Eclipse Celestial Spirits Arc

The Fairy Tail guild hall was as noisy as ever.

Mirajane rushed in from outside, her steps hurried.

"Oh no, Riyao has disappeared!"

Makarov looked up at Mirajane, his glass of wine hovering in mid-air, the liquid sloshing and spilling two drops onto the bar.

"Gone? Have you tried summoning him with the crystal key?"

"I tried it, but there was no response."

Mirajane took out the crystal key and placed it on the table. The key slid a short distance on the table, making a crisp sound.

The once-transparent crystal key was now dull and lifeless; its usual vibrant green light had vanished completely, leaving it looking like an ordinary piece of glass.

Makarov jumped off the chair, squatted down next to the keys, and squinted at them for a long time.

Everyone else gathered around, chattering away.

"Is that guy Riyao up to some kind of prank again?"

"The crystal key has never failed before; this is very strange."

"Could they be trapped by some kind of magic?"

The group started talking all at once, and the more they talked, the more chaotic and panicked they became.

At that moment, Yukino ran in, panting, her chest heaving.

Is Miss Lucy there?

"Lucy, Natsu, and Happy just went out this morning to do a quest. What's wrong?"

Lisanna replied to Yukino, her voice tinged with doubt.

Everyone else turned to look at her, their gazes sweeping over her simultaneously. Yukino felt the stare and took a half-step back.

She also saw the crystal key on the table, that dull and lifeless crystal key.

She remembered that crystal key very well.

During the Grand Magic Games, Riyao was summoned by Mirajane using this key.

"Mr. Riyao is in trouble too?"

"Yes, I can't call him with the key; this has never happened before."

Mirajane picked up the key and gripped it tightly in her hand, her fingers clenching so tightly that the sharp edges of the key dug into her palm, but she didn't feel any pain.

Her brows were furrowed, her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her usual gentle smile was completely gone.

Everyone was completely baffled. They looked at each other, unable to come up with a solution.

Lucy, Natsu, and Happy walked in through the door.

Lucy sensed something was off as soon as she entered. The guild hall was unusually quiet, everyone's expressions were tense, and there was an inexplicable sense of tension in the air.

Seeing that everyone was gathered together, she pulled Natsu over to join them.

When Lucy saw the crystal key in Mirajane's hand, her pupils contracted sharply, and her eyes widened.

"Riyao also had an accident?"

This sound instantly drew everyone's attention.

Lucy grabbed the Celestial Spirit Key from her waist, took a deep breath, and began to recount what had happened that day.

Crux Crux appeared out of thin air, then fell to the ground with a thud, like a tattered rag that had been thrown out.

Its body was covered in wounds, the Celestial Spirit aura had dimmed, and there were several cracks on its body.

"Miss Lucy... there's a huge mess in the Celestial Spirit World."

Mirajane rushed over, grabbed Crux by his two short legs, lifted him up, and shook him violently.

"Have you seen Riyao? Tell me quickly!"

The Crux was shaken so badly that his eyes spun in a spiral, his body went limp, and he fainted.

Lisanna hugged Mirajane from behind, wrapping her arms around her sister's waist and pulling her backward.

"Sister, stop shaking it! You're going to break this Southern Cross!"

Mirajane looked down at Crux, who was rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue, and awkwardly let go of him, placing him back on the table.

She cleared her throat, took a half step back, and the tips of her ears turned slightly red.

After a while, Crux slowly woke up, kicked his short legs a couple of times, looked around blankly, and then yawned.

Where am I?

Everyone simultaneously slapped their foreheads, the sound so synchronized it was as if they had rehearsed it.

Lucy spoke up to remind her.

"This happened inside the Fairy Tail guild. You just suddenly appeared and shouted that there was a huge mess in the Celestial Spirit World, and then... you fainted."

Under Mirajane's kind gaze, she swallowed hard, forcibly changing "shaken dizzy" to "fainted," and forced a genuine smile onto her face.

Crux started snoring, and snot bubbles popped out of his nose. A round, transparent bubble expanded and contracted outside his nostril, trembling rhythmically with the snoring.

A series of black lines appeared on everyone's foreheads, neatly arranged like a copy and paste.

Mirajane reached out to wake it up, her fingers already just a centimeter above Crux's head.

Lucy quickly spoke up, her voice cracking.

"Crux is just thinking, not sleeping, really."

Mirajane frowned, her finger hovering in mid-air for two seconds, her lips twitching downwards, before she withdrew her hand.

Wave~

Natsu popped Crux's snot bubble with a crisp popping sound, the sound of the snot bubble bursting particularly loud in the quiet guild hall.

Everyone glanced at him simultaneously, their gazes like daggers piercing his eyes.

Natsu scratched his head and chuckled, the back of his head making a rustling sound as he scratched, revealing a set of big white teeth.

I've never seen such a big snot bubble.

Crux's voice rose slowly, as if from a very deep place, in a deliberate, slow tone.

"The Celestial Spirit World is in complete chaos. All the Celestial Spirit of the Twelve Gates of the Zodiac have changed. They are violently suppressing the Celestial Spirit World. The Celestial Spirit King is nowhere to be found, and the weaker Celestial Spirit are hiding everywhere. Many have already been captured by them. I barely managed to squeeze my way here, and I almost got caught on the way."

Mirajane stepped forward, grabbed its whiskers, and pinched the tuft of curly whiskers with two fingers, pulling it upwards.

"Where's the Riyao? Where's the Fairy Constellation Riyao?"

"Mr. Riyao? I didn't see that; I only saw the Twelve Gates of the Zodiac."

Crux also looked puzzled, blinking his small eyes as if he were trying to think about the problem.

"Logically speaking, this shouldn't affect Mr. Riyao... z2Z"

Before it could finish speaking, its eyes closed again, and it started snoring again, this time with snot bubbles that were even bigger than before.

Happy jumped up, flapped his wings twice, his face full of confidence, and held his tail high.

"I know, it's thinking, right?"

"No, it's sleeping."

Lucy covered her face, her fingers peeking out from between them, not wanting to face the scene.

Mirajane took a deep breath, clenched her fist, and sent it flying back to the Celestial Spirit World.

Crux disappeared along with its snot bubble.

Everyone swallowed hard, the sound of their Adam's apples bobbing up and down echoing throughout the room.

Gray was even more outspoken, his mouth always moving faster than his brain.

"Just as violent as Erza, huh?"

Bang, bang.

Gray was punched in both cheeks at the same time, the two forces coming from different directions, his head was sandwiched in the middle, and the flesh on his face was squeezed out of shape.

On the left is Mirajane's fist, and on the right is Erza's fist.

Gray fell peacefully, leaning straight back, his head hitting the floor with a thud.

With a direction in mind, everyone began to take action.

Lucy took Levy and the others to the Magic Library to look up information.

Levy holding a roll of map, pointing at it with her finger and muttering something under her breath as she analyzed it.

A large group of people set off, the guild gate was pushed open, and sunlight poured in from outside, casting long shadows on the ground.

On the streets of Magnolia, an old man selling fruit at his stall looked up and saw the group of people rushing out of the guild gates in a grand procession. He sighed with emotion.

"In my lifetime, I've finally witnessed this group of people gathering and causing trouble again."

Everyone else turned to look at the resident, their lips twitching, their eyes filled with complex emotions.

What the hell is this "in my lifetime"?