Natsu clenched his fists, and the fiery fighting spirit in his eyes was about to ignite the air around him.
"As long as it's for my companions, even if there is hell ahead of me, I will go through it!"
Lu Chongwei was sitting on a wooden box nearby, slowly wiping the scabbard of Ryujin Jakka.
He raised his head and looked at Lucy Ashley calmly.
"Natsu is right. However, apart from our companions, we also have something we must insist on."
Lu Chongwei's voice is neither urgent nor slow, but it carries a weight that cannot be ignored.
"That's faith. The faith to protect your companions, the faith to yearn for freedom, and the faith to chase your dreams. In this world, no one is really not afraid of death."
Lucy·Ashley snorted and curled her lips in disdain.
"To put it nicely, if your life is gone, why do you need faith?"
Lu Chongwei stood up, walked to the narrow transom window in the basement, and looked out at the dim night.
"Some things are more terrifying than death. Such as watching your companions disappear without being able to do anything, such as losing your dignity as Mage just to survive."
He turned his head and looked directly into Lucy Ashley's eyes.
"The pain of losing a companion is 10,000 times more painful than death. If you have experienced that, you will understand why we have to fight so hard."
Lucy·Ashley was stunned.
She looked at Lu Chongwei's abyss-like eyes, and the solid defense line in her heart felt as if it had been hit hard by some invisible force.
In Edolas, everyone is struggling for survival, hiding like mice in order to avoid being chased by the kingdom.
Companion?
In her view of the world, that word means more of a helpless feeling of hugging each other for warmth.
But looking at the group of people in front of her, looking at their determination to regain their companions even if they lose their lives, Lucy Ashley's heart quietly fluctuated like never before.
"Crazy people... all a bunch of crazy people."
She cursed in a low voice, turned around and walked to the corner, pulled a shabby blanket over her body, and stopped talking.
But that night, she tossed and turned, and her mind was filled with the expression on Lu Chongwei's face when she spoke just now.
Early the next morning.
When Natsu got up from the floor, rubbing his sleepy eyes, he found that Lucy Ashley, who had been leaning against the wall, was gone.
"Eh? Where is that terrible Lucy?"
Natsu scratched his head and looked around in confusion.
Lu Chongwei picked up a piece of paper from the table, with only a few lines of extremely concise words on it.
"I'm going back to my guild, and those idiots still need me to watch over you. You guys who want to die, go east along this road, and you'll see the walls of the royal capital in about three days. Don't die too fast, or no one will collect your bodies."
Natsu looked at the note and smiled.
"Arrogant guy. Brother Zhongwei, let's go!"
At the same time, in another border town in Edolas, Sikali.
The buildings on both sides of the street are slightly more decent than Luen Town, but the air is still filled with that desolate feeling of depleted magic power.
Gajeel was wearing a tight suit, and his dark messy hair was swaying extremely arrogantly in the wind.
His face covered with iron nails was full of impatience, and he was clutching the collar of a man wearing a plaid shirt.
"Hey! Are you that intelligence liaison or something? If you dare to lie to me, I will tear your bones apart!"
Gajeel's voice was rough and full of pressure to keep strangers away.
The man he caught looked exactly like Gajeel, except that he had a pair of extremely elegant black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose and was holding a thick interview book in his hand.
That is Gajeel of Edolas, an independent journalist traveling on the edge of the kingdom.
"Rude, just downright rude."
Edolas's Gajeel broke free from the opponent's hand and adjusted his collar very elegantly, his eyes full of disgust for himself in the other world.
"Even though we look the same, as a journalist who pursues the truth, I must state that violence cannot solve any problem."
Laxus was sitting on a bench in the tavern nearby, shaking a glass of bitter ale in his hand.
He raised his head coldly, impatience flashing in his eyes.
"Stop talking nonsense. Do you have the information we want?"
Gajeel of Edolas looked at Laxus and noticed the aura of a strong man who was still extremely domineering even though he was suppressed, and his expression became a little more serious.
"My intelligence network covers the entire kingdom. As long as there is something happening in this world, there is nothing I don't know about."
He opened the interview book, lowered his voice, and his tone became extremely solemn.
"According to the news from my informant inside the palace, the kingdom will hold a magic power extraction ceremony in the central square of the royal capital in two days."
Gajeel's eyes narrowed and his fists clenched loudly.
"Magic extraction? You mean those Magic Crystal?"
"That's right. Those Magic Crystal brought back from Earth-land are your companions."
Edolas's Gajeel pushed up his glasses and frowned.
"But there is a very special situation. When the Magic Crystal entered this world, it was cut open due to space pressure. Now only the main body is on the Royal Capital Plaza, and part of it is hidden elsewhere as a backup power source."
Laxus stood up in a hurry, and the wine glass in his hand had extremely small cracks due to the force exerted on it.
"Two days later... time is too tight."
Laxus looked in the direction of the royal capital, with a chilling murderous look in his eyes.
"We can't wait here any longer. Gajeel, let's go to the royal capital first, find out the specific location, and prepare for action."
Gajeel grinned, revealing a pair of pale white teeth.
"Just what I wanted. I can't wait to drill holes in those soldiers' heads."
The two of them did not stop, but turned into two afterimages and disappeared at the end of the town.
On the other side, Lu Chongwei and his group were walking on the wasteland heading to the royal capital.
The sun was so hot that the weeds on the roadside were all withered and yellow.
Lucy is holding a copy of <Brief History of Edolas> that he just bought at the roadside market and is reading it with gusto.
"It turns out that the magic depletion in this world started decades ago..."
Lucy couldn't help but complain while turning the pages.
"In order to maintain his rule, the king here nationalized all the magic power. No wonder everyone's life is so miserable."
Wendy hugged Happy and asked softly.
"Sister Lucy, is there anything written about Exceed in the book? Carla has always cared about that."
Nancy was lying on Lu Chongwei's shoulder. When he heard the three words Exceed, his ears twitched extremely sensitively.
"I can tell you about Exceed."