Falling "Green Seaweed"

"BOOM—!!!!"

An unprecedented, ear-splitting roar suddenly exploded through the Fairy Tail guild hall!

The sturdy roof, which had withstood countless internal magical bombardments and remained firm even when enemies attacked from outside, reinforced personally by Guild Master Makarov, now shattered instantly like a cookie smashed by a giant's warhammer!

Wood splinters, roof tiles, stones, and dust mixed into a devastating torrent, pouring down through the massive hole in the ceiling and forming an "indoor sandstorm" that swept through the entire hall. Visibility vanished in an instant, leaving only the shriek of breaking debris and the members' cries of alarm.

The black shadow falling from the sky carried an unstoppable force as it violently smashed through the roof.

Its landing point was incredibly precise—right between Natsu and Gray's fists, just before they collided!

"Bang!"

A visible shockwave erupted from the impact point, expanding outward in a fierce ring! Natsu and Gray felt an irresistible force surge from where their fists were about to meet, as though they had been hit head-on by a charging magic-blasting rhinoceros. They both grunted and flew backward like kites with snapped strings, tumbling awkwardly across the floor more than a dozen times before finally stopping.

Meanwhile, the black shadow crashed heavily into the guild's central floor, which had been paved with the hardest stone.

"Thud—!"

The entire guild hall shook violently, as if a small earthquake had struck. The hard stone slabs caved inward and shattered like fragile eggshells, leaving behind a massive impact crater over three meters wide and seemingly bottomless.

Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring everything.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The guild fell into deathly silence, with only the soft patter of falling dust remaining. Everyone stared dumbfoundedly at the crater, their minds completely blank.

"W-What was that just now...?" Lucy asked in a trembling voice, her face covered in dust.

"An... an enemy attack?" one timid guild member stammered.

The dust slowly dispersed, and the scene at the center of the crater gradually came into view.

A man slowly rose from the bottom of the pit, almost lazily.

He bore no obvious injuries, as if the terrifying impact that had smashed through the floor had been nothing more than a scratch. He had a distinctive head of messy, seaweed-like green short hair, while his bronze skin was covered in crisscrossing scars, each one seeming to tell the tale of a brutal fight to the death.

He wore only a tattered green haramaki over his upper body, barely covering his chest and exposing eight sharply defined abdominal muscles. Three long swords of different styles hung quietly at his waist, radiating a cold, sharp presence utterly out of place in this world of magic.

The man raised a hand and rubbed his sleepy eyes, as though he had just awakened from a long slumber. He looked around at the wreckage, then at the hole he had made, before raising his eyes to the gap in the roof above, where cold wind was howling through. Finally, his gaze settled on the mages around him, frozen like statues.

He gave a long yawn and, in a tone thick with drowsiness yet filled with perfectly justified complaint, said something utterly shocking:

"Hey, the quality of your roof... isn't very good."

The entire hall remained silent. A pin drop could have been heard.

Everyone's brains completely crashed because of that sentence.

Natsu climbed out of the rubble and shook his dizzy head. He looked at his fist, still numb from the shock, then at the green-haired man who had fallen from the sky, wearing an expression that said, "This has nothing to do with me."

"Hey," flames blazed in Natsu's eyes as an excited grin spread across his face, "who the hell are you?!"