Familiar scenes of the villagers flashed through Caelan’s mind, playing like an old, cherished film.
“You three brats!
Trying to steal my chickens again?!
I’m counting on them to lay eggs!” the village chief had roared, chasing them with a broom.
“You boys stealing from the Chief again?” the plump auntie from the bakery had laughed from her window.
“If you boys ever go hungry, come to my house,” the gruff blacksmith uncle had smiled.
“I can easily feed the three of you.” Then came the memory of returning to the village after he struck it rich.
“Old man, I brought back your chickens!” Caelan had announced.
The chief had stared in absolute shock at the massive carriage carrying hundreds of chicken coops, a giant grin breaking out on his wrinkled face.
“I knew you’d make it big, kid!
Which bandit camp did you rob?
Do bandit bosses actually raise chickens now?” “I bought them with my own money!” Caelan had scoffed playfully.
“Robbing and killing is so out of style.” “Hahaha!
Just make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal, you hear?” “Relax, these chickens are completely legitimate.” Caelan had then turned to the blacksmith.
“Uncle, you’ve been forging iron in this village your whole life.
Why don’t you come to the city with me?
I saved a nice house for all of you.” “No, no,” the blacksmith had chuckled, waving a calloused hand.
“I’ve lived here too long.
I couldn’t bear to leave.” “That’s right,” the auntie had chimed in, smiling warmly.
“Us old folks are perfectly happy living right here.” Perfectly happy.
Caelan slowly stood up from the cold cavern floor.
His Observation Haki swept outward.
Deep underground, he could still sense the Pope’s miserable, fading life force.
Deep within the underground laboratory.
“Fabu!
Fabu!
Inject me with the serum!
Now!” the Pope screamed frantically.
Fabu backed away, shaking his head.
“I can’t!
The formula hasn’t been perfected yet!” But the Pope couldn’t hear a single word.
His eardrums had been completely ruptured by Caelan’s attack; he could only see Fabu’s lips moving frantically.
“What are you saying?!
I can’t hear you!” The Pope violently shoved Fabu aside.
“Get out of my way!
I’ll do it myself!” He ripped open the containment unit, grabbed a syringe of glowing liquid, and plunged it directly into his own chest.
Almost instantly, an unimaginable wave of agony tore through his body.
“AAAAAAAHHH!!” the Pope shrieked, falling to his knees.
“This…
is all for the sake…
of biological evolution!!” “ROOOOAAR—!!” Squelch!
His human body simply couldn’t handle the overwhelming, chaotic surge of demonic energy.
His blood vessels violently ruptured, spraying blood from every pore until he was completely soaked in crimson.
“E-evol…
ution…” The Pope collapsed in a pool of his own blood, his body violently twitching before finally going entirely still.
Fabu stared at the gruesome sight, slowly creeping forward.
“Y-Your Holiness?
Your Holiness?” He reached out a trembling hand and checked the Pope’s breathing.
Nothing.
“Dead…?” Suddenly, a twisted thought crossed Fabu’s mind.
He pulled a scalpel from the surgical tray and carefully sliced open the Pope’s chest.
Resting perfectly where the man’s heart used to be was a brilliantly glowing, blood-red crystal.
“It…
it worked?!” Fabu gasped, his eyes going wide with fanatic glee.
“Hahaha…
HAHAHA!
As expected, the body of a powerful Mage yields far better results than those useless peasants!
The crystal of evolution…
how utterly beautiful.” Without a second thought, Fabu tossed the blood-soaked crystal into his mouth and swallowed it.
An explosive surge of raw power instantly detonated within him.
Fabu’s body violently expanded, tearing through his robes.
Razor-sharp claws erupted from his fingertips.
His skin hardened, shifting into a metallic, obsidian-black armor that covered his newly mutated, monstrous physique.
He clenched his fists, feeling the terrifying, god-like strength coursing through his veins.
“This is it!
The power of the new era!!” CRASH!
The heavy steel doors of the laboratory were kicked completely off their hinges.
Caelan slowly walked into the room, his eyes dead and hollow.
“Where is your Pope?” Fabu turned around, a highly arrogant smirk crossing his monstrous face.
Drunk on his newfound power, he was desperate to test his limits.
Seeing how disheveled and covered in dust Caelan looked, Fabu automatically assumed the young Mage was only slightly stronger than the Pope had been.
Without a word, Fabu violently kicked a heavy steel operating table straight at Caelan’s head.
Caelan didn’t even break his stride.
He casually swung his leg in a short arc.
A razor-sharp blade of compressed air shot from his foot, cleanly slicing the massive steel table perfectly in half.
The two halves flew past him, embedding themselves deeply into the concrete walls on either side.
With the table out of the way, Caelan finally saw the mutilated corpse of the Pope lying on the floor.
He stared at the body for a second, then glanced at the metallic monster.
Assuming this was just another rogue test subject that had broken out and taken revenge on its creator, Caelan lost all interest.
He turned around to leave.
“The one I was looking for is dead.
You can go home now.” Fabu threw his head back and laughed mockingly.
“Hahahaha!
And just where do you think you’re going, Light Mage?
I’m still here!” With a deafening sonic boom, Fabu shattered the concrete beneath his feet, closing the distance in a fraction of a second.
He pulled back a metallic fist, aiming directly for the back of Caelan’s head.
Caelan’s expression didn’t shift in the slightest.
He slowly turned around, his right arm instantly coating in the pitch-black sheen of Armament Haki, and threw a punch to meet Fabu’s.
BAM!
Vmmmm— KABOOM—!!!
The sheer, apocalyptic shockwave generated by their colliding fists instantly pulverized the laboratory.
The ceiling caved in entirely, and thousands of tons of rock and dirt came crashing down, completely burying the underground facility.
Up on the surface, a flash of golden light pierced through the massive sinkhole.
Caelan rematerialized in the air, landing softly on the edge of the crater.
‘What the hell was that thing?’ Caelan narrowed his eyes.
‘That burst of physical power…
it was actually higher than Laxus’s.’ BOOM!
A streak of black lightning erupted from the rubble, landing heavily just a few meters away.
Caelan looked at the monster, his voice dangerously calm.
“Who exactly are you?” Fabu stroked his metallic chin, acting entirely unbothered.
“Hmm, how should I introduce myself?
Oh, I know.
That amalgamated monster you fought outside?
That was my masterpiece.
Tell me, wasn’t it absolutely beautiful~?” The air around Caelan instantly froze.
Fwip!
Before Fabu could even blink, a golden boot was already buried deep into his stomach.
Fabu vomited a massive mouthful of fluorescent green blood as the impact launched him backward, sending him violently skipping across the rubble like a skipped stone.
But within seconds, Fabu burst out of the debris again, roaring in absolute fury.
“You damn human!
I am the one who bestowed upon those pathetic peasants the power to become gods!!” He charged forward like a maddened beast, completely abandoning all defense in a blind rage.
Caelan didn’t even consider him a threat anymore.
Fwip!
Caelan teleported directly beneath the charging monster.
With a devastating upward kick, he launched Fabu thousands of feet into the sky.
Golden light began to violently compress at the tip of Caelan’s index finger.
He aimed it squarely at the airborne monster.
“You’re nothing but a piece of trash with raw power and zero combat experience,” Caelan said coldly.
“Disappear, you scum.” “Cero!” KABOOM—!!!
A blinding, colossal pillar of golden energy erupted from Caelan’s finger.
It completely engulfed Fabu, incinerating him on a cellular level before continuing upward, violently punching a massive hole straight through the thick cloud cover.
As the clouds parted, the warm, orange glow of the evening sun poured down, bathing the blood-soaked valley in a peaceful twilight.
Having sprinted from the nearest town, Makarov, Erza, Mirajane, Finn, and Rook finally arrived at the canyon just in time to see the colossal golden beam pierce the heavens.
“Hurry!
Over there!” Makarov yelled.
When the group finally reached the valley floor, the battle was completely over.
Instead of enemies, they found a sprawling field of crude, makeshift tombstones—simple wooden crosses and stone slabs.
Caelan was kneeling in the dirt, using his bare fingers to meticulously carve names into the stone.
Finn and Rook slowly walked up behind him, their bodies trembling.
“Boss…” “Boss…” Caelan didn’t reply.
He silently finished carving the final stroke, slowly stood up, and gently placed the blacksmith uncle’s tombstone right next to the baker auntie’s.
Then, he walked to the center of the graves and dropped heavily to his knees.
Seeing this, Finn and Rook immediately fell to their knees right beside him.
As the two men looked at the hundreds of familiar names carved into the stone, the dam finally broke.
They buried their faces in the dirt and began to violently sob.
“Don’t cry,” Caelan ordered softly, his own voice thick with unshed tears.
“They wanted us to live a good life.” “Y-yes…
Yes, Boss!” The two of them desperately tried to hold it in, but the tears simply refused to stop falling.
Makarov slowly walked forward, standing right beside Caelan.
The old guild master removed his hat, placed it over his heart, and bowed deeply toward the hundreds of graves.
“Rest in peace,” Makarov whispered into the wind.
“I promise you…
I will take good care of them.”