Red warning lights strobed along the spiraling stone walls, casting a harsh, crimson glare over the grand staircase.
The blaring shriek of magical alarms echoed down the shaft, loud enough to rattle the teeth in their skulls.
Erza Knightwalker hadn't wasted a single second.
The entire Royal Palace was on high alert.
Natsu leaned heavily on his Fire Blade, panting as they climbed the endless stone steps.
"I don't like running up stairs," he grumbled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "And I don't like this stupid sword eating all my energy just to stay sharp."
"Pace yourself, Natsu," Ace said, effortlessly taking the stairs two at a ti. "We aren't even at the main level yet. If you burn out now, you won't be able to swing that thing when it counts."
"I know, I know," Natsu huffed. "It just feels wrong not using my own fire."
Wendy hurried up the steps right behind him, her silver bracers clinking softly.
Carla flew by her shoulder, keeping a watchful eye on their flank, while Happy carried Edo-Lucy by the back of her leather jacket to help her skip a few steps.
Wizardmon hovered gracefully in the center of the stairwell, the sun emblem on his staff casting a warm glow that fought back the flashing red alarm lights.
Gatomon padded silently beside Ace, her blue eyes sharp and focused.
"We're reaching the top," Gatomon warned, her ears twitching. "I hear heavy footsteps. A lot of them."
Ace nodded, stepping up to the massive, gilded double doors at the landing.
"Stand back."
He didn't bother looking for a handle. He pulled his right leg back and delivered a devastating kick directly to the center of the doors.
The heavy wood splintered and blew outward off its hinges, crashing onto the marble floor of the grand hall beyond.
They stepped out of the stairwell and into a vast, luxurious corridor lined with towering statues of the Edolas King. The floor was polished white marble, and massive crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling.
But the hall wasn't empty.
A blockade of fifty Royal Guards stood in tight formation, their chanical spears leveled and sparking with aggressive energy.
"Intruders!" the squad captain yelled. "Open fire!"
"Wizardmon, shield," Ace ordered casually.
Wizardmon spun his staff, slamming it into the marble floor. "Magic Ga!"
A shimring, translucent barrier erupted in front of the group. Dozens of magical blasts slamd into the shield, rippling harmlessly across the surface.
"My turn!" Gatomon hissed. She leaped over the barrier, darting across the marble floor with blinding speed. "Lightning Paw!"
She tore through the front ranks, her oversized claws shredding the chanical spears before the guards could fire a second volley.
While they were disard and panicked, Wizardmon raised his staff again.
"Thunder Cloud!"
A localized storm materialized right above the guards, dropping a concentrated bolt of lightning that chained through their heavy silver armor. The entire blockade collapsed to the marble floor, twitching and unconscious.
Natsu whistled, leaning on his sword. "Man, your summons are really handy. I didn't even have to swing."
"Keep moving," Ace said, ignoring the groaning guards as they ran down the grand corridor. "The throne room should be at the end of this hall."
"Mmm~ Not so fast, little rats!"
A bizarre, singsong voice echoed from the far end of the corridor.
A large set of side doors swung open, and a man rode out into the center of the hall. He rode a strange, green, dog-like creature with a massive head and a studded collar.
The man himself was tall, wearing a flamboyant, tight-fitting white uniform with pink accents.
A massive, blonde pompadour rested proudly on his head.
He held a sleek, curved sword that glowed with a sickening pink light.
"I'm Sugarboy!" the man declared, striking a dramatic pose on top of his weird mount. "Commander of the Fourth Magic War Division! And I can't let you trespass any further! Mmm~!"
Edo-Lucy cursed, gripping her whip. "Sugarboy. His magic sword is called Rosa Espada. It can turn anything it touches into soft, gooey mush. Don't let that blade hit your weapons, or they'll lt!"
"Anything soft?" Natsu grinned, stepping forward. "Then I'll just burn him before he gets close!"
Natsu gripped the red hilt, the lacrima core flaring to life.
He charged, swinging the roaring Fire Blade in a wide arc.
"Too slow! Mmm~!" Sugarboy laughed.
He didn't aim for Natsu's sword.
He swung Rosa Espada down, slashing the polished marble floor directly in front of him.
The pink light flared. Instantly, the solid marble rippled and lost its structural integrity, turning into a deep, bubbling pool of pink, sticky sli.
Natsu stepped into it and imdiately sank up to his knees. "Whoa! What the hell is this?!"
He tried to pull his leg out, but the sli acted like quicksand, sucking him deeper the more he struggled.
The heavy Fire Blade slipped from his grasp, the flas dying out as it sank into the goo.
"Natsu-san!" Wendy cried, running forward to help him, but she too stepped into the softened marble and sank past her ankles.
"It's no use!" Sugarboy laughed, steering his green mount around the edge of the sli pool. "Rosa Espada softens the very earth! You're trapped, little rats!"
He aid his sword at Edo-Lucy, Happy, and Carla, who were scrambling backward to avoid the spreading pool of mush.
Ace stood on a dry patch of marble, his expression unreadable.
He looked at Wizardmon. "Pull them out. I'll deal with the pompadour."
Wizardmon nodded. He pointed his staff at Natsu and Wendy.
"Magic Ga!"
A glowing rope of magical energy wrapped around their waists, pulling them out of the sli with a loud schloop sound.
Sugarboy glared at Ace, his flamboyant smile faltering. "You aren't sinking? Mmm~ No matter! I'll just soften your bones!"
He charged, his green mount leaping over the sli pool.
Sugarboy swung Rosa Espada directly at Ace's neck.
"Let's see how your sword handles a different frequency," Ace said. He swiped his hand across his D-Tector.
"Execute! Spirit Evolution!"
Rings of fractal data erupted, much wilder and more jagged than before. The intense digital light blinded Sugarboy, forcing him to shield his eyes and pull his strike back.
The data forged thick, heavy, tallic blue armor plating over Ace's body.
Massive, chanical gauntlets clamped onto his arms, and a huge, horned rhinoceros-beetle helt secured over his head.
Sparks of high-voltage electricity arced violently across his heavy tallic shell.
"Beetlemon!"
Sugarboy stared at the hulking, chanized warrior crackling with electricity. "What in the world is that?! A machine?!"
"Let's see you soften this," Beetlemon's voice buzzed with a heavy, synthesized static.
Sugarboy gritted his teeth, swinging Rosa Espada at Beetlemon's massive chest plate.
The pink blade struck the heavy blue armor, glowing intensely as it tried to force the tal to lt into mush.
The blade sparked, hissed, and violently repelled off the armor.
"Mmm~ Impossible!" Sugarboy gasped, his hands stinging from the recoil. "Rosa Espada softens everything!"
"Chro-digizoid doesn't follow your physical laws," Beetlemon stated.
Beetlemon raised his massive right gauntlet, the chanical horn on his head glowing with blinding, raw electricity.
He didn't aim at Sugarboy.
He aid directly at the pool of pink sli that covered the corridor floor.
"Lightning Blitz!"
He slamd his electrified fist into the gooey floor.
A massive, high-voltage shockwave of pure electricity surged through the sli.
Because Sugarboy's magic had turned the floor into a semi-liquid state, it acted as a perfect, highly conductive current.
The electricity tore through the sli, traveling instantly to the green mount's paws.
The beast yelped, its eyes going wide as the voltage shocked its system.
The current traveled straight up into Sugarboy.
"MMMMMM~!" Sugarboy shrieked, his skeleton flashing visibly through his skin as thousands of volts of electricity scrambled his nervous system.
His pompadour frizzed out into a charred, smoking ss.
The shock lasted only a second, but it was more than enough. Sugarboy and his mount collapsed onto the floor, twitching and smoking, thoroughly unconscious.
Without Sugarboy's active magic to sustain it, the pink sli began to slowly harden back into solid, cracked marble.
Natsu rushed forward, digging his Fire Blade out of the hardening floor just in ti.
"Good thinking, Ace! You fried the floor right out from under him!"
Beetlemon reverted back to Ace in a shower of blue data. He brushed off his coat, his breathing still perfectly calm. "His magic was problematic for a brawl, but liquids conduct electricity. It was simple math."
"You make it sound so easy," Edo-Lucy muttered, staring at the smoking, defeated Commander. She looked at Ace like he was a ghost.
"You just keep pulling these crazy transformations out of nowhere."
"I have a lot of tools," Ace said simply. He looked down the hallway, where a massive set of ornate, gold-trimd doors stood slightly ajar.
A cool breeze drifted through the gap, carrying a faint, pulsing hum.
"The balcony," Edo-Lucy breathed, her eyes widening. "Those doors lead to the King's viewing deck."
Natsu didn't wait.
He sprinted down the hall and shoved the heavy gold doors wide open, stepping out into the cool night air.
Ace, Wendy, and the others followed him out onto a massive, circular stone platform that hung off the edge of the Royal Palace.
They all stopped dead in their tracks, looking up into the sky.
Floating right above the viewing deck, tethered by thick, glowing chains of magical energy, was the giant lacrima crystal.
Up close, the sheer scale of the object was terrifying.
It was larger than a mountain, pulsing with a deep, srizing purple light that cast an eerie glow over the entire Royal Capital.
Inside that crystal, frozen in magical stasis, was the entire city of Magnolia.
Makarov, Erza, Gray, Mirajane, and every single citizen who had been absorbed by the Anima.
"They're all in there," Wendy whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
Natsu gripped the balcony railing, his knuckles turning white.
"We found them. Now we just have to figure out how to crack that thing open without breaking everyone inside."
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