Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 190

Chapter 190: Smash the Magic Egg!

After hearing the old Village Chief’s grim deduction, a suffocating silence fell over the villagers. Beside him, Guard Uncle Bereste lowered his head, his arms hanging rigidly by his sides, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.

None of them had ever anticipated this. The suffocating shadow of fear that had choked their home for the past four years ultimately traced back to Éclair—the very girl they had been desperately trying to save.

The truth was a jagged pill to swallow, cruel to the villagers, but infinitely crueler to Éclair herself.

“So… it was Éclair’s arrival that plunged the entire village into this nightmare?” Lucy’s brown eyes widened in horror. She pressed both hands over her mouth, her voice trembling. “How could this happen…”

Before anyone could answer, a heavy thud echoed from the edge of the dense forest. A canvas package had slipped from trembling fingers, hitting the dirt.

Éclair stood frozen at the tree line. The color had completely drained from her face, leaving behind a mask of pure, unadulterated terror. Blood dripped steadily from the shallow gashes on her weakly hanging arm, pattering softly against the grass—a rhythm that perfectly mirrored the shattering of her spirit as the truth washed over her.

Momon hovered beside her, frantically flapping his little wings. The small bird forced a painfully stiff smile onto his beak, his voice pitching into a desperate, trembling plea. “H-Hey, Lucy! Village Chief! Everyone… you’re just kidding, right? How could Éclair be the cause of the disaster? This has to be a bad joke, right?”

The clearing remained dead silent.

The villagers averted their gazes, staring down at the dirt. They didn’t know how to answer the frantic bird, nor did they know how to look at Éclair. Even if she was the unwitting catalyst that had cost them their loved ones and trapped them in a living nightmare, they couldn’t just erase everything she had done for them. This was the same girl who had repeatedly thrown herself into the jaws of death, fighting off magic beasts to protect them. She had worked harder and bled more than anyone else to restore their home’s peace.

Seeing the silent, heavy acknowledgment etched across the villagers’ faces, the last fragile thread of hope snapped inside Éclair’s chest. Her psychological defenses crumbled into dust.

“Everyone’s suffering… all the misfortunes…”

Her knees buckled. She slumped heavily into the dirt, staring blankly at her blood-stained hands. “…are all because of me.”

The blood coating her palms belonged to the magic beasts she had fought in the forest, but right now, it looked like the blood of the villagers. In her mind’s eye, she could hear the agonizing wails of the people who had been twisted into demons. She knew their names. She knew their faces.

A violent, splitting headache tore through her skull. The intense emotional trauma forcibly shattered the mental blocks in her mind, and the missing fragments of her memory surged forward like a broken dam.

She saw the ancient Fire Clan swallowed by a sea of roaring flames. She heard the dying, desperate instructions of the village elder. She remembered her absolute essential: Find Kalard!

That was it. The entire reason she had wandered into the Boundary Forest in the first place was to search for the Mage named Kalard!

The collision of her past memories and her present guilt ravaged her nerves. Her entire body began to shake violently. Hot tears spilled over her eyelashes, carving clean tracks down her dirt-smudged cheeks. “It’s all my fault… I’m the one who ruined everything…”

The darkness of despair was just about to swallow her consciousness whole when a sudden weight crashed into her.

Something soft and warm collided with her chest. Through her tear-blurred vision, a vibrant flash of golden hair filled her sight.

“That’s not true! You had absolutely no idea!” Lucy threw her arms around the trembling girl, pulling her into a fierce, unyielding embrace right there in the dirt. “You’ve been fighting so desperately for the future of this village! So don’t you dare say it’s all your fault!”

The sudden impact left Éclair stunned. The fabric of their clothes couldn’t hide the genuine, radiating warmth of the celestial mage’s body.

“You say that so easily…” After a few seconds of frozen shock, Éclair’s face twisted in agony. She thrashed wildly, shoving her hands against Lucy’s shoulders to break free. “You Mages with your immense power… you couldn’t possibly understand how I feel right now!”

She had always harbored a deep-seated resistance, even a quiet disgust, toward Mages. She believed their unnatural power only bred misfortune. And now, the cruelest irony of all had been revealed: she was the source of the misfortune. The realization left her drowning in a suffocating ocean of guilt.

Despite Éclair’s frantic struggling and hitting, Lucy refused to let go. Shedding her usual timid demeanor, the blonde mage locked her arms tighter, anchoring the broken girl in place.

“I understand. I really do understand.”

Lucy rested her chin on Éclair’s shoulder, her golden bangs casting a shadow over her sad, fiercely determined eyes. “Because of my family background, I once dragged the friends I wanted to protect into a brutal war. I watched the guild that held all my precious memories get completely destroyed because of me. So…” Her grip tightened. “I know exactly how much you’re hurting right now!”

Even now, the memories of the Phantom Lord war were burned into Lucy’s mind. She could still see the towering Magic Giant looming over their guildhall, and she remembered the agonizing helplessness of watching her friends lay their lives on the line just to keep her safe.

Éclair was standing on that exact same precipice, wishing she could trade her own life to atone for sins she hadn’t meant to commit. But Lucy knew better than anyone that drowning in that kind of self-hatred was the wrong path. That conviction was what drove her to dive into the dirt and hold Éclair together.

Feeling the frantic struggles weaken, Lucy finally eased her grip just enough to pull back. She looked directly into Éclair’s tear-drenched eyes.

“Some mistakes shouldn’t be carried on your shoulders alone. Doing that will only bring more sorrow to the people who care about you.”

Éclair froze.

Following Lucy’s gentle gaze, she looked past the blonde mage’s shoulder. The old Village Chief and the rest of the villagers were watching her—not with hatred or blame, but with deep, aching worry.

The hands she had been using to push Lucy away slowly lost their strength, sliding limply down the mage’s arms.

Deep down, Éclair had already known. From the very first moment she met Lucy, she sensed that this blonde girl was entirely different from the Mages she despised. There was a deep, empathetic gentleness in Lucy’s eyes that understood the weight of human sorrow. It was why she had secretly grown fond of her, even if her stubborn pride had forced her to keep a cold, distant front.

“Lucy…” Éclair’s voice cracked, finally letting her desperate, helpless vulnerability show. “Please tell me… what should I do?”

“If you don’t have anyone else to lean on, then let me be your partner! I’ll help you carry it!”

Lucy’s face lit up. She was genuinely thrilled that the usually stoic Éclair was finally opening up, and even happier that she could pass on the same salvation her guildmates had given her during the Phantom Lord war. A brilliant, sunlit smile bloomed across her face. “Besides, helping you is the whole point of our request!”

Then, a beat of silence passed.

A faint blush crept up Lucy’s neck. “Ugh, wait, did that sound way too arrogant? I’m still just a half-baked newcomer, honestly. I can’t actually do much of anything without Chase…”

“Ahaha… ahahaha…” She scratched the back of her head, laughing awkwardly as her cool, dramatic moment completely evaporated.

As expected of Fairy Tail’s premier tsukkomi, she was ruthless even when roasting herself. Éclair just blinked at her, utterly blank-faced, torn between being deeply moved by the heartfelt declaration and completely derailed by the sudden whiplash in Lucy’s personality.

“Lucy is right. Resolving this village’s crisis is exactly what we’re here to do.”

Seeing that Éclair had been pulled back from the brink, Chase casually strolled over, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“And you really don’t need to beat yourself up over this. The Phoenix Stone was merely a catalyst. Even without the stimulation of the Phoenix’s aura, the Devil King would have awakened eventually.” Chase looked around the clearing, his tone calm and analytical. “Actually, it’s precisely because you showed up that the Devil King was forced to expose itself early, giving us a window to actually fix this.”

Based on the intelligence Ultear had provided regarding the entity’s abilities, it wasn’t hard for Chase to piece the puzzle together. The ‘blessing’ the villagers had received from the egg-shaped fossil wasn’t a magic that weakened the beasts of the forest. It was an absorption magic.

The slumbering Devil King had been using the villagers’ bodies as living conduits, siphoning magical energy from the environment to slowly fuel its own resurrection. The villagers survived the deadly forest thanks to this parasitic drain, while the Devil King quietly fattened itself up in the shadows. If left unchecked, the eventual awakening would have been catastrophic—far worse than a few villagers turning into demons.

But Éclair’s arrival, carrying the blood of the Phoenix—the Devil King’s natural nemesis—had triggered a premature panic response from the entity, causing the erratic “anomalies” that plagued the village.

“So, our next step is incredibly simple.”

Chase cracked his knuckles, a sharp, irrepressible thrill of battle flashing in his dark eyes. He flashed a confident grin. “We go down to that underground altar, and we smash the magic egg.”

The signs of the Devil King’s awakening were already bleeding into the environment. Sending Éclair away now wouldn’t stop the inevitable.

“Wait, wait, Chase! Didn’t Ultear specifically tell us not to act rashly yet?” Lucy scrambled up, waving her hands in a panic. “If we make a massive scene and the Magic Council gets involved, we won’t get a single Jewel of the reward!”

Chase didn’t miss a beat. He deployed the ultimate weapon against his celestial mage. “Exactly! Eighteen million Jewels, Lucy. Are we really going to let a pile of cash that big just sit there?”

The sheer mention of the bounty instantly vaporized Lucy’s cowardice. Her eyes practically morphed into golden Jewel symbols.

Floating just over Chase’s shoulder, Dark Magician Girl leaned in close, covering her mouth as she whispered into his ear. “What reward? Master is clearly just itching to blow something up, isn’t he?”

Chase merely smirked, offering no denial.

“Um… if it’s possible, can I go with you?” Éclair slowly pushed herself up from the dirt, brushing off her knees. This entire tragedy was tied to her existence. She needed to see it end with her own eyes.

“We will go as well. Lady Lucy, Mr. Chase, please permit us to accompany you!”

The old Village Chief stepped forward, flanked by the rest of the villagers. Their faces were carved with absolute resolve. Even if it was a parasitic trap, the magic egg had kept their ancestors alive for nearly four hundred years. For the sake of their history, their demonized family members, and the future of their home, they needed to witness the conclusion of their destiny.

“The immediate threats in the village are gone, but I can’t guarantee you won’t be affected by the Devil King’s raw aura down there.” Chase’s playful demeanor vanished, replaced by the stern authority of an S-Class Mage. “Worst case scenario… you might mutate into demons just like the others.”

Because the ambient Magic Power was so dense, Mages could resist the demonization as long as they didn’t linger forever. But for ordinary humans with fragile magical containers, the risk was astronomical.

Yet, looking into the unwavering eyes of the villagers, Chase already knew their answer.

“Even so, we are not afraid!” the Chief declared.

Having learned the ugly truth, and knowing their mutated loved ones could never be restored, they had made their peace with the consequences.

Chase held their gaze for a moment, then nodded. He turned on his heel and waved a hand, leading the procession back through the stone gates and into the heart of the village. Lucy, Dark Magician Girl, Éclair, and Momon flanked him, while the villagers marched steadily behind.

The path was entirely unobstructed.

They crossed the central square and descended into the dark, damp subterranean tunnels. The air grew noticeably colder and heavier the deeper they went. Chase walked at the vanguard, his magical aura flaring to life. A dark golden Magic Power barrier expanded outward, enveloping the entire group in a protective dome. While it couldn’t completely neutralize the oppressive, invisible suction radiating from the depths, it successfully insulated the villagers from being instantly drained.

Finally, the narrow tunnel opened up into a massive underground cavern.

At the center of the subterranean ruins sat the altar. Suspended directly above it was the magic egg—no longer a dull fossil, but a pulsing, terrifying core wrapped in a violent crimson halo of energy.

“I haven’t been down here in years. I never imagined it would become something so horrifying…” The old Village Chief gasped, his eyes reflecting the bloody light. When the anomalies first began, he had risked a trip down here. Back then, it was just a dormant stone. There had been no suffocating pressure, no crimson halo.

Éclair stared at the pulsing mass, equally horrified by the sheer malice radiating from it.

“Éclair, let me borrow your Phoenix Stone for a second,” Chase said, holding out his hand.

To destroy the egg and abort the Devil King’s resurrection, they first had to shatter that defensive crimson halo. Based on the feedback from Kuriboh and Plue’s earlier kamikaze attacks, Chase had deduced that the halo wasn’t just raw energy—it was woven with a conceptual rule-based magic, highly similar to Freed’s Jutsu Shiki. Breaking it with pure brute force would require an immense output.

Chase was entirely confident he could obliterate it, but doing so would likely vaporize the entire cavern and wipe the village off the map in the crossfire.

Instead, he opted for a tactical approach: using the Phoenix Stone, which naturally carried the aura of the Devil King’s nemesis, to pierce the barrier. It would save his Magic Power for whatever monstrosity popped out of the shell. And if it failed? Well, he’d just resort to blowing the place up anyway. As the former ‘Destruction King’ of Sorcerer Weekly, leveling a landscape carried zero psychological burden for him.

Éclair didn’t hesitate. She reached behind her neck, unclasped the half of the Phoenix Stone, and placed it in his palm.

Chase didn’t throw it immediately. He tossed the stone lightly in his hand, feeling its weight. The material used to seal a legendary magical creature was absurdly dense. Even Natsu, seven years from now, couldn’t put a scratch on this thing with a full-power Fire Dragon’s Iron Fist.

Driven by the sheer, stubborn competitive spirit of a Shounen protagonist, Chase squeezed his fist, applying a terrifying amount of physical pressure just to see if he could crack it.

The result was immediate: not even a hairline fracture.

Sighing in mild disappointment, Chase’s expression sharpened into absolute focus. He raised his right arm. A complex, slowly rotating golden magic circle flared to life around his bicep. The heavy, metallic rattling of ethereal chains echoed through the cavern as the Right Arm of the Forbidden One materialized, layering an ocean of ancient, crushing pressure into his muscles.

A split second later, a violent surge of crimson lightning erupted around his fist—the unmistakable, destructive signature of Slifer the Sky Dragon God Slayer Magic. The dual amplification pushed his physical throwing power to a monstrous peak.

“Alright, let’s see how you like this!”

Chase planted his back foot. The solid stone floor beneath his boot instantly spider-webbed and cratered from the sheer torque. With a thunderous boom, he hurled the Phoenix Stone.

Under the breathless gaze of the crowd, the stone tore through the cavern like a railgun slug, dragging a screaming trail of crimson lightning behind it. It slammed dead-center into the magic egg’s energy halo!

CRACKLE!

The crimson barrier rippled violently, warping inward under the immense kinetic and magical impact. For three agonizing seconds, the two opposing forces deadlocked. Then, with a sound like shattering glass, the rule-based halo exploded into millions of harmless, dissipating light particles.

“Yes! It worked!” Lucy threw her hands in the air, cheering alongside the relieved villagers.

But Chase didn’t celebrate. His brow furrowed, his combat instincts screaming that something was fundamentally wrong.

The Phoenix Stone had successfully shattered the outer halo, but its momentum had died immediately after. It had dropped straight to the floor, completely missing the physical shell of the egg.

So why were massive, jagged fissures suddenly spider-webbing across the surface of the magic egg?

Before he could voice the warning, a suffocating pulse of pitch-black light erupted from the cracks. An ancient, impossibly violent aura slammed into the cavern walls, heavy enough to make the air itself feel like sludge.

From within the crumbling ruins of the shattered eggshell, a pair of massive, glowing crimson eyes slowly snapped open.

The terrifying magical calamity from centuries past—

—had just woken up early.