Chapter 585 - 585: The Hatred Between Humans and Dragons

"Is that so? Still, those Dragon Slayers should definitely be here."

Selene's familiar, alluring voice drifted in from outside the village.

Every member of Diabolos immediately tensed.

They disengaged from their opponents almost at once and regrouped, while Skullion hurriedly hoisted the unconscious Suzaku onto his back.

All of them looked as though they were preparing to face a disaster.

Unlike the people of Ishgar, the Dragon Eaters of Diabolos had never regarded dragons as creatures of myth.

They had seen real dragons.

Some of them had even defeated and devoured them.

But most of the dragons that had survived on Guiltina were either young members of the species whose ancestors had fled there to preserve their bloodlines, or remnants who had been psychologically shattered by Acnologia four centuries earlier.

Because of that, the Dragon Eaters had badly misjudged how powerful the strongest dragons could truly become.

The great war six months earlier had changed everything.

Watching mighty dragons clash across the battlefield had nearly destroyed the arrogance Diabolos once held toward the species.

Then, after being dragged into Elentear a month ago, they had challenged the Moon Dragon God.

The result had been humiliating.

Selene had nearly beaten them to death with casual swats.

Even Suzaku and Haku, the strongest among those present, could only gain a slight advantage against her while she deliberately remained in human form.

Once Selene transformed into a dragon, killing them would have been no more difficult than crushing insects.

Only then had they truly understood that dragons were not all equal.

The Moon Dragon God was nothing like the creatures they had hunted and eaten before.

Erza glanced curiously at the visibly frightened Diabolos members.

Natsu, equally confused, lowered his fists and looked at Gray, who had abruptly regained control of himself.

"What? We're done fighting?"

"Damn it… my head feels like it's going to split…"

Gray clutched his forehead and glared murderously toward Diabolos.

Wendy, on the other hand, breathed a quiet sigh of relief and cautiously moved closer to Erza.

"Erza-san… they seem really scared of Selene."

"That's the normal reaction."

Erza sighed.

Fairy Tail's relationship with Selene was completely different.

From their perspective, the Moon Dragon God had first appeared during the war fighting alongside Igneel and the other dragons.

Afterward, she had personally helped carry the gravely injured Ankh away in search of treatment.

For much of the following six months, Selene had even acted as the messenger connecting Ankh with the guild.

Most Fairy Tail members held no particular hostility toward her. Natsu, Wendy, and the other Dragon Slayers had actually grown rather fond of her.

Diabolos stood at the opposite extreme.

After all, Guiltina was the only continent where humans and dragons were still actively killing each other even now.

Erza wasn't particularly worried, though.

She had already recognized the voice speaking beside Selene.

At the entrance to Whiteout Village, Ankh stared at the gate that had been sliced cleanly apart and felt his eyelid twitch.

He knew exactly whose handiwork that was.

Sure enough, the moment he entered the village, he spotted Erza and the others.

"Ankh!"

Natsu immediately ran over, and the rest of the group quickly gathered around him.

"Bro."

They hadn't been separated for very long, but Erza still greeted him with a smile before looking at Selene in mild surprise.

"Well, this is rare. Almost everyone's here."

Selene smiled and casually rubbed Wendy's head.

Wendy blushed slightly but looked delighted to see her.

Perhaps it was because Selene had once raised children of her own, but she had always shown a peculiar fondness for Wendy, who still carried the unmistakable presence of a dragon around her.

And because Wendy rarely encountered female dragons anymore, Selene gave her a familiar feeling that reminded her faintly of Grandine.

"We were planning to regroup with you at Black Moon Mountain," Lucy said, visibly relaxing now that their two strongest reinforcements had arrived. "I didn't expect you to come here first. Where are Mira and the others?"

Selene answered for Ankh.

"They're at my home. I arranged for some people to teach them a new kind of power."

"A new power?"

Erik, who had been silent until now, immediately became interested.

"Spirior," Ankh explained casually. "It's basically the form of 'magic' that developed in this world because of the excessive Magic Power. Pretty interesting stuff."

Then his attention shifted toward Diabolos.

Haku had just seen Wendy happily standing beside Selene and looked personally betrayed.

"Hey! Fairy Tail!"

He pointed accusingly.

"Why are you acting friendly with that evil dragon?!"

Ankh glanced toward the completely unbothered Selene.

"Why shouldn't we?"

His tone remained calm.

"She's my friend."

"You're actually friends with a dragon that massacres innocent people?"

Skullion stared at Selene with a mixture of fear and hatred.

"She's been a living disaster across Guiltina for centuries! Do you have any idea how many people she's killed?"

It was a very convenient argument.

By invoking innocent civilians and calling Selene an enemy of humanity, Skullion was effectively forcing Fairy Tail into a moral corner.

A legal guild, after all, wasn't supposed to protect a continental calamity responsible for civilian deaths.

Unfortunately for him, Fairy Tail might technically be a legal guild, but when it came to behavior…

They weren't always that far removed from a gang.

Reason or loyalty?

Natsu didn't even need to think.

"Then get revenge if you want."

He frowned at Skullion as though the entire question were ridiculous.

"We're not stopping you."

"Selene never hurt our family. Whether we're friends with her has nothing to do with you."

That was Natsu.

Rather than accept the moral argument being pushed onto him, he simply threw it back and continued doing whatever he wanted.

The attempt at guilt-tripping immediately died.

A faint smile appeared on Selene's lips.

She cast Ankh a subtle glance before pointing toward the unconscious Suzaku on Skullion's back.

"If we're comparing grievances, I have some of my own."

Her voice remained soft.

"When my children fled to the northern continent, ignorant humans treated them as disasters and hunted almost all of them to death."

Her eyes settled on Suzaku.

"That mage alone consumed the flesh of my son, Kurnugi, and now lives while carrying his power and title."

Selene smiled gently.

"So tell me."

"How should that debt be settled?"

Skullion and Kiria immediately fell silent.

Apparently, none of them had ever expected the mother of one of the dragons they had eaten to eventually appear in front of them.

Skullion tightened his grip around Suzaku, suddenly unable to find anything useful to say.

Kiria, predictably, was less interested in philosophy.

She shook her head violently and shouted,

"Who cares what happened before?! Then we start counting from now!"

Selene covered her mouth and laughed.

A disdainful curve appeared on her pink-painted lips.

"How reckless."

Ankh shook his head.

He had no intention of wasting more time arguing with people who were, at best, troublesome acquaintances.

He glanced toward Selene.

"Take all of them."

"We'll be operating throughout Elentear from here on. I don't want them interfering with anything."

"Fine."

Selene nodded.

"I'll help."

She raised one slender hand and gently swept it downward.

The entire sky darkened.

A brilliant full moon suddenly appeared directly overhead and expanded until it seemed to occupy most of the night sky.

Then moonlight swept across Whiteout Village.

In the next instant—

everything became silent.

Every member of Diabolos disappeared.

So did the Great White Priestess and the shrine maidens who had been hiding behind them.

With a single use of the Moon Dragon God's spatial power, Selene had removed everyone from the village at once.