"Jose!! Where the hell are you hiding!?"
"I can't tell you that," Jose said leisurely. "But since an old friend has come all this way, I can't let you leave empty-handed."
"Get out here!!"
"Don't be impatient. Look, I've prepared a generous gift for you."
Jose snapped his fingers mockingly.
Space rippled, and a battered figure abruptly tumbled down between them.
He was a burly man with headphones, blond hair, and a lightning-shaped scar over his right eye. His eyes were closed, his body covered in wounds. He lay limply on the floor, utterly motionless.
Makarov's imposing aura faltered at once, and his face went deathly pale. "La... Laxus!?"
"That's right. Your precious grandson." Jose glanced down at him, his voice dripping with mockery.
"How heartless. His own guild was smashed to pieces, yet he couldn't even be bothered to go back and take a look. With a child who keeps to himself like this, wouldn't it be perfectly normal for something to happen to him out there?"
Smiling, Jose raised a hand holding a sharp dagger and plunged it toward Laxus on the floor.
"Stop-!!"
His eyes wide with horror, Makarov lost all reason and charged forward without a second thought.
At that moment, he had eyes only for his grandson lying on the floor. He completely failed to notice the air twisting slightly behind him.
A towering figure silently emerged.
A thick blindfold was wrapped around his head, with two streams of tears flowing endlessly from beneath it.
It was Aria of the Sky, one of Phantom Lord's Element 4.
He spread his arms in midair, aiming his palms at Makarov's back. The surrounding air began contracting toward his hands in an unnatural way.
"Ah... how very sorrowful...!!"
Only then did Makarov sense the movement behind him. He