, she wouldn't have stopped Kael just now. Look at him. Kael is a monster in human skin—a man who could likely take down a Wizard Saint. You felt his power. If Erza hadn't intervened, we would be corpses right now."
The silence that followed was deafening. The trio thought back to the brief clash with Kael. It hadn't even been a fight; it was a total, effortless suppression. Their magic hadn't even scratched the air around him. If Kael had wanted them dead, it would have happened in the blink of an eye.
"Damn it...!" Sho collapsed to his knees, clutching his head. "What is real?! Who am I supposed to believe?!"
If Jellal was the liar, then their eight years of sacrifice were meaningless. If Erza was the one telling the truth, then they had spent a decade serving the very man who had enslaved them.
Erza knelt beside them, her voice softening. "I know how hard this is to hear. For eight years, I lived with the guilt of leaving you behind. I was too weak to save you then, and for that, I am so, so sorry."
"It doesn't matter anymore," Simon said, looking toward the Fairy Tail mages. "I've waited a long time for this. I waited for a group of mages strong enough to challenge Jellal. And now, they're here."
"Jellal..." Sho's face twisted, his grief turning into a sharp, jagged rage. "That bastard... he used us. He made us build that hellhole for him! I'm going to kill him!!"
"He won't get away with this," Millianna cried, her feline eyes narrowing. "Not after what he did to us!"
"Alright," Erza said, her resolve hardening like steel. "For Simon, for all of you, and for the sake of the world... we cannot allow Zeref to be brought back. We are going to that tower, and we are taking Jellal down."
Kael watched the scene unfold from the sidelines, his arms crossed.
Jellal, huh...
He remembered the character's arc—a tragic figure, manipulated by others, a classic example of the "pitiful villain" trope. Later, he'd find redemption and become a hero, but right now, he was the enemy.
Kael knew that shonen stories loved to redeem their villains, but he didn't share that sentiment. In his eyes, pity didn't excuse the blood on someone's hands. When the fighting started, there was no room for "what-ifs" or future redemptions.
If you showed mercy to a wolf, you were only inviting it to bite you later. Kael wasn't here to play therapist; he was here to win.
If they must be slaughtered, Kael thought, his blue eyes glowing with a cold, predatory light, then I'll slaughter them. Redemption can wait for the afterlife.
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There are 50 advanced chapters on Patreon, which I'm currently rewriting and polishing for a better reading experience. Thank you for your support and patience.
https://www.patreon.com/c/LEYI396