Chapter 536 - 536: Good. Destroy It Now.

"Woah!"

"What is that?!"

The moment Noah hauled the heavy blast doors open, a collective chorus of stunned gasps echoed through the corridor.

Meredy, Wendy, and Chelia involuntarily shrieked, stumbling backward in horror. Ultear and Erza quickly caught them, pulling the younger girls close. Feeling the protective warmth of their older sisters, the young girls' racing hearts slowly began to steady.

Lucy, Levy, and Juvia clamped their hands over their mouths, their eyes trembling violently.

They had never expected to find something so utterly grotesque hidden within the belly of the airship.

Deep inside the dimly lit engine room stood a massive, cylindrical cultivation tank. Through the thick, reinforced glass observation window, they could see the tank was filled with a viscous, glowing green fluid. Suspended in the exact center of the fluid was a colossal, grotesque, fleshy heart.

The massive organ was violently pulsating, expanding and contracting with a deep, rhythmic, thumping sound that reverberated through the metal floor.

Directly in front of the massive tank was a highly advanced console. Two of Noah's Thought Projections were currently stationed there, rapidly typing on holographic keyboards to analyze the grotesque organ.

For many of the younger guild members, this was their first time standing face-to-face with a massive, disembodied human organ. A wave of profound nausea washed over the crowd, their faces turning a collective shade of sickly pale green.

"Is that...?" Lucy gagged, keeping her hands clamped firmly over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up.

"That's exactly where the name 'Grimoire Heart' came from," Noah replied grimly.

"Is that... actually a demon's heart?" Erza asked, her expression hardening into a stern, disgusted glare as she stared at the pulsating mass of flesh.

"No, of course not. It's an artificial organ. Precht artificially cultivated and mutated this heart using incredibly advanced, highly unethical biological engineering. It's essentially a massive, fleshy battery designed to continuously generate and pump life force and magic directly into his body. It's the sole reason he was able to maintain his youth and possess such overwhelming magical capacity.

"Furthermore, it serves as the primary power source for this entire airship," Noah explained, shaking his head in disgust.

The guild members shuddered, feeling incredibly uncomfortable just looking at the unnatural, thumping monstrosity.

"I assume you already have a plan to dispose of that thing?" Ultear asked, gently rubbing Meredy's back to soothe the terrified girl while shooting a disgusted glare at the tank.

"Yeah. I can't leave a grotesque, dark magic anomaly like that sitting in the middle of our ship. Once my clones finish digitizing the last of its operational data, I'm going to rip it out and completely incinerate it. I'll build a clean, high-density Lacrima engine to replace it.

"The new engine will operate on the same fundamental principles as the massive battery arrays powering the guildhall's defensive matrix, just significantly more advanced. Which reminds me, I really need to get back to Magnolia and upgrade the guildhall's power grid soon," Noah mused, mentally adding another task to his endless to-do list.

"Since you already have a disposal plan, we're going to leave. Staring at that thing is making me sick to my stomach," Ultear announced, wrapping an arm around Meredy and turning away.

"Agreed. Let's get out of here," Sorano shuddered, grabbing a pale-faced Yukino and practically sprinting away from the engine room doors.

Having satisfied their morbid curiosity and seen the horrifying reality of dark magic firsthand, the rest of the guild members eagerly followed suit, hurrying back to the upper decks. Staring at a massive, disembodied, pulsating heart was incredibly unsettling.

"First Master, aren't you coming?" Mirajane asked gently. She was the last one standing in the doorway and noticed Mavis hadn't moved. Mirajane had planned to give the First Master a grand tour of the newly renovated upper decks.

"No, I think I'll stay here and help Noah process this," Mavis replied, pointing at the massive heart.

She knew exactly what this monstrosity was. Precht had built it as a crude imitation of her own cursed body—Fairy Heart. Since it was deeply tied to her own history, she felt a profound responsibility to help dismantle it.

"First Master, you should wait a bit before dealing with this. Go take the tour. Relax and enjoy the ship," Noah gently suggested, shaking his head.

Mavis had spent the last two weeks trapped on a barren rock, subjecting herself to agonizing psychological trauma and physical pain during the curse trials. She deserved a break.

"Come on, First Master! Let's go see the new swimming pool!" Mirajane smiled, gently grabbing Mavis's hand and pulling her toward the exit.

"Okay! I'll be back later to help you finish this!" Mavis called out over her shoulder as Mirajane dragged her away.

Noah nodded, watching them leave.

"The Devil's Heart..." Makarov murmured.

With the crowd gone, only Makarov and Noah remained in the doorway. Makarov stared at the pulsating organ, his expression incredibly complex and sorrowful.

Noah didn't say anything. He knew Makarov was mourning the tragic, twisted legacy of his predecessor. That was something Makarov had to process on his own.

Noah simply walked past the old man, stepping up to the console alongside his clones to continue analyzing the final streams of data.

A few hours later, Mavis returned to the engine room.

She hadn't forgotten her promise. After Mirajane had given her a comprehensive, incredibly exciting tour of the newly renovated residential decks, Mavis had immediately hurried back down.

She quickly joined Noah at the console.

Truthfully, "research" wasn't the right word. They were simply summarizing, cataloging, and cross-referencing.

Noah had already downloaded Precht's original blueprints and research logs regarding the Devil's Heart. Having the physical organ right in front of him made verifying the theoretical data incredibly easy. He and his clones had practically finished analyzing the organ days ago; they were just running final checks to ensure they hadn't missed any microscopic, obscure runic sequences.

With Mavis's peerless intellect assisting him, the final verification process accelerated massively.

Within a few hours, after running a few final, minor stress tests on the cultivation tank's absorption arrays, Noah and Mavis completely decoded the Devil's Heart.

"Alright. Destroy it," Mavis ordered, staring at the pulsating organ with deep disgust.

Having read Precht's logs, she knew exactly how much horrific, unethical dark magic and human suffering went into forging this monstrosity. Now that they had successfully extracted the underlying mechanical genius from the organ, there was absolutely no reason to let the grotesque flesh continue existing.

"Gladly. I'm destroying it right now," Noah agreed without hesitation.

He was thoroughly sick of looking at it. If it hadn't contained revolutionary magical engineering that could benefit the guild, he would have incinerated it the second he found it.

Makarov stood silently in the background, offering no objections.

Noah quickly typed a command into the console, completely severing the Devil's Heart's connection to the airship's power grid. He then reversed the flow of the cultivation tank, rapidly draining the glowing green nutrient fluid into external containment vats.

The moment the fluid drained, the massive heart was exposed to the open air. Stripped of its life-sustaining nutrients, the organ's violent, rhythmic thumping instantly weakened. The rapid heartbeat slowed to a sluggish, dying crawl, before finally stopping completely.

Using his magic, Noah carefully extracted the massive, lifeless organ from the tank.

He raised his hand. In a flash of light, Noah, Makarov, Mavis, and the massive, suspended heart teleported out of the engine room, reappearing on the sandy beach of Tenrou Island.

Noah pointed his right hand at the suspended heart. His eyes glowed with a terrifying, golden light.

FSHHHHH!

A blinding flash of golden magic enveloped the organ. In a fraction of a second, every single drop of moisture, blood, and cellular fluid was violently extracted and vaporized. The massive, fleshy heart instantly withered, shrinking into a dry, desiccated, mummified husk.

"Crash!"

Another flash of golden light.

The mummified husk was instantly subjected to absolute, crushing kinetic pressure. It didn't just break; it was violently pulverized on a microscopic level, instantly reducing the entire mass into a cloud of ultra-fine, gray dust.

Noah surged his magic, swinging his right arm in a wide arc. A violent, localized gale erupted from his hand, sweeping the cloud of gray dust high into the air and blasting it far out over the open ocean.

A natural sea breeze caught the remaining particles, scattering them until absolutely nothing remained.

The Devil's Heart was gone.

Makarov and Mavis stood silently on the beach, watching the dust vanish over the horizon. Neither of them spoke.

"Alright. Let's head back. We still have a massive amount of work to do on the airship," Noah said after a long moment of silence.

The two Masters nodded in agreement. Noah activated his Spatial Magic, teleporting the trio back onto the ship.

On the upper decks, the guild members were working with fiery enthusiasm, shouting orders and carrying heavy materials under the strict, organized supervision of Noah's clones.

Mavis immediately tried to run off to help them, but Noah grabbed her arm and practically dragged her back down toward the engine room.

Putting Mavis's peerless, supercomputer-like brain to work carrying lumber was an absolute, unforgivable waste of resources.

Noah needed her to help him design the airship's new, clean magical engine. He had already drafted the preliminary structural schematics and runic frameworks, but he needed Mavis to review the incredibly complex spatial and energy-conversion equations to ensure he hadn't made any microscopic errors, and to offer suggestions for optimization.

Mavis naturally didn't refuse. Tactical analysis, logistical planning, and complex magical calculations were her absolute specialties.

Makarov, meanwhile, wandered the ship, looking for places where his physical strength could be useful.

The guild members happily accepted his help. Makarov frequently used his Titan magic to expand his arms, effortlessly hauling massive steel support beams and heavy magical conduits across the ship. Whenever Makarov transformed, Laxus would magically appear a few feet away, keeping a sharp, protective eye on his grandfather to ensure the old man didn't accidentally strain his back or push himself too hard.

For the next few days, Noah and Mavis practically locked themselves in a makeshift laboratory, finalizing the blueprints for the new magical engine.

Once the design was flawless, Noah moved on to fabrication. It took several more days of meticulous forging, runic carving, and rigorous stress testing, but eventually, the new engine was complete.

Back in the engine room, Noah completely dismantled the horrific cultivation tank, sealing the glass and metal components into storage cards to be melted down and recycled later.

In the exact spot where the cultivation tank had stood, Noah installed the new engine.

The core of the engine consisted of a massive, ultra-high-density Lacrima crystal, surrounded by a perfectly symmetrical ring of nine smaller, specialized Lacrimas.

Every single inch of the crystals was intricately carved with revolutionary magical arrays Noah had developed over the last decade, seamlessly integrated with the safe, highly efficient energy-conversion theories he had extracted from the Devil's Heart.

The massive central crystal possessed a terrifyingly rapid ambient Ethernano absorption rate. Thanks to Noah and Mavis's brilliant design, the clean Lacrima engine's absorption and storage efficiency perfectly matched the grotesque, biological efficiency of the original Devil's Heart.

Furthermore, the nine smaller peripheral crystals were intrinsically linked to the central core in a complex, overlapping feedback loop. They constantly cycled, purified, and amplified the magic, creating a compounding effect that resulted in an overall energy output significantly greater than the sum of its individual parts.

This clean, incredibly powerful engine guaranteed an absolute, uninterrupted power supply for the entire airship. It could easily sustain basic flight operations while simultaneously powering all the luxurious new amenities and specialized training rooms the guild had requested.

More importantly, it guaranteed absolute combat superiority.

Noah ran the combat simulations. Even if the airship was engaged in a massive dogfight—simultaneously maintaining maximum-density defensive barriers, continuously firing the ship's primary magical artillery, and running all internal life-support systems at maximum capacity—the new engine's magical output would comfortably exceed the demand.

Noah was thrilled. With a power source this robust, everyone aboard the ship would be incredibly safe.

"Phew... we finally finished it," Mavis smiled, wiping a tiny bead of sweat from her forehead.

She was genuinely overjoyed. The moment she regained her physical body, she was able to actively participate in a massive guild project. It felt incredible.

"It's perfect. The telemetry data from the live-fire stress tests actually exceeded our theoretical projections," Noah grinned, reviewing the final diagnostic readouts on his Archive screen.

Having run multiple simulated stress tests and confirming that the engine was flawless across all metrics, Noah finally breathed a massive sigh of relief.

The most critical, complex component of the entire airship retrofit was finally complete. The rest of the renovations were purely structural and cosmetic; they could take their time finishing the rest.

~~~

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