The silence in the Control Room was short-lived. The mechanical hum of the Dragon Chain Cannon had died, sabotaged by the wrench of a mechanic and the magic of a prince, but the rage of a King was a power source all its own.
Faust stood with his hands shaking. He watched the monitor, or what was left of it, showing the Dragon Cry Lacrima drifting harmlessly away from Extalia. The "angels" were safe. The "devils" of Earthland had won. His dream of a world overflowing with Eternal Magic, a world where humanity dominated the skies, was crumbling into dust.
"No..." Faust whispered, his voice a dry rasp that quickly escalated into a scream. "NO! I am the King! I am the savior of this world! A boy will not deny me! A traitorous son will not deny me!"
He turned away from the wreckage. If the large-scale extraction failed, he would simply have to take the magic by force. He would kill them all. He would drain the Earthland mages dry with his own hands.
He gets out of the room towards the area where Dorma Anim was stored.
Faust smashed his hand against a hidden panel in the wall. A secret door hissed open, revealing a dark, spiraling staircase leading down into the bowels of the palace—deeper than the dungeons, deeper than the labs.
"You think you have won?" Faust cackled, his voice echoing up the shaft as he ran. "You have merely awakened the Dragon!"
Faust descended into the forbidden hangar. The air here was stale and smelled of ancient oil and concentrated Ethernano. In the center of the massive, dark chamber stood a monstrosity.
It was the Dorma Anim. The Dragon Knight.
It was a Magic Armor, it was a mechanical dragon, painted in the black of midnight and the gold of greed. It was designed not just to fight mages, but to hunt them. To eat them.
Faust climbed the scaffolding. He ripped open the cockpit hatch. Plugging the neural connectors into his body.
And activates Dorma Anim.
The machine's eyes—giant red lacrima sensors—flared to life.
VROOOOOOOM.
The sound wasn't like an engine. It sounded like a beast inhaling. The entire foundation of the Royal Palace shook. The stone floor cracked as the machine shifted its weight.
"I am the Dragon King!" Faust roared, his voice amplified by the armor's speakers.
Faust didn't bother with the door. He smashed the Dorma Anim through the ceiling of the hangar, bursting up through the floor of the main hallway above.
He saw a group of resistance fighters and Earthland Fairy Tail members.
"INSECTS!"
The Dorma Anim's tail, a massive bladed whip, swept across the hall.
"Missile Fire!"
Dozens of magic-seeking missiles launched from the Dragon's shoulders. The hallway exploded in fire and debris. The Fairy Tail members scattered, diving for cover as the mechanical dragon tore through the palace walls, heading for the courtyard.
---
Back in the ruined Control Room, the floor lurched violently. Dust rained from the ceiling.
"What in the world was that?" Mystogan asked, steadying himself with his staff. "An earthquake?"
"No," Edolas Blake said, his face paling as he recognized the specific frequency of the vibration. "That's the Dorma Anim. It's an Mechanical casing powered by a hyper-concentrated Lacrima drive."
He looked at Mystogan.
"We have a problem," Edolas Blake said grimly. "That thing is going to tear through the guild. And if it gets out into the city, there won't be a city left."
"Prince," Blake said, holstering his wrench and checking the charge on his rifle. "The plan hasn't changed. In fact, we need it now more than ever. You need to start the Anima Reversal. Now."
"But the King..." Mystogan protested. "If he is piloting that machine, I must stop him."
"You can't," Blake said bluntly. "Not in your condition. And if you fight him, you're not doing the ritual. If the ritual doesn't happen, the magic doesn't leave, and this war never ends."
Blake walked to the door. He looked back at the Prince.
"I'll handle the big metal lizard. Or at least, I'll help the Earthlanders handle it. We deal with the threat; you deal with the cure. That's the deal."
Without looking back, the Edolas Blake sprinted out of the room, sliding down the banister of the grand staircase, heading straight toward the sound of explosions and the mechanical roar of the King.
---
While the King was unleashing hell, the battles in the amusement park sector and the barracks had reached their conclusions.
In the wreckage of the Monster Academy, Natsu Dragneel stood amidst the rubble of a destroyed roller coaster. Hughes, the Commander of the 3rd Division, lay unconscious, tangled in the tracks.
"That was for the key!" Natsu grunted, dusting his hands. He was battered, his scarf singed, but the fire in his belly was burning hotter than ever.
"Now... where's the old man?"
A few blocks away, in the Ice Park, Gray Fullbuster was leaning against a frozen statue. Sugarboy, the flamboyant slime-user, was encased in a block of ice so thick it would take a week to melt.
"Softening magic..." Gray muttered, shivering slightly as the adrenaline faded. "Annoying. But ice is hard for a reason."
He looked toward the palace. He could see smoke rising. He could hear the screams.
"Natsu!" Gray shouted, running toward the main path.
In the Underground Archives, the two Lucys were high-fiving.
Edolas Lucy cracked her whip, retracting it. "Not bad for a Princess."
Earthland Lucy held up a golden key, panting heavily. Byro, the Chief of Staff, and Coco (who had actually switched sides halfway through) were dealt with. Byro was tied up with Edolas Lucy's whip.
"You're not so bad yourself, Scary Me," Earthland Lucy smiled tiredly. "Though you really need to work on your temper."
"And you need to work on your right hook," Edolas Lucy smirked. "Let's move. I hear something big."
They converged in the central courtyard. The once beautiful garden was now a cratered wasteland thanks to Erza's earlier battle.
Natsu ran in from the east. Gray from the west. The Lucys from the south.
"Gray!" Natsu yelled. "You alive, ice princess?"
"Better than you, squinty eyes," Gray shot back.
"Where's Erza?" Lucy asked, looking around frantically.
"Over here," a calm voice called out.
---
Erza Scarlet stood near the palace steps. Beside her stood Gajeel and a very large, very bandage-wrapped Panther Lily.
"The small fights are over," Erza announced, her armor dented but her spirit unbroken. "But the real enemy has just shown himself."
CRASH!
The palace wall exploded outward. Debris the size of carriages rained down on the courtyard.
Through the dust, a nightmare stepped out.
The Dorma Anim.
It stood forty feet tall, a bipedal mechanical dragon with sleek, black armor plating and glowing red veins. Steam hissed from its joints. It held a massive lance in one hand and its tail whipped around like a living thing.
"What is that?!" Natsu yelled, staring up at the monstrosity. "A robot dragon?!"
"It's the King," Panther Lily growled, drawing a new sword he had scavenged from a fallen guard. "That is the Dorma Anim. The Dragon Knight armor. It is impervious to most magic."
"Most magic?" Gajeel grinned, clanging his iron knuckles together. "Sounds like a challenge."
"FAIRY TAIL!" King Faust's voice boomed from the machine. "YOU RATS! DIE!"
The Dorma Anim opened its mechanical maw. A beam of concentrated purple energy—a Dragon Roar made of pure magical output—shot toward them.
"SCATTER!" Erza commanded.
They dove in all directions. The beam hit the ground where they had been standing, vaporizing the stone and creating a trench ten feet deep.
"He's fast for a big guy!" Gray shouted, rolling to his feet. "Ice-Make: Cannon!"
He fired a massive bazooka made of ice. The shell struck the Dorma Anim's chest.
PING.
It shattered harmlessly. The armor absorbed the impact without a scratch.
"It didn't even dent it!" Gray gasped.
"My turn!" Natsu launched himself into the air. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
He punched the machine in the knee.
CLANG.
Natsu recoiled, shaking his hand. "Ow! It's like punching... well, really hard metal!"
"It drains magic," Edolas Blake shouted, appearing on the rooftop above them, firing his rifle at the machine's sensors to distract it. "Don't hit it with pure energy! You have to hit it with physical force! Dragon Slayers, you're the best bet!"
"Physical force?" Gajeel laughed. "I can do that. Iron Dragon's Club!"
Gajeel extended his arm, slamming the steel pillar into the Dorma Anim's side. The machine staggered slightly.
"Insolent brats!" Faust roared. The machine spun, its tail whipping around.
It caught Gajeel and Natsu, swatting them out of the air like flies. They crashed into the palace wall.
"Natsu! Gajeel!" Lucy screamed, summoning Taurus. "Taurus! Protect them!"
"Mooo! No metal cow is better than me!" Taurus charged, swinging his axe.
The Dorma Anim didn't even look. It backhanded Taurus with a metal claw, sending the spirit vanishing back to the Celestial World.
"This power..." Erza gritted her teeth. She requipped. "Morning Star Armor!"
She dual-wielded swords, charging forward. "Lily! With me!"
"Aye!" Panther Lily grew wings (forcing himself despite the injury), lifting into the air.
Erza and Lily attacked in tandem. Erza slashed at the legs, Lily slashed at the head.
Sparks flew. They were fast, but the Dorma Anim was surprisingly agile. It ducked, weaved, and countered with its lance.
"Magic Drain!" Faust cackled.
The armor glowed green. Suddenly, the air grew heavy. Erza felt her magic being sucked away. Lily's wings flickered.
Lily gasped, dropping to the ground. "It consumes the Ethernano around it to refuel!"
Then Edolas Blake takes out a remote and says, "I know what to do," and presses a few buttons.