Simultaneous travel: invincible from the beginning of the anime!

Chapter 695 The Captured Fairy Queen
The moment the darkness was dispelled, everything around them began to regain its color, and two more figures appeared beside Miriam and Hugh.

One of them looked quite square, even his head was square, and he was wearing sunglasses to look cool.

The other was tall, with a headscarf covering his head, an eye patch over his left eye, and his mouth, jaw, and lower cheek covered with iron.

"Woolley is still as square as ever, so you're Simon."

Woolley, Miriam, and Hugh hadn't changed much, so Seiya recognized his former companions almost immediately.

However, Simon, one of the four, has changed quite a bit in Seiya's opinion. After all, Simon doesn't have the same obvious features as Miliana and the others, and looks like just an ordinary black-haired man.

But clearly something has happened to him over the years; the eye patch and the iron jaw that takes up almost half of his face have obviously changed his appearance drastically compared to back then.

"Just as Gerald said, after so many years, your strength is now completely different from what it used to be."

My "Dark Moment" was broken by you in an instant, but this time we came prepared, Saint.

As Simon spoke, he also showed Seiya the Erza he was carrying on his shoulder.

"If you want to save Erza and find out what really happened back then, come to the Tower of Paradise. There you will find the answers you seek."

You don't need to worry about Erza's safety for now, because Jellal only ordered us to take you back to the Tower of Paradise.

After leaving those words, Simon turned and left with Miriam and the others.

Seiya did not intervene, partly because Erza, who was unconscious, was in their hands, and Seiya was hesitant to act rashly.

On the other hand, Seiya also wants to know what exactly happened to the "Tower of Paradise" back then!
Regarding the Tower of Paradise, Seiya didn't want to involve Natsu and the others, so he hoped they would return to the guild to wait for news, while he planned to go to the original ruins of the Tower of Paradise to rescue Erza.

However, it was obvious that Seiya's proposal was unanimously rejected by Natsu and the others.

Natsu went so far as to say that Erza was not only Seiya's comrade, but also their comrade. If they were to stand by and watch their comrade die, they would rather let them die.

Ultimately, Seiya couldn't dissuade them and had no choice but to tell Chairman Makarov what had happened there. Afterward, he took Natsu and the others to the Tower of Paradise from back then.

When Makarov learned about the "Tower of Paradise" from Seiya, he took it very seriously and immediately informed the Magic Council.

The Tower of Paradise, also known as the "R System," is a forbidden magic that uses living people as sacrifices to resurrect the dead.

Because they violated humanitarian principles, the Magic Council explicitly prohibited their construction, and seven of them were destroyed during the Mage Guild's campaign against them.

The eighth "Tower of Paradise" where Seiya and Erza once lived is located on an island near the coast of Calmu.

On the way back to the Tower of Paradise, Erza woke up. However, when Hugh pressed her to explain why she had betrayed them, Erza turned her head away and said, "This has nothing to do with Seiya. He knew nothing about it."

For all these years, he thought you were dead. I only told him about what happened after the Tower of Paradise.

Hearing that Erza hadn't explained her past betrayal and was even helping Seiya escape punishment, Hugh became even more furious.

"Come on! Gerald already told us that you and Seiya were in cahoots back then."

After our rebellion succeeded and we wiped out all the cults here, Seiya and I left alone and destroyed all the ships that were leaving, just so that everyone would buy you time to escape!
"I will definitely not let that guy Seiya get away with it. He must have bewitched you, sister!" Hearing Xiu's words of cursing Seiya, Miliana, who was standing next to him, was also unhappy.

"Why do you say that Seiya-nii lied to Erza? Didn't you hear what Erza said? Seiya-nii didn't know anything back then!"

"Hmph, who knows if my sister is just protecting Seiya!"

"What do you mean?"

Just as Miriam and Hugh were about to have a fight, Simon stepped in to stop them.

And looking at Erza, he said, "Erza, there must be other details behind what happened back then, right?"

When I met Seiya today, I realized that he seemed to know absolutely nothing about anything.

And since you and Gerald each have your own version of events, that means one of you is lying, right?

Upon hearing Simon's words, Miriam and Hugh, who had been arguing, were stunned and looked at Simon in disbelief.

Because of their different levels of closeness, one of them trusted Erza more, and the other trusted Seiya more, but neither of them ever doubted Jellal.

After all, after Seiya and Erza left the Tower of Paradise, it was Jellal who took them in and lived there with them, and told them the "truth".

When confronted by Simon, Erza simply turned her head away and refused to answer. Seeing her demeanor, Hugh and the others became even more suspicious that there might be more to the story than met the eye.

Erza's life was in their hands, but when confronted with their interrogation, she showed no intention of defending herself.

You could say Erza isn't afraid of death, but if she wasn't afraid of death, why did she abandon them and run away in the first place? That's quite contradictory.

"Even if you don't want to say it, it's okay. After all, I've always believed in you for the past eight years, and I don't believe that you would betray everyone."

I don't know what kind of promise you made with Gerald, but with my power, I simply cannot save you.

So I've used you as bait to bring Seiya to this island as well. If it's him, he definitely has the ability to stop Jellal.

Simon's words stunned his friends, and Erza angrily glared at him, saying, "I can handle this by myself, why drag Seiya and the others into this!"

That's right. Erza was captured by Simon and his crew not because she was weak, but because she didn't want to implicate her companions and attempted to resolve her karmic ties with Jellal on her own.

"Erza, so many years have passed, Jellal is no longer the Jellal you once knew."

Perhaps you have become very strong over the years, but compared to Gerald, you still have no chance of winning.

I understand your desire to protect and avoid implicating your teammates, after all, that's how you've always been.

However, to defeat Jellal in his current state, we need to rely on Seiya's strength.

(End of this chapter)