"A Dragon battlefield? Does that mean your Dragons were also..." Lucy covered her mouth in shock.
"No, Igneel isn't here, even though our Dragons disappeared on July 7 fourteen years ago." Before Natsu could answer, Gajeel shook his head. "But there's no doubt that the Dragons resting here are from a much older age!"
"And he called it a battlefield of Elder Dragons. Clearly, it wasn't fourteen years ago." Wendy shook her head as well and said softly, "Though we still don't know what happened that day fourteen years ago... July 7."
"Then what exactly killed the Dragons here?" Yukino raised a second question—or rather, the question on the minds of most of those present.
"The Dragon King Festival!"
"The Dragon King Festival?!" Mira and the other girls looked at the speaker in obvious surprise.
"That's right! The Dragon King Festival!" Arcadios declared with absolute certainty. "According to the historical records we've studied, on July 7 over four hundred years ago, an unimaginable event took place that changed the entire world order! And that event was called the Dragon King Festival—"
Leaving the others to digest those shocking words, Achill turned to Wendy, who had inexplicably fallen into a daze after speaking earlier. "You heard them too, didn't you, Wendy? The lingering thoughts here."
"Yes—huh? You can hear them too, Achill?" Wendy looked at him in astonishment. "The faint voices of memories still lingering here—" At her words, the others broke out of their thoughts and gave him questioning looks.
Achill shook his head and gazed into the distance across the vast, desolate Dragon graveyard. "I saw them. Fragments of souls still lingering here. There are only a few scattered scraps left, but they still retain some consciousness, even after all this time... Should I say that's only to be