Thanks to Ignia's dragon blood, Drake refined a dragon blood crystal.
It was essentially a seed containing the magic power of the Flame Dragon God Ignia's physical body, and could also be considered a unique type of Dragon Lacrima.
With it, Drake would be able to bolster his Dragon Slayer magic.
Things had gone far more smoothly than Drake had anticipated; at least, he hadn't expected Ignia to suppress his own power and fight him in human form.
But regardless, Drake's objective had been achieved.
After the dragon blood crystal implantation surgery, Drake spent several days fully integrating it.
Clenching his fist, Drake experienced the surge of magic power.
After integrating the dragon blood crystal, even the lingering injuries left by Ignia, which had felt like maggots in his flesh, had been completely healed – a pleasant surprise indeed.
Mounting Chongming, Drake set off to reunite with Stella and the others.
Before Drake had left to find Ignia, Stella and the others had heard that there was a guild in the town of Toka in Guiltina that specialized in training idols.
The guild was called "FAIRY NAIL," a play on the name "Fairy Tail."
And what was most peculiar was that the members of this guild were like doppelgangers of the Fairy Tail members, possessing the exact same appearances, but with drastically different personalities.
Just like the Fairy Tail guilds of Earth-land and Edolas.
Guiltina was truly a magical place; from the Five Dragon Gods to the existence of alchemy, and now this Fairy Nail guild, it was even more like another world than Edolas.
However, upon arriving in Toka, Drake hadn't even had a chance to find the others before he stumbled upon… a bullied Frosch.
Every Dragon Slayer of the First Generation, except for Drake, had an Exceed partner.
And Rogue's partner was named Frosch. Because he had been raised by a frog, he always thought he was a frog, and constantly wore a frog costume.
And Frosch was the most troublesome of the bunch, because the little guy was so easily distracted, and had absolutely no sense of direction, so he often got lost.
But this made Frosch all the more endearing, and he was currently the beloved mascot of Fairy Tail.
But Frosch had always been incredibly lucky; he had gotten lost so many times, yet Rogue had always managed to find him, and he had never been injured in the process.
Drake was now witnessing it firsthand: a group of people with ropes and butterfly nets chasing after Frosch, but no matter how hard they tried, they always ended up netting each other, never managing to catch Frosch.
These thugs, who clearly weren't up to any good, probably wanted to catch the talking cat (frog) and sell him for money. But they hadn't been able to catch him after all this time.
Drake suspected that the little guy had some kind of aura that made him incredibly nimble. Even his seemingly accidental falls somehow allowed him to evade capture.
The thugs surrounding Frosch were exhausted, but they had managed to corner him.
Drake couldn't just stand by and watch, so he walked over, saying, "Hey! What do you think you're doing to someone's beloved mascot?"
The moment Frosch saw Drake, his eyes instantly welled up with tears, and he said pitifully, "Drake, you're finally back!"
Looking at Frosch's expression, Drake knew something must have happened. Frosch wouldn't be like this just from being bothered by some bad guys.
"Hey! Punk, are you trying to stick your nose where it doesn't belong?" A mohawked thug said, brandishing a baseball bat with a swagger.
Drake walked over and picked Frosch up, saying, "Don't worry, I've got this!"
After comforting Frosch, Drake glanced at the thugs, saying, "I don't have time for you lot; get lost before I lose my temper!"
The mohawked thug was about to retort when he saw Drake's eyes, which seemed to be burning with fire, and instantly felt as if a thousand pounds had been placed on his shoulders, causing him to collapse to the ground.
The other thugs were also frightened by Drake's gaze, and scrambled away, forgetting to take their leader with them.
The mohawked thug, his legs trembling, cursed his subordinates for their disloyalty, but he didn't hesitate to run away himself.
Drake looked at Frosch, saying, "Alright, now tell me what happened? Why did you run off by yourself?"
Frosch looked like he was about to cry, saying, "Rogue and Sting are sick, and I wanted to find a doctor for them, but I got lost!"
Drake frowned; before leaving, he had left behind plenty of potions, so there was no reason for their condition to be so serious that they needed a doctor.
Drake said, "Calm down first; what exactly happened? How are the others?"
Frosch looked up, saying, "After Drake left, a group of people attacked us, and Stella and Kagura were injured.
And Sting and Rogue became really strange; they just collapsed for some reason, and haven't woken up since."
Drake sighed; Frosch's communication skills were limited. It seemed he would have to see for himself.
Patting Frosch's head, Drake comforted him, "It was very brave of you to go look for a doctor when everyone was injured. Don't worry; I'm here now, and everything will be alright."
Holding Frosch, Drake activated his senses and located Stella and the others.
After making his way to an inn, Drake went to a particular room.
Opening the door, Drake saw a group of people with gloomy expressions.
Wendy, Chelia, and Lector were fine; they probably hadn't participated in the battle, so they hadn't been injured. But the others were all bandaged up.
Stella and Kagura had bandages wrapped around various parts of their bodies, and Sting and Rogue were in a similar state.
However, the two were in worse condition. They were lying in bed, their eyes tightly shut, showing no response.
Drake put Frosch down, and walked over to Stella, taking her hand.
Thankfully, the injuries looked worse than they were; Stella was strong, so she had recovered quite a bit.
While examining Stella's injuries, Drake said, "I'm sorry; I'm late. I'll take it from here."
Stella said, "It was the Dragon Eaters; they came to rescue Kiria. We told them that we'd release her, but they wouldn't listen, and just attacked us directly.
Of course, we weren't going to just sit there and take it, but they were strong. Especially that man with the sword; Kagura was defeated by him.
Sting and Rogue seemed to have seen something strange during the battle, and then they just collapsed.
We've given them all the potions we had, but they still won't wake up."
Drake nodded, indicating that he understood the situation, and went to the two beds.
Indeed, there was nothing wrong with their bodies; the problem lay elsewhere.
Drake placed his hands on their foreheads, and sure enough, their souls had been sealed, which was why they hadn't regained consciousness.
Drake frowned; although he had some knowledge of soul magic, he was only superficially familiar with it, and breaking the seal wouldn't be easy.
But Drake wasn't worried; if he couldn't undo it, then he'd just let the person who had sealed their souls undo it themselves.
The Dragon Eaters would definitely return, not because they had personality issues, but because they had a compelling reason to come looking for Drake.
…
On the southern coast of Guiltina, on a ship bearing a dragon's head as its crest.
A man clad in bone armor gripped a metal ring around Kiria's neck, before finally releasing it in frustration, saying, "Damn it; what is this thing? Even my power can't destroy it."
The man was also a Dragon Eater; he had devoured the Bone Dragon, and possessed the terrifying power to turn anything to dust.
But his power was useless against the small metal ring.
That was to be expected; it was a magic item that Drake had crafted from orichalcum specifically to counter Dragon Slayers, called the Dragon Shackling Ring.
While wearing it, Kiria couldn't even use magic; all of her magic power and dragon power had been locked away, making her no different from an ordinary human.
The man in a kimono at the ship's prow clicked his tongue, saying that he'd told them that brute force wouldn't work.
He had already tried using his Sword Saint Dragon's power; if he had failed, then no one else could succeed.
The man turned around, saying, "It seems we only have one choice left; we have to find the person who made this thing."
The two groups had come to the same conclusion, which meant that a battle was unavoidable.
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