Rhode was indeed somewhat troubled.
Not only because he was worried about accidentally hurting the people below, but also because he felt that continuing to fight like this might easily damage the Eclipse Gate.
By then, Future Lucy might disappear entirely, unable to change the tragedy from her time.
A different battlefield was needed, but the intention couldn't be too obvious.
Coincidentally, Future Rogue also wanted to change the battlefield.
He was also afraid of damaging the Eclipse Gate, as it might lead to his own disappearance.
Moreover, it seemed impossible for the other dragons' battles to end quickly; the extra Earth Mother Dragon was his only advantage and couldn't remain here to be worn down by this freak.
Of course, he also didn't want Rhode to see his intention, as it would expose his weakness.
The two of them, each with their own ulterior motives yet aligned goals, tacitly made a decision.
One began to deliberately or inadvertently pull away from the Royal Palace during the fight, while the other instructed the Earth Mother Dragon to subtly lure Rhode out.
Neither Rhode nor Future Rogue expected things to progress so smoothly; after a few exchanges, they had moved to the Southern Royal Capital outside the palace.
Both were pleasantly surprised.
Future Rogue was even more delighted because he noticed that after several rounds, although Rhode was uninjured, it seemed he hadn't been able to injure the Earth Mother Dragon either.
In other words, although this member of the Ten Wizard Saints was formidable, he absolutely couldn't defeat a dragon!
Thus, Future Rogue believed the outcome was determined: "Give up! Humans can't win against dragons, and you're definitely no match for Maser Gray!"
Rhode said nothing, he just silently switched to his Purgatory Dragon Soul form, then like at the beginning, punched the Earth Mother Dragon's neck.
Future Rogue watched as flames burst from the large, thick dragon scales on the Earth Mother Dragon and remarked indifferently, "I've told you, Maser Gray has a diamond body, she..."
Before he could finish, Future Rogue staggered and almost fell.
"Roar..." The Earth Mother Dragon seemed to cry out in pain, its neck bending outward in a pronounced arc from the blow.
Its body shook violently, even its flight path veered off, heavily misaligned by the left hand.
"This..." Future Rogue was stunned, seeing that the dragon scale Rhode had just struck was now covered in cracks, charred black.
After adjusting its posture, the Earth Mother Dragon twisted its body, using its thick tail to whip towards Rhode, creating an exaggerated whistling sound.
Bam!
Rhode tried to grab the tail's tip with both hands, but the mighty force countered him, knocking him back dozens of meters.
"Did this dragon put all its points into power and defense?" Rhode felt that the Earth Mother Dragon's Dragon Breath power didn't quite match its strength.
Dong! Bam!
The dull collision caught Rhode's attention; it was a Mountain Sub-Dragon fighting a noseless Rock Spirit Dragon.
Each clash between these two was like two mountains wrestling in the air, with immense impact and a strong sense of power.
During the battle, various sizes of rocks often fell down.
Future Rogue seriously assessed the state of the two dragons, noticing the Mountain Sub-Dragon had some minor wounds, but the Rock Spirit Dragon's scales seemed more severely damaged.
Moreover, below, mages frequently cast magic towards the sky.
This area was guarded by the Rays of the Rising Sun mages.
Their president, Brellins, realizing it was hard to injure the dragon, cleverly chose some magic that interfered with vision and hearing.
This left the Rock Spirit Dragon greatly troubled, often giving the Mountain Sub-Dragon an advantage.
"Asbiote's falling behind? Looks like I'll have to..."
"Roar!!!"
The Earth Mother Dragon's anguished cry was even louder this time, its back arched up completely.
Future Rogue directly fell on the Earth Mother Dragon's back, knowing without looking that Rhode must have attacked the dragon's underbelly from below.
"Damn, I've got to shake off this guy first!" Future Rogue scanned the surroundings with a sullen expression, "Got it, Maser Gray, release the 'Sub-type'!"
The Earth Mother Dragon let out a long chant, spreading its wings to the maximum.
Below, Rhode suddenly saw things emerging from the four rows of dense openings on the dragon's underbelly; each thing had a round, sharp point.
This scene startled him—it was very similar to the advanced missile launchers he'd seen in movies.
Numerous oval objects, each larger than a person, were shot out of the Earth Mother Dragon like shrapnel.
Rhode carefully dodged them.
He quickly noticed the oval objects crashed down, easily collapsing rooftops and outer walls, and some left large craters in the streets.
Fortunately, the mages below swiftly evaded, resulting in no casualties.
However, countless small dinosaur-like creatures continually crawled out of the eggshells.
Their bodies appeared strikingly metallic, easily destroying walls and shattering sculptures; they attacked people on sight, and if no one was around, they caused random destruction.
The mages below were soon surrounded by these creatures and hastily organized a defense, unable to spare time to interfere with the Rock Spirit Dragon.
"Mass production?" Rhode realized what the opponent was launching wasn't any offensive weapon but a mass of dragon eggs.
The way of the world, he who enjoyed mass-producing units now faced an enemy just as capable.
"Hmph, this is only the beginning!" Future Rogue believed he had found a way to tie down Rhode, "Maser Gray, head over there!"
Rhode aimed his hands at a spot densely surrounded by the 'Sub-type' small dinosaurs, unleashing a move called 'Fire Meteor.'
Dozens of basketball-sized magma balls fell like meteors; the mechanical small dinosaurs hit by them were swiftly taken down.
Rhode assessed their dodging maneuvers and the extent of their destruction, concluding, "They're slightly stronger than D-class monsters in the Demon Suppression Hall, with intelligence seemingly akin to C-class.
"If their numbers increase, they could pose a significant threat to ordinary mages, and if they have any ranged attack capabilities, that would be extremely dangerous."
Brellins saw Rhode and thought he was staying to help, he shouted loudly: "We can handle this level!"
"Be careful." Rhode left these words behind and immediately went to chase Future Rogue.
The direction the Earth Mother Dragon was flying seemed to be towards the area responsible by the guild, and continued to spray dragon eggs downward during flight.
Although this person looked quite edgy, his style of action over the past few days showed he somewhat had a brain, and he was certainly up to some mischief now.
Indeed, this was precisely the case.
Future Rogue knew the Fairy Tail's style—that companions were more important than anything.
As long as he could cause trouble for Fairy Tail, Rhode would have to stay to protect the guild.
This way he could deal with those unruly dragons one by one.
...
Dragon eggs kept falling in the Royal Capital, especially around the plaza where Fairy Tail was responsible for defense.
Future Rogue was quite cautious, guarding against Makarov, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, so he didn't dare get too close, only allowing the Earth Mother Dragon to heavily drop dragon eggs from a bit further away.
Fairy Tail was soon surrounded by mechanical little dinosaurs.
The current main defenders were Makarov, Mira, Elfman, Macao, Wakaba, and Reby.
The other guild main forces were either dealing with the Emerald Dragon or sent to handle the Dragon's Treasure, and those remaining had to protect Asuka in addition to fighting.
Additionally, Qico needed some looking after too.
Because the magic's restriction was too strong, leaving Magnolia, her strength greatly decreased, now she could only rely on the martial arts skills honed over years with the guild.
Makarov transformed into a giant, stomping and slapping with his hand, but seeing the endless influx of enemies, his temper was about to flare.
He clasped his hands together and was about to unleash Fairy Law in a fit of anger.
However, Mebius stopped him, directing the guild members to construct two defensive formations.
Under Mebius's command, everyone took turns casting magic, appearing orderly.
Wakaba sprayed out a few smoke-shaped fists, knocking down two little dinosaurs, then complained: "There's no end to this."
Macao mocked: "Old guy, if you can't hold up, just say so, I'll have Romeo take your place."
"You bastard, are you saying I can't even compare to your son?"
"No, no, I think you and my son are about the same."
"What did you say?!"
Romeo sighed wearily: "Fight seriously, Dad, and Wakaba uncle."
Actually, he didn't need to say, these two old fellows would argue but their fighting wouldn't be affected at all.
In contrast, to compete for battle results, their attacks became even more precise.
Mebius's voice rang out: "Prepare everyone, there's a sizable batch coming!"
Everyone perked up and then a wave of blue lightning descended from the sky.
The dozen or so little dinosaurs at the front were struck by the lightning, collapsing immediately, but the lightning didn't cease, bouncing three bolts from each of them.
When the second wave of lightning hit the targets, each bolt split into three crackling streams.
A large net woven of blue lightning instantly appeared around the plaza, swiftly clearing the surrounding little dinosaurs.
"It's Rhode." Makarov looked at the familiar move, sure enough seeing Rhode with blue mechanical wings descending from the sky.
"Brother Rhode!" Romeo's eyes sparkled, obviously awed by Rhode's impressive move just now.
Mira didn't speak, just waved to him to signal him to attend to his task.
Rhode nodded and asked: "Is everyone alright?"
Mebius replied: "Situation is okay, your move relieved a lot of pressure, what about over there?"
"Also okay, it's just that guy is too cunning." Rhode summoned three Void Nest Insects—these mother insects could only protect him with peace of mind when placed on the guild's territory.
"It's terrifying." Asuka was scared by the appearance of the Nest Insects, clutching Qico's leg and hiding behind her.
Watching as the purple-red insect eggs on the Nest Insects began to grow and break, worms poured out to join the battle, Qico stroked Asuka's head: "These are formidable summoned beasts, with them here, we won't be outnumbered."
Reby asked: "Although timely, but as far as I remember, only sixty small worms per minute, it'll take a while to catch up to the number of enemies, and the strength is also..."
"It doesn't matter, I have a way to boost their power." Rhode flicked the spider silk tangled on the necklace cord, layers of blue-grey light attached to the Void Worms.
Their size immediately grew larger, and their teeth seemed to become sharper.
——The Broken Ghost Crown can significantly enhance 'small soldiers'.
"As for the number, I happen to have a suitable magic too, can also provide cover for people from other guilds." Rhode gathered the three Void Nest Insects together and pointed at them with his finger, "Void Hunger."
"Hisssss~~~" The three Nest Insects howled towards the sky, purple halos spread out from them, reaching the boundaries of the Royal Capital.
At this moment, everyone present had an additional faint purple transparent shield, with two purple-red small spheres rotating around the shield.
Those two small spheres seemed quite familiar.
Everyone was curiously observing their changes: "What is this?"
"This shield can block a non-powerful attack once, and those two small spheres... Romeo, punch that railing." With no enemies nearby temporarily, Rhode had to let him demonstrate with the plaza's central fountain railing.
"Alright." Romeo obediently punched the railing with moderate force.
The stone railing instantly cracked, and those two purple-red small spheres around Romeo transformed into two Void Worms as they dashed out with his punch.
These two worms immediately got stained with the Broken Ghost Crown, and upon collision, the railing became a pile of rubble.
Romeo exclaimed: "Amazing..."
Rhode smiled: "Although each person can only summon two worms, there are thousands of mages in the Royal Capital."