Request?
The word coming from the king's mouth sounded a bit strange.
Because these mages present are citizens of the kingdom, theoretically, the king could command them.
The mages looked quizzically at the king on stage—being so polite, does it mean the matter is quite serious?
Indeed, the king soon spoke, "The kingdom has received reliable news that tonight dragons will attack this city. That's right, the legendary dragons!
"We have strategies prepared to deal with most of them, but there may be a few remaining. I hope everyone can help restrain or even defeat these remaining dragons and prevent them from causing destruction!"
Noise arose, the mages were surprised by the information revealed by the king's words, but they did not show any panic.
Although most people don't have a clear understanding of the power of dragons, there is strength in numbers right now.
Thousands of mages, can they not handle a few dragons?
When the king said 'I entrust you all,' many were already shouting 'leave it to us,' 'no problem,' and the like.
The mages were full of morale, only people from Sabertooth showed some difficulty.
They have witnessed the power of dragons before.
Even if the dragon is just having fun, it's far beyond what they can contend with. Even their guild's ace, Stinger and Rogue, couldn't take even one move.
But there are so many people now, shouldn't be a problem, right?
Moreover, if they can defeat a dragon, it would be the perfect testament for Sabertooth to start anew.
So they quickly blended into the crowd shouting encouragement.
Faced with such a scene, Rhode felt puzzled: "Was I too conservative in speaking, leading the king to lack confidence?"
Lucy said: "It's good to have more people help, right?"
"Maybe." Rhode felt like there were more fragile items on the battlefield, "Let's go to the royal palace."
The mages had already been organized by guild to spread out in different directions of the royal capital for vigilance.
Fairy Tail did not decline, besides Rhode, the two Lucys, and Lucy's four guards, also went to their assigned position.
These four guards were of course the Dragon Slayer Mages from their own guild.
Rhode wanted to see if these four could really defeat one or two dragons.
...
"Please take this way."
Rhode led his companions through layers of guard, finally arriving behind the main hall.
A giant golden arched double door stood on the open ground.
This was Rhode's first time seeing the Eclipse Gate.
Estimated by sight alone, it was forty or fifty meters tall; its thickness exceeded that of ordinary building thickness.
Apart from the giant door leaves in the middle, the Eclipse Gate had many complex mechanical structures, and the columns on both sides looked like giant mechanical legs.
If it weren't for knowing in advance about the Eclipse Gate's function, one might almost think it could transform and stand up.
On both sides of the door's gap, twelve circular holes were evenly distributed, each large enough for an adult person—that was the Eclipse Gate's keyholes.
Although the Star Spirit Keys aren't that large, this magic lock doesn't actually require mechanical turning, but rather relies on Celestial Spirit Magic to drive the corresponding keys to unlock one by one.
This magnificent and gigantic door could already be described as spectacular.
Future Lucy had seen it before, so she wasn't surprised.
Laxus showed surprise on his face but didn't speak.
Natsu, Lucy, Gajeel, and Wendy exclaimed immediately, "It's huge!"
"Good evening, Mr. Rhode, Miss Lucy, and all from Fairy Tail." Princess Jade and Yukino came over to greet.
Rhode inquired, "Is everything ready?"
"Yes, we're just waiting for the eclipse." Princess Jade nodded toward Yukino.
Yukino took out the Libra and Pisces Constellation Keys and handed them to Lucy: "Please hold onto them temporarily, Lady Lucy. Closing the Eclipse Gate requires twelve keys."
"Huh?" Lucy asked puzzled, "Give them to me now? What about when we need to open it?"
Princess Jade slightly bowed: "Regarding this, I need to apologize to you."
Lucy was even more puzzled, "Why?"
Princess Jade said: "Because I have already used your ten keys to open the corresponding ten lockholes a while ago."
"When?" Lucy instinctively reached for her key chain, "I have always carried them with me."
Princess Jade explained sheepishly, "It was a few months ago, during the fake Taurus assassination incident when we mistakenly took you as the mastermind behind it..."
"Ah!" Lucy remembered that when she was captured, her keys had been confiscated. Later, Rhode arrived in time to clarify the situation, but the keys weren't returned immediately.
Rhode was also somewhat surprised now: "So that incident was completely an excuse?"
At that time, he knew nothing about Eclipse Magic, naturally, he wouldn't think of such matters, so he didn't care when Lucy's keys were taken away, assuming they hadn't been lost was fine.
This kind of information gap is really troublesome.
"There was this reason." Princess Jade explained, "Because we anticipated the possibility that Miss Lucy might not cooperate, we didn't have a perfect plan. Then the incident happened... I'm truly sorry!"
Since simply unlocking didn't require summoning Star Spirits, there was no need to sign a contract—just having the keys sufficed for use.
And Eclipse Magic itself could be executed in stages, even if the magic power wasn't fully collected, it could still unlock in advance.
Future Lucy expressed that she had a similar experience, and her treatment was even worse than Lucy's.
"I see... well, it's in the past now." Although Lucy was a bit angry about the other party using her keys without permission, it wasn't the time to dwell on these issues now.
She accepted Yukino's keys and reviewed the door-closing procedure with Future Lucy.
The next thing was to wait for the arrival of the total lunar eclipse moment; according to astronomical rules, each time it was at midnight.
After the king inspected outside and returned, he checked the situation here and reminded Princess Jade a few words.
Danton, feeling uneasy, also came along.
Seeing that time was running out, a soldier hurriedly came over and whispered a situation report to Danton.
"What?" Danton seemed somewhat angry, "Those fellows..."
The king asked, "What happened?"
Danton said, "Your Majesty, people from Dragon's Treasure have assembled heavy siege weapons. Such things have always been expressly forbidden from being brought into the royal capital and must be severely punished!"
The king pondered for a moment, "Hmm... since the situation is special, it might be necessary to use such weapons to deal with dragons?"
Danton seriously said, "But, Your Majesty announced the dragon group's attack today, and they could assemble the weapon in such a short time, indicating they had brought it in long ago, not temporarily for dealing with dragons!"