Lucy wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and nodded repeatedly, patting her chest with lingering fear. "Thank goodness... that really scared me half to death..."
Gray curled his lips into a smile and quietly slipped both hands into his pockets. "Told you."
In the distance, Hughes was already streaming tears. Simon relaxed his stance, no longer poised to rush forward at any moment, and a faint smile finally appeared on his perpetually stern face.
Yet Erza, basking in everyone's cheers, showed no joy at her victory. Instead, a trace of confusion gradually rose in her eyes.
At that instant... something seemed to happen to Jellal.
Meanwhile, Jellal lay collapsed at the base of the Magic Crystal, his chest heaving violently as he stared fixedly at the sky. The resentment and fury in his eyes were almost tangible.
Countless utterly inexplicable images began flashing through his mind like a revolving lantern:
The abnormally small amount of magic power he had drained, that excessively calm face and its affected fainting act, the breeze that had brushed past his ear.
And... that clumsy interference at the crucial moment just now.
Jellal's pupils abruptly contracted.
Overwhelmed by humiliation and fury, he clenched his teeth and used the last of his strength to prop himself halfway up, letting out an anguished roar toward one side of the rooftop:
"Blanc!! You did this!!"
His furious roar echoed over the ruined rooftop for a long time.
Jellal's near-hysterical bellow successfully drew everyone's attention back, and the exuberant cheering cut off abruptly.
Everyone instinctively followed his hate-filled gaze-until their eyes settled on Blanc beside Lucy, who had remained unconscious ever since Virgo rescued him, slumped limply against the stone railing.
His head was still bowed, his hands hanging weakly at his sides. He did not