Fairy Tail: The Dark Swordsman

107 - A New King

[X784, Edolas, Royal City]

— Dannis Martell —

"What do we do now?" Mirajane asked the moment Hades and his ilk disappeared.

Dannis lowered his sword before looking back at Wraith Jellal, who remained kneeling beside his original body. The spectral figure looked strangely still, almost contemplative. With a mental command, Wraith Racer appeared beside the corpse.

The speedster wraith nodded once, then lifted Jellal's body onto his shoulder.

"We end this," Dannis replied simply.

Nearby, Makarov nodded approvingly.

"With Laxus in the castle, King Faust should be apprehended sooner rather than later," the old master said as magical power gathered around him.

Makarov crossed his arms. While his expression was grim, there was still a bit of hope as the tide of the battle had finally shifted.

Despite Grimoire Heart's sudden appearance complicating things, Dannis couldn't deny that they were a major help in subduing the Edolas siege weapons.

A moment later his feet left the ground as the tiny old man slowly rose into the air.

"I'm going to delay the royal army reinforcements. Dannis, Mira; the both of you find Mystogan and find a way to rescue the others. Lucy, go with Happy and Carla and find the other Exceeds that were captured."

"Aye sir!" Happy replied, with the others giving their own affirmations. Makarov smiled faintly, then he shot into the sky with surprising speed, becoming a rapidly shrinking figure amidst the smoke-filled horizon.

Lucy and the cats joined a second later as they took off into the sky.

"How are we going to find Mystogan?" Mirajane asked. "He has no magic for us to sense."

Closing his eyes, Dannis took stock of the situation in Edolas.

His vision fragmented as hundreds of perspectives flooded his mind. He had spread his wraiths across the entire city at the beginning of this, and Dannis had long since learned how to filter the overwhelming sensation.

Instead of drowning within the information, he calmly sorted through it.

To the north by the bay, Juvia was still hard at work as she singlehandedly took on an entire battalion of Edolas soldiers.

Massive waves towered over the docks as dozens of overturned warships floated uselessly in the harbor. The Edolas royal army had to abandon their advance after being repeatedly swept into the river.

Behind her, the docks had been turned into a safe haven by the residents of New Magnolia. Those that had followed Edo Dannis to the battlefield to establish a makeshift refugee camp.

Tents and supply stations were prepared for the wounded or innocent civilians who wanted to get away from the war.

Dannis immediately directed nearly half his remaining Wraiths toward the district to help Juvia cover the refugee camp. If anything slipped past her, the Wraiths would intervene.

That was when he suddenly paused.

'Is that...?'

Among the camp, he saw a pair of familiar faces. Dannis' breath hitched, for he saw the faces of his parents rushing to and fro within the camp.

Both wore scrubs over their clothing, not unlike the ones Porlyusica usually had.

His mother knelt beside a crying child, carefully wrapping a bandage around a scraped knee. Nearby, his father barked instructions while carrying crates of medical supplies as several healers and alchemists followed behind him.