Chapter 600 - 600: A Situation on the Brink

Irene had once suffered badly after becoming a dragon.

Most of those negative effects had later been suppressed by the inheritance of Life Divine Power granted to her by Ankhseram, but whenever that divine power weakened, the old discomfort still returned.

Ankh could use Selene's situation as a chance to research a permanent solution for Irene as well.

In essence, the two of them had reached the same problem from opposite directions.

Selene had been born a dragon, but after growing disillusioned with her own race and changing the way she viewed the world, she wanted to rewrite her fate and become human.

Irene had been born human, only for fate to twist her into a powerful dragon against her will. All she wanted was to become human again.

Selene watched Ankh think in silence for a while before asking curiously,

"What is it? Is this going to be difficult?"

Ankh shook his head.

"What if I leave your dragon body itself intact?"

Selene raised an eyebrow.

"I could place a kind of threshold inside your body. Whenever you want to use your draconic power, you open it. When you don't, you close it, and your body becomes completely human."

Selene blinked.

"So one lifeform would possess the traits of two races?"

In practical terms, it would be like giving her an actively controlled Take Over switch—except without any cooldown or meaningful cost.

Selene considered it carefully.

The more she thought about it, the better it sounded.

Giving up her overwhelming draconic strength completely had always made her a little uneasy, but she understood that asking someone to solve an impossible problem meant she couldn't demand everything at once.

That was why she hadn't brought it up earlier.

She hadn't expected Ankh to offer the solution himself.

Seeing that Selene was clearly satisfied, Ankh finally relaxed.

That settled another research project for when he returned to Ishgar.

More importantly, if he could solve Selene's problem, then he would effectively be solving the side effects of dragonification itself.

And that would free up a ridiculous amount of combat power back home.

Ankh imagined the Dragon Slayers in Fairy Tail casually treating full dragonification as a standard battle mode whenever an opponent became too difficult.

If another Three-Continent War broke out after that, the Alvarez army might as well be an anthill waiting to be stepped on.

While Ankh was mentally arranging everything he wanted to handle after returning to Ishgar, several figures suddenly stopped in front of him.

He looked up.

Suzaku and the other members of Diabolos stood there.

The late-night banquet at Black Moon Mountain had been arranged for everyone who had contributed during the crisis, so although Diabolos wasn't particularly familiar with the Ishgar mages, they had still been invited.

Suzaku removed the sword from his waist and placed it beside him before sitting properly across from Ankh and Selene.

"Request. There is something I would like to ask of you both."

"What is it?"

With her own future finally settled, Selene had already returned to her usual lazy demeanor.

Kiria immediately jumped in before Suzaku could continue.

"When you leave Elentear, could you take us with you?"

Selene blinked.

Ankh immediately understood what she meant.

"You don't want to return to Guiltina."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"You want to come to Ishgar?"

Ankh and the others had entered Elentear through the portal Larcade created.

Suzaku's group, however, had been forcibly summoned by the Great White Priestess of Whiteout Village.

Given the Priestess's level of power, sending them back would simply return them along the same path to Guiltina.

Selene was different.

The Moon Dragon God wandered between worlds almost casually. Sending them precisely to Ishgar wouldn't be difficult for her at all.

She could probably cross back and forth between worlds several times in a single day if she felt like it.

Selene glanced toward Ankh.

As far as she remembered, Diabolos had been Fairy Tail's enemy.

And now they had the nerve to ask her for transportation?

Sending former enemies straight into the territory of one of her closest allies seemed a little questionable.

Skullion's face tightened beneath his half-skull mask.

"We have no intention of starting a conflict with Ishgar."

His voice was heavy.

"In truth… Guiltina no longer has the strength to begin another war."

Madmole closed his eyes.

"The Alvarez Empire has sealed off the continent, preventing information from reaching the outside world."

He sighed.

"The situation there is far worse than what any of you have heard."

Suzaku lowered his gaze.

His fingers tightened around the edge of his clothing before he spoke with quiet determination.

"We wish to represent Diabolos before Ishgar's Magic Council."

"We will formally acknowledge our responsibility for what happened during the Three-Continent War."

"And…"

He paused.

"We would like to ask for somewhere our guild can survive."

The members of Diabolos lowered their heads together.

Whatever pride they normally carried, their attitude now was completely sincere.

Ankh looked genuinely surprised.

"You want to relocate the entire guild?"

His expression sharpened.

"Has Guiltina already fallen completely?"

Suzaku closed his eyes.

There was helplessness in his voice.

"Yes."

"The Alvarez Empire's ability to wage war is terrifying. They destroyed Guiltina's Magic Council very quickly and seized control of most major cities."

"Countless guilds were dragged into the war whether they wanted to be involved or not."

Kiria clenched her teeth.

Her voice filled with anger.

"Once the Council was gone, the legal guilds had no unified command. There was no way they could stand against the Imperial Army, much less those monsters in the Spriggan 12."

"Guild after guild was wiped out or forced to flee."

"Only a few stronger groups like us Dragon Eater guilds managed to survive at all, and even then, all we could do was hide."

Skullion sighed.

"And Alvarez made things worse by expanding aggressively across the continent."

"They absorbed numerous dark guilds into the Empire, legalized them, and then branded the remaining independent guilds as dark guilds so they could hunt us down openly."

"By the time I was summoned to Elentear, Alvarez had effectively occupied around eighty percent of Guiltina."

"The remaining territory was mostly uninhabited wilderness and ancient ruins."

He shook his head.

"As for the guilds, they've been almost completely wiped out."

"You can barely travel anywhere without encountering Guiltina mages who have already joined the Imperial Army."

"Even the Alchemist Guilds shamelessly surrendered and offered themselves to Alvarez."

Ankh rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"So Alvarez has already consolidated its military position."

His eyes narrowed.

"They've stripped Guiltina of its resources, absorbed nearly all of its usable combat power, and taken control of the northern continent."

Selene suddenly remembered something.

"What about the other Five Dragon Gods?"

She frowned.

"Their territories were occupied too. None of them reacted?"

Suzaku shook his head.

"Negative."

"According to what we know, every region associated with one of the Five Dragon Gods was deliberately avoided."

"It appears Alvarez chose not to interfere with them."

His expression became more serious.

"We suspect the Five Dragon Gods may have established some kind of relationship with the Empire."

Selene frowned deeper.

"Working with humans…"

"That doesn't sound like them."

Guiltina had effectively collapsed.

Once Alvarez finished digesting everything it had seized there, Ishgar would almost certainly become its next major target.

From Ankh's perspective, there was little reason to reject this opportunity.

A powerful Dragon Eater guild was far more useful as an ally than as another resource eventually swallowed by Alvarez.

"I can help open negotiations with the Magic Council."

Ankh looked directly at Suzaku.

"But are you sure the rest of Diabolos agrees with this?"

Relocating an entire guild and its assets wasn't a decision ordinary members could make.

That authority belonged to the Guild Master.

Suzaku's expression remained unwavering.

"Confirmed."

"The catastrophe is already upon us."

His voice became firmer.

"Our Guild Master has no choice anymore."

"He must abandon those so-called ambitions of his."

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