Fairy Tail: All Magic Converges in One Body

This place, known as the Tower of Despair, is where the Despair Emperor is currently located.

All those who rebel against the Emperor of Despair will be imprisoned in the Black Prison at the bottom of the Black Tower. This place is not only heavily guarded, but also patrolled by Faust's trump card, the forbidden war weapon "Dragon Knight Armor".

Now, the prisoner who caused a ruckus in the capital an hour and a half ago is covered in wounds and is being dragged into the Black Prison by "Despair Emperor" Hopeless himself.

The heavy magical chains stretched Gajeel's limbs to their limit, rendering him unable to move. Yet, Gajeel showed no sign of begging for mercy, instead shouting curses at Hope, who was holding him.

"They actually used a means of transportation to ambush me!"

"You bastard, you're just as despicable and shameless as Hope!"

Opposite Gajeel, Hopeless was toying with a shimmering purple magic crystal in his hand, the inside of which seemed to be sealed with constantly twisting black mist.

He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old, with black hair and black eyes, and his face was extremely similar to Hope's. However, there was an unyielding gloom between his brows, and his body was filled with suffocating magical energy.

The same trick won't work on a Saint Seiya a second time.

But for Dragon Slayers.

Hopeless is indeed Hope's counterpart from another world; he even defeated Gajeel using the exact same method, easily taking him down via transportation.

This infuriated Gajeel. He had been planning to rescue everyone and show off, but he was quickly defeated.

Before joining Fairy Tail, he was humiliated by Hope by being pinned down on a wooden horse.

After joining Fairy Tail, he was rubbed against a vehicle by Hope's counterpart.

This is a complete waste of time joining Fairy Tail!

Hope ignored Gajeel and muttered to herself, "Hope... what a good name. Another 'me'. If you were in my shoes, would you have made the same choice?"

"Hopleth! What exactly do you want?!"

A sharp shout interrupted his thoughts. Hopeless turned to look at a special cell. The two female prisoners in the cell, though bound by magic crystal chains, showed no signs of despair.

The blonde Fairy Tail guild master, "Lucy Ashura".

Erza Knightworth, the red-haired fairy hunter.

These two former mortal enemies now put aside their grudges and looked at Hopleth with a shared hatred, their eyes filled with vigilance and hostility.

Chapter 189 Hopleth

"Hoples! Answer me!"

Lucy struggled, the magic crystal chains leaving red marks on her wrists. "You were once a kind person, so why did you imitate Faust's tyranny? Plundering Aslant's magic, oppressing your own people, and destroying Extania..."

"What was the point of all this?!"

Hopleth stared silently at the magic crystal in his hand, which was constantly swirling with black mist, ignoring Lucy's questioning.

Although Erza was also bound, she maintained the composure of a soldier. Her sharp gaze swept over the strange magic crystal in Hopeless's hand, and then looked at Gajeel, who was hanging opposite her and cursing.

Since being captured in the battle of Extania ten days ago, they, as rebels, have not been interrogated or tortured and have been imprisoned in the black jail.

It was as if they had been forgotten.

This treatment wasn't limited to the two of them; all the prisoners in the Black Prison received the same treatment. However, due to the oppressive atmosphere of the Black Prison and their fear of Hopeless, the other prisoners gradually became desperate.

On the walls of each cell in the Black Prison, there are countless tiny pipes that extract strands of despair and channel them into the ancient crystal in Hopleth's hand.

"You're already so powerful, why do you still need prisoners as batteries?"

Erza suddenly spoke up, "Could it be that the power that crystal granted you has an expiration date?"

Hope finally reacted. He looked up, and his dark eyes, which resembled Hope's, held a different kind of weariness.

“You’re very perceptive, Knightworth, but you’re wrong.”

His voice was deep, “This ‘Heart of the Abyss’ can absorb all despair and transform it into power, a power powerful enough to reverse the fate of this world.”

Stop with the pretty words!

Lucy spat, "Using other people's suffering as nourishment, you're even more disgusting than that old man Faust!"

Hopleth wasn't angry; instead, he gave a wry, almost self-deprecating smile. "Disgusting? Maybe, but do you know what Edolas is facing?"

He looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through the dark walls to see the gray-purple sky outside.

"The magic of this world is drying up, and Faust's plan to plunder Aslant's magic with 'Anima' is nothing but drinking poison to quench thirst."

"'The Heart of the Abyss' tells me that every world has a self-protective barrier that can keep out malicious visitors from other worlds."

"But each time 'Anima' is activated, it creates a small hole in our world's protective barrier, and with our magic depleted, our world has lost the ability to repair itself..."

Lucy and Erza were both stunned.

One was a guild leader who rebelled against Faust, and the other was Faust's trusted general. They knew all too well how many times Faust had launched "Anima" since he announced the "Magic Plunder Plan".

It was only in recent years, because the prince he had abandoned was causing trouble in Aslant, that Faust had to reduce the number of times he used "Anima".

But the total number of times over the years has been no less than thirty.

Lucy's voice trembled slightly, "Then our world is already...?"

"Riddled with holes."

Hopleth's tone was eerily calm: "Now, the small holes created by 'Anima' have accumulated and torn a large hole in the barrier of our world."

"If most of the world barrier disappears, Edolas will lose its barrier with the parallel world Aslant."

"At that time, our world will collide with the magically powerful Aslant like a burst bubble, and then... it will be completely crushed, while also causing significant casualties to another world."

"So you want to save the world?"

Erza's voice was as cold as ice, "Create despair, nourish that crystal, and then what? What can it do?"

Hopleth turned and held the crystal up to his eyes.

Black mist churned within, and countless distorted human faces could be vaguely seen: civilians struggling in despair, those who had transcended their homeland after it was destroyed, and soldiers forced to separate from their loved ones...

All the despair is collected in this tiny crystal.

Including Hoplethus himself.

"For our world, which has no future, only God can save us."

"And this 'Heart of the Abyss' is the heart of the ancient god 'Antihope, the God of Despair,' which can make me the new God of Despair."

He closed his eyes. "So I need a massive amount of despair energy to repair the world barrier before it breaks."

The cell fell into dead silence.

Lucy opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound, Erza also fell silent, and even Gajeel, who had been struggling, stopped moving.

Is this the truth?

In the name of despair, do things of hope.

"Then why don't you tell everyone?"

“If you explain it clearly, maybe everyone will be willing to cooperate…” Lucy’s dry voice faltered, then she gave a bitter smile at her own stupidity.

How can you force tens of thousands of people to willingly fall into despair?

Separating mothers from their children, betraying friends, destroying homes... and then expecting them to "understand" that all of this is to save the world?

It is not despair that is a complex mix of understanding and sacrifice.

For Hopleth, only sudden and unreasonable tyranny could quickly breed pure despair.

Erza finally understood, "So you play the tyrant and make everyone afraid of you."

"Hey, Hopeless."

Gajeel's tone was no longer so aggressive, "What if your plan fails? If becoming a god were that easy, the world would be full of gods by now."

Just then, hurried footsteps and the clanging of metal came from outside the Black Prison. A guard rushed in and knelt on one knee.

"Lord Despair! An unidentified flying fleet has been spotted outside the royal city. There are four ships in total, and they... bear the Fairy Tail insignia!"

"Captain Hugh Boy and his men... seem to have betrayed us!"

Hopleth stroked the crystal, took one last look at the three rare individuals in the Black Prison who hadn't succumbed to despair, then turned and disappeared into the dark corridor.

The Black Prison returned to calm once again.

Lucy looked down at the wall and slid down to sit on the ground, meeting the gaze of her former nemesis, the "Fairy Hunter" Erza, in silence.

Suddenly, the ground outside their cells collapsed, and a pink-haired girl dressed in a maid outfit jumped out from underground. She looked around and made sure there was no danger.

"Master, you can come up now."

Chapter 190 Iron Dragon Breaks Through the Wall

"Oh, Balgo, don't call me master anymore, it's so embarrassing." The blonde girl crawled out of the hole her celestial spirit had dug.

However, before she could finish speaking, her gaze inadvertently met that of another blonde girl in the cell.

Lucy Heartfilia and Lucy Ashurae.

Two girls who looked exactly alike looked at each other.

"You are......"

"Could it be...?"

"Edlucy?"

"Aslusi?"

The two Lucys spoke in unison, and then the atmosphere suddenly fell silent.

Lucy looked at Lucy 2.0, surprised to have encountered Edolas herself so soon. But why did she feel a little awkward looking at Edolas's tomboyish aura...?

Lucy 2 looked at her counterpart, but what she was really thinking was how frail her other self looked. She felt like one punch from her would send the other person sobbing for a long time...

"Now is not the time to be distracted."

The inexplicable silence between the two Lucys only ended when Erza coldly interrupted them.

Lucy looked into the cell and saw that the person inside was clearly not the Erza she knew. "Um, I'll find a way to get you out right away."

Erza II's calmness was consistent with Lucy's impression of Erza. She showed no joy and asked coldly, "How did you, a visitor from Aslant, who is unfamiliar with this place, find your way here?"