Unsealed

Mirajane grabbed Lucy by the back of her collar.

The two leaped upwards along the straight path that Riyao had just drilled with the steel drill bit.

"Wow! Mira, slow down!"

In mid-air, Lucy clutched her skirt tightly with both hands, letting out a bloodcurdling scream.

"I'm wearing a skirt! It's showing! It's showing!"

Riyao, who was still standing down below, rolled his eyes and jumped up as well.

"Alright, stop covering up. Nobody here wants to see your strawberry panties."

Upon hearing this, Lucy's hand, which was covering her skirt, froze abruptly, and then she let out an even more piercing scream.

"Whoa! You definitely saw it! Mira, you have to do something about him! This is sexual harassment!"

Bang.

The two landed steadily on the ground. Lucy plopped down on her bottom, clutching her backside and howling.

She immediately rushed to Mirajane's side, shaking her arms frantically, and pointing at Riyao, who had just landed, loudly accusing him of his heinous behavior.

"Oh my, strawberry panties are cute too."

Instead of seeking justice for Lucy, Mirajane smiled and reached out to pat Lucy's head like she was soothing a puppy.

Lucy froze on the spot.

Oh no, this really proves the old saying: two kinds of people can't sleep in the same bed.

These two are utterly indistinguishable!

Riyao stepped forward and unceremoniously pushed Lucy away from Mirajane, then squeezed between the two of them, naturally taking Mirajane's soft hand and interlocking their fingers.

He even turned his head, raised an eyebrow at Lucy, and gave her an extremely smug and boastful smile.

Lucy's eye twitched violently.

Is this guy really an S-Class Mage? He's more like a troublemaker from kindergarten.

Just then, a deafening roar suddenly came from afar, interrupting the three's farce.

A violent surge of magical energy swept in like a tsunami, so intense it made it impossible to open one's eyes.

The colossal Celestial Spirit King gripped the greatsword, shimmering with dazzling starlight, and with a force capable of splitting the heavens and earth, slashed fiercely at Hades Mard Gill, who stood atop the ruins of his throne.

Faced with a blow powerful enough to split a mountain, Mard didn't even budge an inch.

He merely raised one hand.

Boom!

Countless thick thorns tore through the fleshy ground, soaring into the sky like wildly dancing Cobra. They not only blocked the greatsword's strike but also pierced through the Celestial Spirit King's massive body.

"You couldn't beat me last time, and this time, the result will be the same."

Mard's voice was cold and arrogant, exuding an unquestionable and absolute confidence.

"The laws governing the mortal realm impose too many restrictions on me, preventing me from unleashing my full potential."

The Celestial Spirit King looked at the thorns piercing through his body, his tone calm, without the slightest sense of defeat.

"But my old friend will defeat you."

At this point, the Celestial Spirit King turned his head, his gaze passing over the ruins, and glanced at Riyao and the others in the distance.

Then, he drew his greatsword and stabbed the Underworld Beast at his feet with a backhand.

After doing all this, the Celestial Spirit King actually bared his teeth at Mard, revealing a highly provocative smile.

"My old friends, I have fulfilled my promise. Now it's up to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Celestial Spirit King's enormous body transformed into a sky full of dazzling starlight and slowly dissipated into the air.

Mard snorted coldly, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

He dismissed the Celestial Spirit King's final sword strike as nothing more than a bluff, a defeated dog's lament.

Just as he was about to turn around and deal with the remaining intruders, his movements suddenly froze.

He looked down in astonishment, staring intently at his lower body, which had turned into grayish-white stone.

Furthermore, this terrifying petrifying power was spreading rapidly upwards from his waist.

"Trying to slow me down?"

His eyes turned sinister, and he coldly uttered the last few words.

"It's pointless. Once Face is fully activated, you will all be..."

Before he finished speaking, Mard's body had been completely petrified, turning into a lifelike gray-white statue.

With the caster sealed away, the [Joy] Curse that had enveloped the entire Underworld Beast instantly crumbled.

The once indestructible blood-red flesh began to shrink and melt rapidly.

One after another, the Fairy Tail members, who had been sealed inside the walls, tumbled out of the slime.

The lockdown has been lifted for all.

The happiest person on the Underworld Beast was Minerva, who spotted Erza had just gotten up, not far away.

A suspicious blush appeared on Minerva's face, and her voice trembled with excitement.

Erza!!

She spread her arms wide and pounced like a mother leopard spotting its prey.

"Minerva?"

Erza had just been unsealed, was still a little disoriented.

She turned her head and saw the half-demon Minerva charging towards her menacingly.

Erza instinctively took a half step back, grabbed a longsword from her Requip space, and held it horizontally in front of her chest to block.

"How did you become a one-eyed man?"

Gray had just broken free from the fleshy walls and was preparing to look for Natsu and the others.

He suddenly stopped and turned sharply to look at the other side of the Underworld Beast.

In the distant ruins, two enormous icebergs rise abruptly from the ground, radiating a chilling aura.

Gray's pupils contracted instantly.

That magical fluctuation, that familiar style of design...

His body reacted before his brain could, and he involuntarily sprinted toward the iceberg.

"Ur..."

The green light beneath the Riyao gradually faded, disappearing from the field of vision of vitality.

Based on his observations, he had confirmed the current safety status of the Fairy Tail crew.

"It's getting lively."

He looked around at the decaying flesh and blood, marveling at the sight.

"Looks like this Underworld Island is about to be demolished by these destructive lunatics soon, isn't it?"

Lucy scratched her head, somewhat puzzled.

"Was the sword strike that the Celestial Spirit King just delivered to break the Pluto's Alegria Curse?"

"I don't know, but at least everyone's been released now, and they're probably seething with anger, looking for demons to beat up."

Mirajane, noticing Riyao's somewhat distracted expression, extended his index finger.

She gently poked Riyao's cheek.

Riyao cooperated perfectly, pressing his face against her fingertips like a large dog seeking cuddles.

Just as the two were getting all lovey-dovey.

From the passageway behind them, Jackals crawled out, their fingertips flashing with dangerous explosive light.

The three members of Riyao seemed unaware of the deadly threat behind them.

The hands, imbued with Explosion Curse, drew ever closer to the backs of the three people's heads.

Three meters.

Two meters.

One meter.

"Hello!"

A powerful roar descended from the sky.

"What are you trying to do to my friends?!"

The figure, engulfed in flames, fell like a shooting star.

While in mid-air, Natsu suddenly exerted force from his waist, swinging his right leg in a perfect semi-circle while it was still burning hot.

[The Fire Dragon's Claw]

Bang!

A powerful kick struck the Jackal squarely in the side of its face.

The Jackal was kicked away by the terrifying force, rolling on the ground more than a dozen times before crashing heavily into a pile of steel vines.

Click!

With the impact of the Jackals, the once-hard and iron-like steel vines snapped like rotten wood.

Tempester, the Tempester, and Keith, who had been bound inside for quite some time, finally rolled out.

The three demons, now free, got up from the ground looking completely bewildered.

"Why has this thing suddenly become so brittle?"

They couldn't understand it.

I've simply given up thinking about it.

The most important thing now is to kill all these intruders in front of us.

"Looks like I've arrived just in time; I haven't missed this good show."

An arrogant voice came from the ruins of a tall tower not far away.

Gajeel strode out with an air of indifference, as if he didn't recognize anyone.

He looked down at the broken steel vines scattered on the ground, and his eyes instantly lit up like searchlights.

"Are there appetizers as well?"

Juvia followed closely behind him.

She craned her neck and looked around, but didn't see that familiar figure.

"Lord Gray... isn't here..."

Juvia lowered his head, his previously excited expression instantly turning somewhat dejected, as if the non-existent dark clouds above his head were becoming tangible.

As Riyao watched the battlefield gradually gathering before him, he stroked his chin and began counting heads.

"Hey, it seems like the demons are still short of demons."

He pointed across the street to Tempester, Tempester, Keith, and the Jackals that had just gotten up.

"There are only four here. Mira took care of one, Ur held off one, so there are three left. There are two powerful life forms in that direction."

Lucy looked in the direction Riyao was pointing, and her eyes widened suddenly.

She quickly recognized the building's outline.

"Over there... over there is the control room of the Underworld Beast!"

Lucy's expression changed drastically, and she grabbed Riyao's arm.

"Oh no! It's Face! Face has already started! We have to stop them right away!"