Fairy Tail: Collapsing Stars

Chapter 494: Future Lucy: This Isnʼt the Fairy Tail I Know

”Have I finally returned to the world of the past?!”

”Did I really succeed? Where is this place?”

As the Eclipse Gate opened, the figure who walked out from within, dressed in a black cloak, looked extremely gaunt, like a flickering candle in the wind that could be blown out at any moment.

At this moment, the black-cloaked figure constantly looked around, astonished by everything before her. The reason was simple: after walking out of the Eclipse Gate, she discovered that she had not arrived in the underground treasury of the Fiore Kingdomʼs royal palace, but had instead appeared in the middle of a forest.

This startled the black-cloaked figure, and she thought to herself in alarm, ”No way! Donʼt tell me I came to the wrong time?! Or did my time travel fail?!”

”No, I have to immediately confirm the time Iʼve traveled to! This is absolutely crucial…”

Thinking this, the black-cloaked figure sprinted forward with all her strength. She needed to confirm which timeline she was in, as well as the condition of the people she cherished.

After figuring out what she could do, the black-cloaked figure ran wildly through the forest, kicking up clouds of dirt, until finally, after approximately half an hour, she stopped…

The reason was that the black-cloaked figure had finally reached the end of the forest.

At the same time, from here, the black-cloaked figure could already see the Grand Magic Games arena in the distance. The arena still remained in the same state in which it had been destroyed by Jellalʼs Meteor.

However, precisely because the Grand Magic Games arena looked as though it had been ravaged by a natural disaster, Lucy came to a complete stop.

”Am I… too late?!”

The black-cloaked figure stared at the arena before her, which looked as though it had been struck by the hammer of the apocalypse. She finally stopped moving.

Then, a wave of helplessness flooded her entire body. After staggering forward a few steps, she suddenly collapsed to her knees.

The black-cloaked figure knelt on both knees, raised her head toward the ruins on the distant mountaintop, and couldnʼt help but cover her face and burst into tears.

”Iʼm sorry, Iʼm sorry! Natsu! Iʼm sorry, everyone from the Fairy Tail Guild…”

”Iʼm sorry, everyone who sacrificed yourselves for me! It seems Iʼve failed. I couldnʼt travel back to the past, and I couldnʼt save everything! Iʼve betrayed everyoneʼs trust in me! Waaaaah…”

Accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, the cloak on the black-cloaked figure was blown away, revealing her slightly disheveled long golden hair and delicate face covered in tears.

If a Mage from the Fairy Tail Guild happened to see this golden-haired girl kneeling on the ground and crying her heart out, they would surely be utterly shocked, because this girl bore an astonishing resemblance to Lucy…

No, it would be more accurate to say that the girl kneeling on the ground and crying was none other than Lucy herself.

However, unlike the Lucy of the Fairy Tail Guild, this Lucy radiated an astonishing sense of fragility from head to toe…

This sense of brokenness did not make the girl look ugly. Instead, it added several points of beauty, making her already beautiful features even more breathtaking!

Yet at this moment, this girl possessing such a broken beauty knelt on the ground, wailing in agony.

Her cries were filled with despair toward this world! At this moment, she no longer knew what she should do…

One had to know that there had only been one chance to save everyone.

Yet even such a precious opportunity had been ruined by her! She was truly useless…

The girl thought and thought…

In her mind, that hellish scene once again appeared.

In X791, after their Fairy Tail Guild returned from Tenrou Island, they participated in the Grand Magic Games and successfully won the championship, restoring Fairy Tailʼs glory as the number-one guild in the Fiore Kingdom.

On the day when everyone in the guild was celebrating, the apocalypse descended!

In the early hours of the final day of the Grand Magic Games, someone opened the Eclipse Gate, and a full ten thousand dragons flew out from within!

Those ten thousand dragons were unstoppable. Whether it was Dragon Slayer Mages or ordinary Mages…

Everyoneʼs magic was completely ineffective against those ten thousand dragons.

In almost the blink of an eye, the entire capital of the Fiore Kingdom, Crocus, fell directly.

The entire city, the entire Fiore Kingdom, and even the entire continent of Ishgar eventually turned into a sea of flames, becoming a living hell…

And she… she was Lucy Heartfilia.

But she was Lucy Heartfilia from that broken world.

She carried a tremendous responsibility and used the Eclipse Gate to travel through time, hoping to reverse the future!

Although, because of her insufficient magic power, Lucy could not travel hundreds of years through time like Natsu and the others had, as long as she could travel back a few years, it would be enough to stop everyone from opening the Eclipse Gate!

As long as they didnʼt open the Eclipse Gate, none of the disasters would happen…

However, after Lucy finally returned to the past under the desperate protection of her companions, what she saw was a desolate forest devoid of all life, as well as the Grand Magic Games arena reduced to ruins by an explosion…

For a moment, Lucy fell into complete despair.

She believed the Grand Magic Games arena before her had been destroyed by dragons!

For a moment, Lucy thought she had failed to successfully activate the Eclipse Gate, that she had failed to return to the past.

Their battle plan, for which everyone had sacrificed everything, had failed just like that!

Lucy had betrayed the trust of her companions…

Yet that wasnʼt what made Lucy most desperate.

The most desperate thing was that Lucy discovered there were no sounds of dragons coming from the surroundings, nor were there any sounds of her companions.

A terrifying possibility immediately arose in her mind.

Perhaps all of her companions had already died while she was entering the Eclipse Gate…

Perhaps she, Lucy, was now the last human being left in the entire kingdom, or even on the entire continent.

”Ah!!”

Thinking of this, Lucy, who had come from the future, clutched her head and wailed in agony.

Crystal-clear tears continuously streamed down her face, and her heart was almost completely filled with despair.

”This voice canʼt be mistaken…”

”Hahaha, so it really is you! Iʼm super lucky today! Cool! Youʼre Lucy, the Mage from the Fairy Tail Guild, right?!”

Just as Lucy from the future was kneeling on the ground and wailing, a familiar voice suddenly sounded beside her.

”Huh?!”

Hearing that familiar voice, Lucy slowly got up from the ground and looked toward the direction from which the voice had come.

Then Lucy saw a face that had left a deep impression on her…

”Ah! Youʼre Jason, the reporter from Sorcerer Weekly?!”

Looking at the person who had arrived, a hint of excitement flashed across Lucyʼs face as she asked.

”No! Iʼm Jason, the editor-in-chief of Sorcerer Weekly!”

After hearing Lucyʼs words, Jason handed his press badge to Lucy and spoke seriously.

”Huh? Even Jason has become editor-in-chief?! When did that happen?”

”No, more accurately! Is Sorcerer Weekly really okay with making you editor-in-chief, Jason?!”

Just one second ago, Lucy had still been grieving over her companions, but after seeing the proof that Jason had become the editor-in-chief of Sorcerer Weekly, she immediately began roasting him.

”Lucy, your roasting skills are exactly the same as before. Thatʼs really cool!”

After hearing Lucyʼs words, Jason covered his heart with one hand while vomiting blood and speaking to Lucy.

”Ahaha, not at all, not at all…”

”Um, sorry. That was a little rude of me!”

After hearing Jasonʼs words, Lucy gave an embarrassed little laugh. She also knew that she had been somewhat rude just now.

”Originally, I absolutely couldnʼt forgive something like that! I would definitely write a report about it and expose this kind of behavior properly!”

Jason first protested seriously to Lucy. Then his tone suddenly changed, and the tightly furrowed brows on his face slowly relaxed.

”But seeing as Miss Lucy seems to be feeling better, Iʼll let it slide today!”

”Jason…”

After hearing Jasonʼs words, Lucy suddenly felt touched.

”However, forgiving you is one thing. Since Iʼve caught you, Lucy, you still have to answer a few questions for me, right?!”

”After all, I imagine that even you, Lucy, wouldnʼt want your rude behavior toward a reporter to end up on the cover of a magazine, right?!”

Just as Lucy was feeling touched, Jason revealed the stinky grin on his face.

”I knew it would turn out like this!”

”Damn it, give me back all the gratitude I felt toward you just now!”

After hearing Jasonʼs words, Lucy gritted her teeth and spoke with a tragic expression.

”Hehehe…”

Jason merely chuckled. Then, without waiting for Lucy to say anything else, he began asking his questions on his own.

”Then I have three questions. Now, Iʼd like to invite Miss Lucy Heartfilia, a Mage of the Fairy Tail Guild, to answer them for me!”

As Jason spoke, he pointed his microphone at Lucy while simultaneously turning on his camera.

”First, Lucy, as a member of the Fairy Tail Guild, why were you crying alone in the forest? Could it be that you got dumped?”

”Second, the Fairy Tail Guild didnʼt participate in this yearʼs Grand Magic Games. Is that because Fairy Tail believes all of its opponents are too weak and arenʼt worth Fairy Tailʼs effort at all?!”

”Finally, when His Majesty the King of the Fiore Kingdom holds the second Grand Magic Games next year, is Fairy Tail interested in participating?!”

Jason rapidly fired his three questions at Lucy before looking at her with a smug smile.

”The reason Fairy Tail didnʼt participate in this yearʼs Grand Magic Games? And whether Fairy Tail will participate in next yearʼs Grand Magic Games held by the Fiore Kingdom?!”

After hearing Jasonʼs words, Lucy froze completely.

She continuously analyzed these two questions in her mind, but for a moment, Lucy didnʼt know how she should answer Jason.

Lucy understood every single word in Jasonʼs two questions.

But once those words were put together, Lucy couldnʼt understand them anymore…

The reason was that Lucy remembered that when the first Grand Magic Games had begun, the main members of their Fairy Tail Guild should have been trapped on Tenrou Island, sealed inside Fairy Sphere…

As for the reason they didnʼt come to participate in the Grand Magic Games, Lucy remembered that the guild had sent people to the first Grand Magic Games. They had simply ended up suffering a crushing defeat and returning home.

If Jason were asking about Erza, Laxus, Natsu, and the others—the main members who had participated in the S-Class Mage Promotion Trial and were trapped on Tenrou Island—then naturally the answer would be that they were all inside Fairy Sphere at this moment.

But Lucy couldnʼt answer Jason like that…

Because there was a loophole.

If everyone from Fairy Tail who had gone to Tenrou Island to participate in the S-Class Mage Promotion Trial had been trapped inside Fairy Sphere, then how had Lucy herself escaped?

She also couldnʼt reveal that she was someone who had traveled from the future.

In a situation where the entire Fairy Tail Guild was trapped inside Fairy Sphere, revealing her identity would be far too dangerous!

Who knew if some dangerous person might take notice of her…

”Th-this…”

”No, youʼve completely confused me, Jason!”

”Jason, can you tell me what year it is right now?”

After hesitating for a moment, Lucy suddenly remembered something.

She looked at Jason and asked nervously.

In Lucyʼs memories, in her world, Jason should have already been killed by the dragons.

Yet now she had seen Jason once again, and Jason had even asked her several strange questions.

If she hadnʼt misunderstood, then there was a very good chance that she had succeeded…

Thinking of this, Lucy became extremely nervous and found it difficult to calm herself.

”Huh? Lucy, youʼre asking me what year it is now? Thatʼs really strange. Donʼt you even know what year it is?”

”Forget it. I donʼt know what youʼre up to, but Iʼll tell you anyway! Itʼs X785…”

”However, Lucy, can you tell me why youʼre asking about the year? Is there something important going on?”

After hearing Lucyʼs question, Jason was slightly stunned before giving Lucy the exact year.

”X785. So I succeeded! I really succeeded?! I traveled through time! My world is saved! And not only did I succeed, I even arrived early…”

”If thatʼs the case, then that arena wasnʼt destroyed by dragons?!”

”Then who destroyed it? Other than dragons, who else could destroy the arena?!”

”Um, I guess that only leaves Fairy Tail as the ones capable of accomplishing the great feat of destroying the arena, right?”

”No, thatʼs not right… The main members of our Fairy Tail Guild should all be living inside Fairy Sphere! So this has nothing to do with Fairy Tail! Yes, definitely nothing to do with us.”

After hearing Jasonʼs answer, Lucy suddenly realized that she had not failed, but had actually succeeded.

She had successfully traveled through time and arrived in the past!

For a moment, the tension that had gripped Lucyʼs heart finally eased slightly.

And as Lucy relaxed, her thoughts gradually became more active, causing her powerful ability to roast others to slowly awaken.

”Lucy, are you okay? And when are you planning to answer my questions?!”

Jason couldnʼt help interrupting when he saw Lucy lost in thought.

”No! Iʼm fine. I just thought of a few things…”

”Sorry, Jason! Now that Iʼve thought of these things, I absolutely canʼt stop here. I have to hurry and accomplish what I need to accomplish! As for your questions, please save them for now. Iʼll answer them when I get the chance…”

After confirming the time with Jason, countless plans immediately arose in Lucyʼs mind.

She had to hurry to the Fairy Tail Guild, use the guildʼs power to find the guildʼs seniors, and go to Tenrou Island to rescue everyone trapped inside Fairy Sphere.

”Huh?!”

”Lucy, donʼt try to weasel out of this! Information becomes completely worthless once it goes out of date!”

After hearing Lucyʼs words, Jason was stunned at first before his expression dramatically changed.

”Um…”

”Then Iʼll reluctantly answer one of your questions!”

”Iʼll answer your first question. First of all, the reason I was crying here is a secret! Unfortunately, I canʼt tell you yet~”

”Second, was I dumped? Hehe, guess~ If you guess correctly, Iʼll tell you~”

”Okay, thatʼs all my answers! Now Lucy has to return to the Fairy Tail Guild and report in! See you later, Reporter Jason…”

After learning that she had successfully traveled through time, Lucy spoke with a hint of playfulness.

After answering Jasonʼs questions cleanly, she turned around and ran toward the capital of the Fiore Kingdom.

She needed to take a train from the capital to Magnolia Town and find the Fairy Tail Guild for help.

”Huh? What kind of answer is that?”

”And Iʼm already the editor-in-chief now! Lucy!”

After hearing Lucyʼs words, Jason immediately jumped up and down in anger, shouting at Lucyʼs running back.

”Hehe…”

Lucy didnʼt answer Jason.

She simply jogged onward.

At this moment, Lucy was completely different from the dejected and despairing girl who had first arrived in this world!

At this moment, Lucy was filled with hope for the future.

There was still time.

The Fiore Kingdom still had hope.

”Huh? The Eclipse Gate has been opened again?”

”It was opened twice in just a few days…”

”Itʼs hard to guarantee that this gate wonʼt be opened again in the future!”

”In that case, Iʼll stay here and guard it.”

Not long after Lucy left, a young man with jet-black short hair, abyss-like eyes, and black-and-white ethnic clothing walked up to the Eclipse Gate standing in the forest.

With the young manʼs arrival, the Eclipse Gate trembled slightly, as if it were delighted and excited by his arrival!

The reason was simple: this young man was none other than the creator of the Eclipse Gate, the famous Black Wizard, Zeref Dragneel.

Several days later…

Fiore Kingdom, Magnolia Town.

”I finally made it back to Magnolia Town!”

As the train from the capital, Crocus, entered the station, a golden-haired girl wearing a black cloak stepped off the train.

The golden-haired girl walked out of the station and arrived in Magnolia Town.

She looked up at the blue sky, white clouds, and warm sunlight, as if she had returned home. Everything felt incredibly familiar~

”I never thought Iʼd really have a day when I could return here…”

Looking at the town before her, Lucyʼs eyes immediately became moist with tears.

”Is that Lucy?! Lucyʼs back?”

Just as Lucy was taking deep breaths of the air of Magnolia Town, trying to memorize this air with its faintly salty sea breeze, the fragrance of soil, and its strong local character, several longtime residents of Magnolia Town seemed to recognize Lucy.

They immediately smiled warmly at her and greeted her.

”Oh? Oh! Hello~”

Although Lucy didnʼt recognize these residents before her, since they had greeted her, she naturally smiled and returned their greetings.

”Lucy, since youʼre back, does that mean those mischievous brats from the Fairy Tail Guild are coming back too?!”

”Lucy, you have to talk to those brats in your guild who do nothing but fool around! Tell them to tone it down a little…”

”And you, stop flooding the streets all the time! The underground water pipe system in Magnolia Town was only just repaired while you guys were away!”

The residents, who had been smiling warmly at Lucy just one second earlier, immediately surrounded her.

One after another, they began verbally condemning all the misdeeds Lucy and Fairy Tail had committed.

”Um…”

After listening to what these plain and honest residents of Magnolia Town had said, Lucyʼs eyelid twitched slightly.

When had she ever flooded the streets?

Lucy wasnʼt the kind of person who did things like that.

”Alright, as long as you understand.”

Hearing this, the residents sighed helplessly before dispersing.

”Um…”

Lucy watched the residents leave and fell silent once again.

Then she hurried toward the Fairy Tail Guild.

”Lucy!”

Just as Lucy was striding forward, she suddenly heard a voice that made her soul tremble.

”Could that be my landladyʼs voice?!”

”Come to think of it, itʼs X785 now. Iʼve already gone a whole year without paying my rent! I donʼt have that much money right now…”

Lucy shuddered.

Like a mouse encountering a cat, she sped up.

”But Iʼll eventually have my dad pay it all off in the future anyway, so I donʼt need to worry about it now.”

”Come to think of it, Dad will suddenly die someday in the future! Since Iʼve traveled back to X785, I can remind Dad to take better care of himself! Yes, whether itʼs the dragons or Dad, everything can still be saved! Thereʼs still time…”

”But right now, the most important thing is to go to Fairy Tail and have everyone rescue Natsu and the others trapped inside Fairy Sphere on Tenrou Island…”

After thinking everything through, Lucy chose to ignore her landlady and continued racing forward.

”Does that girl Lucy have something really urgent to deal with?!”

”Honestly, I wanted to tell her that the rent her parents sent a few days ago was too much. Way too much! Besides, property prices and rents in Magnolia Town have fallen recently. I was actually planning to refund her some of the rent, but forget it. I suppose Lucy, as the young lady of the Heartfilia family, probably doesnʼt care anyway~”

Lucyʼs landlady watched Lucy sprint down the street and helplessly shook her head, eventually giving up.

”Fairy Tail, Fairy Tail…”

At this moment, Lucy kept muttering the words under her breath.

She only wanted to find the warm home she remembered.

The one that was only three stories tall, neither too high nor too large, but was enough to accommodate every member of the Fairy Tail Guild.

However, when Lucy ran to the location where she remembered the Fairy Tail Guild being, she stared at the nearly hundred-meter-tall skyscraper before her, with the words FAIRY TAIL emblazoned across its entrance, and froze completely.

Her eyes gradually became vacant.

”So tall! So huge! Whatʼs going on? Where is this place?! This isnʼt the Fairy Tail Guild I remember at all!”

The Fairy Tail in Lucyʼs memories wasnʼt too tall or too short.

It was just the right size for the members of Fairy Tail to live in…

Yet the building before her had dozens of floors, and even if each floor held only three or five hundred people…

Wouldnʼt it be enough to accommodate several thousand, or even tens of thousands of people?!

This was way too ridiculous!

”What exactly happened?!”

At this moment, Lucyʼs eyes were somewhat vacant.

She stood outside the entrance of the Fairy Tail Guild and remained silent for a full hour.

Only then did she extend her trembling hand and gently push open the door before her.

After opening the door, Lucy didnʼt choose to enter the Fairy Tail Guild directly.

Instead, she carefully hid her body behind the guildʼs entrance and quietly poked half her head inside, secretly observing the situation within the guild…

”How suspicious!”

At the same time, deep down, Lucy couldnʼt quite believe what she was seeing.

She always felt that everything before her was fake and extremely suspicious.

Besides finding the Fairy Tail Guild before her suspicious, Lucy was also somewhat worried!

After all, the Tenrou Team had been training for half a year now.

She imagined that the members of the Fairy Tail Guild must be organizing everything they could to rescue them, to the point that the guild had probably ended up owing a huge amount of debt!

At the same time, Lucy was afraid of seeing the sad and dejected expressions of her guildmates…

”Everyone in the guild, donʼt be sad! We arenʼt dead, so you have to cheer up!”

That was what Lucy truly thought deep down.

She genuinely hoped that every single companion in the Fairy Tail Guild could be happy.

As Lucy poked her head into the guild, what entered her eyes was…

”Drink up, brothers!”

A group of shirtless drunks holding cup after cup of beer, frantically pouring alcohol down their throats.

”Please, everyone, give me one more chance! This is the last time…”

A group of damn gambling addicts, stripped naked except for loincloths, kneeling before their creditors in the traditional dogeza position!

To be honest, gambling addicts really did deserve to die…

”You bastard! Do you even know how much money you owe?! Do you know how much itʼll be once the interest is added?!”

And there were bastards holding whips, constantly lashing them while threatening the gambling addicts, loaning their companions money at exorbitant interest rates.

”You bastard! You just stole my drink!”

”So what if I stole it?! Whatʼs the big deal?! In the Fairy Tail Guild, good wine belongs only to the strong!”

”You bastard! Are you looking for a fight?! If youʼre not convinced, then fight me!”

”Letʼs fight, then! You think Iʼm afraid of you?!”

There were also a bunch of punks who had started fighting over a single cocktail, eventually beginning to form magic circles and causing magical elements to fly everywhere throughout the guild.

”Ah…”

For a moment, Lucy, who was hiding outside the Fairy Tail Guildʼs entrance with only her little head poking inside as she secretly observed everything, was so frightened by the scene before her that her eyes widened.

She didnʼt know what kind of feelings she should use to judge this scene inside Fairy Tail, which looked like a painting of hell itself.

”None of them are even sad about our Tenrou Team disappearing?!”

”Rather than saying these guys are grieving because we unfortunately encountered Acnologia on Tenrou Island and disappeared, it would be more accurate to say theyʼre celebrating our disappearance, right?!”

”This Fairy Tail is even more outrageous than it was before we left the guild!”

Future Lucy loudly complained as she watched the situation inside the guild.

Because the Fairy Tail Guild before her had an even stronger Fairy Tail flavor than the Fairy Tail in her own timeline.

It had become so extreme that someone as normal as her seemed completely out of place.

”What exactly is going on?! This is way too strange!”

Lucy stared at the terrifying scene before her and didnʼt even know what she should say anymore.

”Hm? Lucy, youʼre back?!”

”Itʼs been hard on you all these days…”

”Sorry! It seems we werenʼt able to help you much.”

Just as Lucy was peeking through the crack in the door and observing the situation inside the Fairy Tail Guild, Macao, who was naked except for a loincloth and kneeling on the ground begging a creditor for forgiveness, seemed to notice something.

He stood up from the ground and walked directly toward Lucy, smiling warmly at her.

Macao was referring to the matter of Lucy and the others going to the Northern Continent, Guiltina, to deal with the God Dragons and participate in Evanʼs special training…

However, in Lucyʼs ears, the scene that appeared in her mind was of them fighting dragons in the capital, with numerous guild companions sacrificing themselves to help her use the Eclipse Gate to travel through time and arrive in the past…

Lucy naturally knew that Macao wasnʼt talking about that matter.

But she was still deeply moved.

She smiled, tears shimmering in her bright eyes, and then two trails of tears slid down her fair cheeks.

”Thank you~”

For a moment, Lucy felt as though she had been redeemed.

After all, the reason she had traveled through time was precisely so that she could see those smiling faces of her Fairy Tail companions.

”Thank you? What are you thanking me for?!”

”I donʼt think I helped you with anything, did I?”

”However, I really do need you to help me with something!”

After hearing Lucy thank him, Macao scratched his cheek before revealing a somewhat lecherous smile.

”Um…”

For a moment, Lucy suddenly felt as though something was stuck in her throat.

The smiles she had traveled through time to protect definitely werenʼt supposed to look like this.

”Well, Iʼm a little short on cash lately, so how about… lending me some?!”

”Besides, youʼre the young lady of the Heartfilia family. You arenʼt short on this little bit of money anyway~”

Macao, this old gambling addict, shamelessly spoke to Lucy.

Of course, although Macao had lost everything and owed some money, that was because he didnʼt actually have much money on him to begin with.

Ninety-five percent of his money was in his wifeʼs hands.

The remaining five percent was for buying cigarettes and entertaining guests, but unfortunately, he had thrown all of it into the gambling pool…

If he didnʼt think of some way to solve this problem, he wouldnʼt have any cigarettes to smoke for the next three months…

”…”

For a moment, Lucyʼs face turned pale.

”This is absolutely not the Fairy Tail I know!”

Lucy immediately shouted her complaint.

The Fairy Tail Lucy remembered was one where Macao might occasionally place a bet or two, but he would absolutely never ask other people to lend him money!

Yet this Macao had asked to borrow money the moment he opened his mouth.

”And my family went bankrupt a long time ago! I donʼt have any spare money at all. I canʼt even pay my rent!”

After finishing her complaint, Lucy continued speaking to Macao.

”Lucy, thatʼs no fun~”

”Iʼm only asking to borrow a few thousand J to use for a little while! Thereʼs no need to curse your own family with bankruptcy, right?”

Macao frowned upon hearing this and handed a magazine to Lucy as he spoke.

”Huh?!”

Lucy was stunned.

She remembered that her family had gone bankrupt many years ago, so for a moment, she didnʼt understand what Macao meant.

That was until Lucy looked at the cover of the magazine in Macaoʼs hand and froze completely…

Because the headline on the magazine cover in Macaoʼs hand read:

”SHOCKING! The Richest Heartfilia Family on the Continent of Ishgar Continues Expanding Overseas! Its Business Now Covers the Northern Continent, Guiltina, and the Western Continent…”

However, the thing that shocked Lucy the most was the photograph on the cover of the magazine in Macaoʼs hands.

It was unmistakably a picture of Lucyʼs mother, who should have already died, and her father, who was on the verge of death, holding hands and smiling warmly together.

Even more terrifying upon closer inspection was that Lucyʼs mother and father were holding a card.

Written on the card were the words:

”Letʼs head from X785 to X786 together…”

”What exactly is going on?!”

For a moment, Lucy stood there completely dumbfounded.

”Thatʼs what Iʼm saying! Lucy, you donʼt need to curse yourself, do you?!”

At this moment, Macaoʼs voice continued to ring beside Lucyʼs ears.

”By the way, Macao, after seeing me, donʼt you have anything else you want to say?”

Lucy was slightly stunned before suddenly remembering that now was not the time to worry about other things.

What they needed to do now was go to Tenrou Island and save the Lucy, Natsu, and the others of this timeline…

”Huh?”

Macao was slightly stunned.

”Macao, listen to me. I need you to help me find Senior Warrod.”

”We werenʼt actually killed by Acnologia on Tenrou Island. Instead, we were trapped on Tenrou Island by the First Masterʼs magic, Fairy Sphere.”

”Right now, perhaps Senior Warrod is the only person in the entire magical world who can help us escape from Fairy Sphere…”

Seeing Macaoʼs bewildered expression, Lucy couldnʼt help explaining it to him.

”Huh? What Tenrou Island? What Fairy Sphere? And what do you mean by being killed by Acnologia? What are you talking about, Lucy?”

”Didnʼt you already defeat Acnologia and invite Acnologia to become a member of the Fairy Tail Guild?”

”Right now, arenʼt you all together with Acnologia, fighting the God Dragons in the Northern Continent?”

After hearing Lucyʼs words, Macao was stunned for a moment before asking Lucy.

”Acnologia was defeated by us, and he even joined Fairy Tail?!”

”And we went to the Northern Continent together to fight the God Dragons?! What are you talking about?”

After hearing Macaoʼs words, Lucy glanced once again at the photograph in the magazine showing her parents holding up the card about heading toward X786.

She couldnʼt help taking a step backward, a look of horror appearing in her eyes.

”Itʼs all messed up! Everything is completely messed up!”

”I came to the wrong world!”

After taking several steps backward, Lucy couldnʼt help muttering to herself.