Blanc, who had retreated in time, stood at the edge of the collapse and leaned over, calmly watching the three dust-covered figures below.
Then he turned his gaze to the little cat on his shoulder, who looked thoroughly delighted by their misfortune.
"Happy, when did you get up here?"
"Aye? I saw a butterfly fly past just now, so I chased after it. I didn't expect to dodge a disaster that way." Happy blinked his big eyes innocently.
"...Lucky you."
"Aye~"
Blanc then jumped down with Happy and landed steadily.
"Brr-" Natsu shivered as he climbed out of the rubble nearby. "It's freezing down here!"
Happy spread his wings and flew into the air, intending to get a little higher and scout their surroundings.
But he soon spotted something that terrified him.
He hurriedly called to the others, pointing a little paw in one direction, his voice tinged with fear.
"Ah...everyone, look...wh-what is that?!"
Everyone looked in the direction he indicated.
A great deal of light poured through the hole smashed in the ceiling, its beams plunging straight into the impossibly vast underground chamber.
As the dust stirred up by the falling rubble slowly settled, the outline of something hidden within it emerged little by little.
It was a gigantic monster dozens of meters tall, with vicious bone spikes running along its spine to the back of its head and two absurdly thick arms hanging at its sides.
Yet this monster, which radiated terrifying pressure even while motionless, was sealed fast inside an enormous block of crystal-clear ice!
Everyone stared up at the suffocatingly huge monster before them, their faces filled with horror.
Blanc also studied the ice and the monster, but his mind was on something else-did their current condition count as dead or alive?
*If they're dead, Ur's