For some reason, Dispel noticed Kira's tone suddenly light up, brimming with excitement, like the time Dispel first came to Ishgar and saw the magic he'd only heard about in legends.
He didn't know that, to Kira, the Anywhere Door held a special place in his heart. In modern terms, it was the unattainable dream of his childhood—a shining, unreachable star.
"Once we get the Anywhere Door working, the delivery business is gonna explode!" Kira declared.
Dispel raised an eyebrow. "Delivery? You're serious?"
"Dead serious!" Kira's face lit up, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. "We'll open a restaurant, hire a couple of top-notch chefs, and as long as their cooking's good enough, I'll have their dishes delivered to the capital, to all of Ishgar… no, to every corner of Earth Land!"
"Why not deliver to Edolas while you're at it?" Dispel teased. "Think bigger, man! Go all out!"
Kira rolled his eyes. "You think I haven't considered it? But having the same people in two worlds interacting long-term? That'd mess with the stability of the magic world."
Dispel: "…"
After indulging in some lighthearted daydreaming, Dispel raised his blade again, eyeing the crystal tower in front of them as he adjusted his stance. "Seriously, though, the power to bring someone back to life—doesn't that tempt you at all?"
This was the second time he'd asked Kira this question. He was genuinely curious. Did Kira really have no one he wanted to bring back? Not for sentimental reasons, but maybe just for the chaos of it—reviving some weird character for kicks.
"Nah, no need!" Kira said firmly. "Let the dead stay dead. If you're always stuck in the past, how can you move forward?"
"Every generation has its own story. Maybe it's not epic, maybe it ends with regrets, but that's what makes it real, fair, and equal…"
"Besides, I don't have anyone important who's died unexpectedly!"
"But, uh, if I ever do use the R-System, just pretend I didn't say any of that!"
After all, since middle school, Kira had written plenty of 800-word essays on "law versus emotion." There's the law, sure, but human feelings matter too, right? Totally normal.
Dispel nodded, getting it. He swung his blade one final time, muttering that Kira's last line was the most honest one.
---
Inside the Tower of Heaven, Jellal was seething as he felt the crystal structure crumbling. He glared at Erza, who was still fighting back with fierce determination.
He knew Kira was behind this, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"Damn it! Damn it!! Damn it!!!"
His furious roars were met with the mocking echo of Dispel's final slash.
"Eight years of my work… ruined just like that?! I'll kill that Kira!!"
"Not giving up yet?" Erza shot back. "The Tower of Heaven is done for. Your plan's failed!"
She charged forward, her twin swords flashing as she moved with the grace of a fairy, her heart pounding with exhilaration. This dark, sinful place—this fake paradise—it's finally going to be destroyed!
Jellal screamed in frustration. "Destroying the magic crystals will make their ethernano explode! Everyone around here will be caught in it! Is that guy insane?!"
"If Kira's doing this, he's got a way to get everyone out safely," Erza replied with a confident laugh. "He might act like a goof most of the time, but when it counts, he's more reliable than anyone. He'd never risk his friends' lives. I trust him!"
"As for you and me, Jellal… let's go down with this place!!"
If Kira had heard that, he'd probably be tearing up with gratitude. Truth is, in the original timeline, the ethernano didn't fully explode, so he hadn't even considered that possibility.
"Hahahaha!" Jellal's rage turned into a manic laugh. "Fine, I failed this time, but give me eight years—no, five! In five years, I'll build another paradise like this. As for you, Erza, you can die here!"
"I'm the sacrifice to revive Zeref, aren't I? Can you really bring yourself to kill me?" Erza challenged.
Jellal grinned wildly. "You're the ideal candidate, sure, but at this point, you're not irreplaceable!"
"What?"
"As long as they've got the potential to be a Wizard Saint, anyone will do! You're not as important to me as you think, Erza!"
Erza fell silent.
The imaging lacrima kept recording—blackmail material for later, whether it'd be useful or not.
Taking advantage of Erza's distraction, Jellal clasped his hands, raising seven fingers in a dramatic pose for a big move. "Face the judgment of the seven stars!"
At some point, he'd set up a magic circle in the sky, mimicking the Big Dipper. Seven glowing points connected in a line, radiating brilliant golden light.
"Oh no!" Erza realized too late.
In a flash, the seven stars lit up one by one, then crashed down like meteors.
"Grand Chariot!!"
Just as the starlight was about to hit Erza, a white slash cut through the air to save her!
The massive white beam tore through the falling stars with unstoppable force, slicing a clean line across the crystal floor like a knife through a rice dumpling. It kept going, soaring into the distance!
"Impossible!" Jellal gaped, stunned. "That spell has the power of a meteor shower, and it was shattered so easily?!"
Erza, narrowly escaping disaster, regained her focus, gripping her dual blades. "A meteor? That's nothing! We're Fairy Tail!"
Outside, floating in the air, Kira suddenly perked up, glancing around. "Where's that epic background music coming from?"
"What are you babbling about?" Dispel asked.
"Nothing—look, the crystal tower's collapsing!"
The irregularly shaped crystal structure shattered into dozens of jagged chunks after that final slash, tumbling down under gravity's pull.
Amid the chaos, Erza and Jellal's figures could be seen, still fighting with unshaken resolve.
Dispel raised an eyebrow. "They're still not done?"
Kira wasn't surprised. Those two were powerhouses—there was no way their fight would end quickly. "Destined rivals like them? It's never that simple."
Erza had switched to her Black Wing Armor, bat-like wings letting her soar through the air.
Jellal, despite his crumbling plans, was still doggedly pursuing her, moving across the falling crystal chunks as if glued to them, showing no signs of losing balance.
But his face told a different story—his heart was anything but steady.
"What's that?" Dispel pointed at a dark speck below.
Kira, still admiring the collapsing tower, answered casually, "Oh, that's my imaging lacrima. Should still be recording…"
"Not that!"
Then what? Kira followed Dispel's gaze and spotted a figure dodging falling crystals while flying upward—it was Happy, carrying… or rather, being dragged by Natsu, who was riding the flames of his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.
At the same time, Kira noticed another figure plummeting—Simon.
"Looks like they didn't trust Erza to handle this alone," Kira said. "But they're not gonna get a chance to jump in now."
As they spoke, Kira raised his left hand, fingers crossed in front of him, while his right hand stretched forward. For the first time in a while, he unleashed his Word Magic.
"Gravity!"
The simple word carried an irresistible force. The falling crystals froze mid-air, then, like iron drawn to a magnet, they surged toward Kira.
"What's happening? Why are the crystals moving that way?" Happy exclaimed.
"Natsu, look! It's Kira!" Happy pointed.
Natsu turned and saw Kira's figure partially obscured by the crystals.
"What's he doing?"
"No clue…"
Next to Kira, a small white cloth bag, about the size of an arm, floated in the air. Inside it, invisible to the eye, was a gravitational force like a black hole, pulling in all the magic crystals.
The moment they touched the bag's opening, crystals as big as several people shrank dozens or even hundreds of times, becoming no larger than a fingernail before vanishing inside.
Magic's wild like that—storing a mountain in a mustard seed is just another day in Earth Land.
The bag, enchanted with [Size Reduction] magic, could shrink massive objects for storage. It was an upgraded version of Kira's [Storage Pack], linked directly to his warehouse.
Why make something like this? Easy: convenience, and who in their right mind would keep explosive magic crystals at home?
Plus, his warehouse definitely didn't have room for crystals that big!
---