"Gemini?" Lucy looked at Gemini, who was maintaining the appearance of her future self and crying, and couldn't help feeling a wave of sadness in her heart.
She raised her right hand to help wipe away her tears.
Future Lucy was staring blankly at the pink emblem on the back of Lucy's hand.
Gemini let Lucy help wipe her tears, then touched her face again before unbuttoning her collar and taking off the cloak draped over her.
Underneath the cloak was ordinary clothing, a blue short top that Lucy particularly liked—this was not surprising.
Only from her right shoulder down, there was emptiness—her right arm was gone, the hand with the guild emblem was no more.
Future Lucy lowered her head, biting her lip to hold back tears, while Rhode and Ultear opened their mouths in shock.
Erza and Gray looked at Lucy with surprise and concern: "Lucy? You..."
"How could this be?" Lucy covered her mouth, "What happened in the future?"
"Lucy, who did this to you?"
"Natsu!" Future Lucy burst into tears upon seeing Natsu approach.
Gray wondered, "When did you wake up?"
"Just now." Natsu answered casually, "I seemed to hear you talking about Future Lucy, what happened to Future Lucy's hand?"
Natsu didn't make a fuss about there being two Lucys, instead, he immediately asked about her experiences.
With Gemini's confirmation, Future Lucy already felt a change in everyone's attitude, especially Rhode's, towards her.
She said sorrowfully, "On July 7th, the day the Great Demon Fighting Martial Arts ended, more than 10,000 dragons attacked this country.
"Cities burned, castles crumbled, countless lives lost. Everyone in the guild... Losing an arm like me is considered very lucky."
"10,000 dragons!"
Everyone was shocked, instinctively finding it unbelievable, but it was from Lucy's words—Future Lucy was also Lucy.
So they could only ponder the possibility of this occurrence.
Ultear directly asked, "Dragons are almost extinct, right? Why would over 10,000 dragons appear?"
Future Lucy shook her head, "I don't know. When it happened, Natsu, Wendy, Yukino, Carla, Hapi, Li Li, and Miss Mira were all imprisoned."
Rhode: "?"
Who the hell dared to imprison Mira?
Natsu quickly said, "How could I be captured?"
Future Lucy replied, "Everyone was trying to save me..."
Seeing the confused faces, Future Lucy quickly explained, "It was on the 4th day of the Great Demon Fighting Martial Arts, Gajeel found a Dragon Tomb hidden underground. That night, after we explored, we encountered Yukino and the Kingdom Knight Order's captain and learned about the Eclipse project.
"But Danton, the Minister of Defense, arrested the captain to stop the Eclipse project, and Yukino and I were imprisoned because of our identity as Star Spirit Mages.
"Then, the 5th day was a rest day. Everyone discussed a plan, deciding to continue participating in the competition the next day, preparing to negotiate with the King after winning. On the other hand, to prevent negotiation failure, a small team was dispatched to rescue me from the prison.
"The rescue plan started smoothly, but after escaping from the Naraku Palace, we accidentally got close to the Eclipse Gate while evading the King's Army.
"And near the Eclipse Gate, magic usage would drain magic power, so we were captured again and remained in the cell until the dragon horde attacked."
Rhode frowned, "I believe what you said, but... there are many issues.
First, the Dragon Tomb Lucy mentioned wasn't discovered by Gajeel; the exploration happened on the night of July 2nd, not July 4th.
After noticing movement, I immediately withdrew with people, never encountering the captain of the Knight Order.
Moreover, Lucy didn't even go that day, let alone get captured.
Even if tomorrow, due to negligence, Lucy gets taken, I wouldn't let Mira go to rescue her...
Could it be the original 'plot' she was talking about?
Thinking of this, Rhode didn't know what to say.
He felt he might have led his companions to miss several 'key points,' so would the future Future Lucy spoke of still come?
If not, then where did she come from?
Speculating about magic involving time made his head spin.
No need for him to speak; Natsu had already thrown out some questions.
Future Lucy couldn't answer, "On my way here, I already saw this city was different from what I remembered, and there were companions I didn't recognize... Maybe your future has already changed..."
Suddenly, she thought of something, looked at Rhode, and asked, "Are you also from the future? But arrived much earlier than I did? Then this would already be an altered... then I..."
She realized this didn't make sense either.
However, Erza looked at Rhode and speculated, "That would mean Rhode suddenly appeared one day, right?"
Natsu and Gray were shocked, "Rhode is a future person?"
"My situation is more unique..." Rhode said, "If I were indeed from the future, wouldn't I know about the grand event of 10,000 dragons attacking?"
"That makes sense..." Lucy, inspired by her future self, also speculated, "If not a 'future person,' then a 'past person'?
"After going on a time journey, disrupting time, bringing many changes, the future me wouldn't know you who belonged to the past."
Rhode interrupted, "Stop guessing blindly. If anything, I should be from an Otherworld similar to Edolas, not someone from the past or future.
"However, whether my arrival has had a peculiar impact on this world's 'time' is uncertain; perhaps the future Future Lucy experienced doesn't include me."
In fact, Erza and the others knew a little about Rhode's situation but hadn't paid much attention before, only recalling when he spoke.
Ultear was the first to learn of Rhode's background but didn't inquire deeply for now, instead speculating, "Then maybe the 10,000 dragons won't appear?"
Rhode shook his head, "It's hard to say; we still don't know how those dragons came about."
His first thought was the numerous bones in the underground Dragon Tomb.
Could someone have used necromancy to resurrect the dragons?
No, direct resurrection would provoke Ankseram God's sanction; it should be fake resurrection, controlling dead dragons.
But even with such powerful necromancy, he couldn't control over 10,000 dragons.
Unless there were thousands of people with magic power levels similar to his.
This... Rhode felt, was unlikely?