The Promised Day — July 7th
Ultimately, the golden key of Aquarius still hadn’t been delivered before the final deadline.
The last shred of hope lingering in Layla’s heart sank completely.
Now, she could only place the four-hundred-year fate of the Heartfilia family entirely in the hands of that sudden “External Advisor.”
She gathered everyone and headed toward the Eclipse Gate.
“I will guide you to the Eclipse Gate.”
The door to Byakuran’s room opened, but the person who entered wasn’t Arcadios.
It was the gloomy-looking man with the afro.
Byakuran was slightly surprised.
The young knight guarding the door clearly knew the way.
For a servant like Zudil to deliberately cross through the Royal Guards just to lead him there seemed rather unnecessary, no matter how he looked at it.
Still, Byakuran didn’t say anything.
He simply followed behind Zudil at an unhurried pace as they descended toward the deepest part of the royal palace’s underground chambers.
In the gloomy, winding stone corridor, the footsteps of the two men echoed continuously.
Zudil, walking slightly ahead and to the side, suddenly tilted his head.
A whisper drifted over.
It was so low that it sounded as though it had crawled out from beneath the earth.
“Listen here, masked fellow…”
“If Lady Layla loses even a single strand of hair…”
“I will definitely kill you.”
Byakuran ignored him, staring at the man speechlessly.
He probably came all the way here just to warn me.
Originally, Byakuran hadn’t wanted to bother with this guy.
After all, Zudil hadn’t committed any evil deeds yet.
But since he’d decided to disgust him first…
I’ll just have to disgust you right back.
This guy really is going to cause trouble in the future.
In the underground palace hall, there were twice as many people gathered as there had been over the previous few days.
The elite Cherry Blossom Knights stood in formation along the ancient black-stone walls, clad in heavy armor.
Their sharp halberds reflected a cold, piercing gleam beneath the dim light of the magic crystals.
Minister Dutton stood at the very front, his expression as hard as iron.
He tightly gripped a stack of court documents whose purpose was unknown.
King Tomā, the short monarch, had discarded his comically lavish ceremonial robes and changed into a simple, oversized black cloak.
He stood silently in the shadows at the edge of the hall, his lips pressed tightly together.
As the person who was about to witness the end of the royal family’s four-hundred-year mission, he had to see everything with his own eyes.
Everyone from the Heartfilia family was present.
Jude’s expression was more solemn than it had ever been.
From beginning to end, his large hand remained tightly wrapped around Layla’s, never letting go for even a second.
Granny Specht lowered her head, her hands trembling as she handed over the Cancer Key.
As for Zudil, he knelt on one knee at the very front, his expression fanatical and devout as he held the Capricorn Key high with both hands.
At the center of the hall, Layla stood dressed in a long skirt, her full head of blonde hair neatly tied behind her neck.
She slowly walked toward the center and took a deep breath, trying to ease the tension in her heart.
Byakuran looked coldly at the towering, ancient structure before him.
The Eclipse Gate was essentially a gigantic gate created by the Black Wizard Zeref through the use of black magic.
It utilized the difference in the flow of time between the Celestial Spirit World and the mortal realm, using the Celestial Spirit World as a transit point to cross through time and space.
And the reason the Eclipse Gate had to be opened on July 7th of the year X777…
…was because today was the day of the solar eclipse.
Opening the Eclipse Gate required harnessing the celestial phenomenon of the eclipse to obtain the immense power necessary to break through the barriers of time.
The role of a Celestial Spirit Wizard was to forcibly open the gate through the Zodiac Keys.
By doing so, the constellation-based astral power contained within the twelve keys would be activated.
The combined power of the twelve Golden Keys would then lift the seal on the Eclipse Gate, allowing the tremendous celestial power of the eclipse to pierce through the passage of space and time.
If the twelve keys were insufficient, the constellation power required to unseal the Eclipse Gate wouldn’t be enough.
The Eclipse Gate would then desperately absorb the surrounding magical power to make up for the deficit.
And if that still wasn’t enough, the opening would ultimately fail.
In the original story, Layla used her own immense magical power to fill the gap.
In the end, she exhausted her magic power and died from Magic Deficiency Disease.
But if Byakuran was the one filling the gap…
All I can say is: let it absorb.
Layla’s gentle face was filled with an irreconcilable worry.
She turned her head and stared intently at Byakuran with her beautiful eyes.
“Mr. Ye, without the Golden Key of Aquarius, there will be a crucial gap in the power required to open the Eclipse Gate.”
“Do you have a way to help us open it?”
“Just focus on opening the gate. I’ll solve the rest.”
A trace of suspicion appeared uncontrollably on Layla’s gentle face.
“Mr. Ye, this concerns the safety of everyone present. If you cannot provide us with a convincing and concrete plan, then as the host of this operation, I cannot simply place my trust in you.”
Byakuran fell silent for two seconds.
He wasn’t thinking about how to phrase his answer.
He was weighing whether he should completely reveal his trump card at this critical moment.
According to his original plan, he had intended to muddle through with a vague explanation.
After all, once the gate actually opened, the facts would speak for themselves.
But looking at Layla’s expression, it was obvious that she wouldn’t let the matter go without an explanation.
“It’s very simple.”
Byakuran slowly opened his eyes.
His low voice echoed throughout the hall, carrying layers of resonance through his magic power.
“The power of the missing key will be supplied by me.”
“How are you going to supply it?”
“The missing magic power…”
Byakuran’s voice remained calm.
“I will provide it.”
The hall fell into dead silence for half a second.
Then Layla’s expression completely lost its composure for the first time.
It wasn’t suspicion.
It was the absurd shock of hearing a madman claim that he intended to use his own body to plug a breach in a dam.
“…What did you say?”
“I said that all the missing power will be supplied by my own magic power.”
“You have no idea how terrifyingly large that amount of magic power is!”
Layla took a large step forward in disbelief.
Although she still tried to maintain a gentle tone, the questioning and horror in her voice could no longer be contained.
“Mr. Ye, as a Celestial Spirit Wizard, when I open the gate, I can resonate with the Zodiac Spirits.”
“The astral power within the twelve keys synchronizes with me through the contracts, reducing the loss to an absolute minimum.”
“This is something only a Celestial Spirit Wizard can accomplish.”
She paused before continuing.
“Even if a Celestial Spirit Wizard can provide the required magic power at the lowest possible cost…”
“Even if I push the efficiency to its absolute limit…”
“To compensate for the missing power of a single key, my magic power is still far from enough.”
“Even if I sacrificed my own life force, I couldn’t guarantee that the gate would definitely open.”
Granny Specht’s lantern trembled violently in her hand, nearly slipping from her grasp.
Jude’s face instantly became pale and grim.
“And this is merely the amount required after resonance.”
Layla raised her eyes and stared directly at Byakuran’s emotionless eyes beneath his hood.
“And you are not a Celestial Spirit Wizard.”
“Without the ability to resonate with the Celestial Spirits, every bit of magic power you provide will suffer tremendous losses before it can actually fill the gap.”
“If someone unfamiliar with Celestial Spirit Magic attempts to compensate for the missing power…”
She seemed to search for a way to explain the scale of the problem in terms everyone could understand.
“Even if the Wizard Saints themselves stood here, it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“Absurd!”
Dutton finally couldn’t hold himself back.
The documents in his hands crumpled beneath his grip.
“Your Majesty, did you hear that?! Even the Wizard Saints wouldn’t be enough!”
“This man has been playing with us from the beginning—”
“The Ten Wizard Saints…”
King Tomā slumped back into his chair, muttering somewhat absentmindedly.
“Aren’t those the ten strongest wizards on the entire continent?”
“Yes, Your Majesty! They are the recognized pinnacle of magical power by the Council! Yet this unknown man actually dares to claim that—”
“Lord Dutton!”
King Tomā suddenly raised his voice, forcefully interrupting Dutton.
The short monarch’s expression was extremely conflicted.
Half of him was filled with fear and awe toward the unknown power standing before him.
But the other half… Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
…was filled with intense anticipation.
Byakuran had seen that kind of gaze many times before.
He’d seen it in the eyes of children gathered around magical candy stalls on the streets of Magnolia.
“Mr. Ye.”
The king stepped forward slightly.
“Although We do not understand magic, We have seen many wizards in our lifetime.”
He stared at Byakuran.
“Just what… are you?”
Byakuran stood calmly at the center of the storm.
His gaze beneath the hood swept across the entire hall.
The Cherry Blossom Knights watched him with vigilance, ready to act at any moment.
Minister Dutton stared at him as though he were nothing more than a lunatic and a liar.
Jude remained silent, already standing on the edge of despair.
And Zudil knelt on the ground, staring fixedly at him.
So that’s how it is.
No wonder Layla had to sacrifice herself to fill the gap in the original story.
As a top-tier Celestial Spirit Wizard capable of opening three gates simultaneously, Layla’s strength could essentially be compared to that of the Wizard Saints.
After all, Lucy’s ability to open three gates in the original story allowed her to summon the Celestial Spirit King, who was powerful enough to briefly contend with Mard Geer.
And this was a gap that even a Celestial Spirit Wizard on the level of a Wizard Saint had to fill with her own life.
People capable of filling it weren’t nonexistent.
The problem was that Layla and the others simply couldn’t find anyone capable of doing so.
Furthermore, judging by the fact that even the keys had been delayed, Layla’s preparations had clearly been rather rushed.
She probably hadn’t even had enough time to gather sufficient magic crystals.
That was why she had no choice but to fill the gap herself.
Fine, then.
Since all of you want to judge this by numbers…
“Lady Layla.”
Byakuran slowly spoke, his voice completely composed.
“You calculated one thing incorrectly.”
“I did not calculate anything incorrectly.”
“You calculated me incorrectly.”
The moment those words fell, Byakuran slowly raised his right hand, his palm facing upward.
Then—
He abruptly clenched it into a fist.
He didn’t release any visible magic.
Instead, he simply released the immense magical power he had been suppressing all this time.
And it erupted.
Hum—
A tangible pressure that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye, yet made the very soul tremble, descended from above like tens of millions of tons of seawater crashing down from the heavens.
The air throughout the entire underground palace suddenly became more than ten times heavier.
The bright magic crystal lamps shrank violently inward at the same moment, as though they were being strangled by the invisible hand of a god.
Clatter—!!
The fine steel armor covering the surrounding Cherry Blossom Knights began to resonate violently.
One piece after another shook and roared uncontrollably.
The long spears they held tightly—the symbols of royal authority—struck against the bluestone floor, producing a chaotic and desperate metallic wail.
Dutton, standing in the front row, instantly lost all color from his face.
The invisible pressure forced him backward several steps before he crashed into the wall in complete disarray.
The terrifying pressure enveloped everyone present.
It was so dense that they could barely breathe, as though they had been thrown into the deepest abyss of an endless sea of magic power.
A level of magical power they had never experienced before.
And then—
The Eclipse Gate itself, which had remained dormant for four hundred years, suddenly emitted a low hum for the first time.
“The magic power of the Ten Wizard Saints…”
Byakuran calmly lowered his hand.
In an instant, the terrifying oppressive force that had seemed capable of making heaven and earth change color receded like a retreating tide.
It vanished completely, as though nothing had happened.
Byakuran’s utterly calm voice echoed through the silent underground hall once more.
“Isn’t even a fraction of mine.”