Chapter 203: Taste My Railgun

"It's Natsu and Gray's magic."

Arriving near the tower's main gate, George noticed that all the guards here had been incapacitated. Judging from the magical traces on their bodies, it was clear that Natsu's dragon-slaying magic and Gray's ice magic were responsible.

"Looks like Natsu and Gray are here, which means Lucy and Happy must be around too."

George wasn’t exactly thrilled that Natsu and the others had beaten him to the island. In fact, it gave him a bit of a headache.

If it were just Erza, he could have used his tracking spell to find her and then directly teleported her away using Phantom Shift. Whatever trouble the dark mages might cause would be none of his concern; Etherion would naturally deal with them.

But now, with Natsu and the rest inside the tower—and likely not together—he would have to gather them one by one before leaving, which would take a lot more effort.

"Well, no choice. After all, I’m the future guild master. I can’t just ignore my guildmates, can I?"

Shaking his head, George flapped his wings and flew into the tower.

However, as soon as he entered, a man's voice echoed simultaneously throughout the tower, amplified by magical sound inscriptions.

"Welcome to the Tower of Heaven. I am Jellal, the ruler of this tower.

"All the pieces are in place, so let the Paradise Game begin!"

"The Tower of Heaven? Paradise Game?"

Hearing the broadcast, which felt like a magical radio announcement, George silently pondered what kind of tricks this Jellal character was planning.

"The rules are simple. I will use Erza as a living sacrifice to perform a ritual to resurrect the dark mage Zeref, the progenitor of dark magic.

"In other words, once the gate to paradise opens, I win.

"But if you manage to stop this ritual, then you win."

The voice paused briefly before continuing with a chuckle:

"However, if it were just that, it would be far too dull.

"So, I’ve arranged for three S-Class mages from the Death's Head Caucus to hunt you down.

"Only by defeating them can you reach me and stop Zeref’s resurrection.

"Oh, one more thing. The Magic Council is preparing Etherion, the ultimate destructive magic that can annihilate everything.

"Time is of the essence.

"If you delay too long, you’ll all be reduced to ashes by Etherion’s power, disappearing from this world forever."

"Wait a minute. How does this guy know the Magic Council is preparing Etherion?"

Hearing Jellal’s broadcast, George frowned, noticing something suspicious.

He knew about Etherion because Councilor Yajima had informed him.

But how could Jellal, isolated in the tower, know about the Council’s decision?

Could it be that he had spies or informants within the Council?

If that were true, then why would he go through with this, knowing full well that Etherion would be launched? It was essentially a death wish.

More importantly, why would someone hide the construction of the R-System for so many years, only to suddenly cause such a commotion at a resort? It felt too deliberate, almost as if he wanted to be exposed.

There had to be more to this than met the eye.

"First, find everyone!"

Regardless of Jellal’s schemes, rescuing his guildmates came first.

Following the traces left by his tracking spell, George flew in the direction of Erza.

He planned to find Erza first; if the others happened to be with her, he could take them all at once. If not, he would send Erza out first and then use his tracking spell to locate the others one by one.

As he navigated the tower’s corridors, bypassing the corpses of guards, he suddenly stopped on the sixth floor.

He had heard a familiar scream.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

"Lucy."

Flying toward the source of the scream, George reached the central hall on the sixth floor and found Lucy, the first member of Fairy Tail.

However, Lucy’s condition was far from ideal.

Her top was torn, forcing her to kneel on the ground and use her hands to cover herself to avoid exposure. Behind her stood Juvia, a former member of the Phantom Lord's Element 4.

At the moment, Juvia wielded a water whip, striking Lucy’s rear repeatedly like someone possessed.

Behind Juvia, a punk-styled mage was frantically strumming a magical guitar.

"It’s mind-control magic."

As a telepath, George was highly sensitive to mental magic. He could immediately sense that the guitar-playing mage was using sound magic to control Juvia and force her to attack Lucy.

"So, this must be one of the three S-Class mages Jellal mentioned. Impressive."

Quietly, George retrieved a copper coin from his Requip space.

For Juvia, an S-Class mage herself, to be reduced to a puppet, the strength of these Paradise Tower mages was far beyond ordinary S-Class. George couldn’t afford to be careless.

To save time, he chose to remain invisible and launch a sneak attack.

"Taste my railgun!"

With a flick of his paw, the copper coin launched into the air. Two hundred million volts of electricity surged, and with a gentle tap of his paw, the coin transformed into a supersonic railgun round, speeding straight toward the guitar mage’s head.

Since the target was an enemy, there was no need to hold back—he aimed directly for the critical point.

"What?!"

The guitar mage, who had been focusing on controlling Juvia, suddenly sensed a powerful electric current surging from the other side of the hall. He panicked, realizing the danger.

But the railgun’s attack was too fast. With no time to command Juvia to defend him with her water magic, he instinctively used his unique hair magic to form a shield in front of him.

"Boom!"

The supersonic railgun struck the magically reinforced hair shield. After less than a second, it pierced through, hitting the guitar mage squarely on the forehead.

The impact sent him flying backward, slamming into the wall and shattering a large section of it.

With the sound magic disrupted, Juvia, an S-Class mage, broke free of the mind control and regained her senses.

"Lucy, I’m so sorry! I couldn’t control my body earlier. Are you okay?"

Regaining control, Juvia quickly ran to Lucy’s side and helped her up.

Meanwhile, the guitar mage stood up, clutching his forehead, which now sported a massive swelling.

"How despicable, attacking from the shadows!"

Had he not used his hair to block some of the impact, his head would have been blown apart on the spot.

"My beautiful hair... Damn it, I’ll kill you!"

Realizing part of his luxurious hair was now uneven, resembling a dog’s chew toy, the guitar mage was furious. He grabbed his guitar and prepared to unleash a massive attack, aiming to control everyone in the hall with his sound magic.

Whoever had launched the sneak attack couldn’t escape his control once they heard his music.