"Yukino? What's wrong? Did anything happen?"
Finn maintained a perfectly calm tone through the telepathic link, but physically, he was in a dangerous situation. Sorano was currently wrapped tightly around him in the bedsheets. The moment she sensed Finn establish the telepathic connection with her little sister, a wicked, intensely competitive glint flashed in her eyes. She deliberately tightened her grip inside her on his nether region, causing Finn to flinch slightly.
Sorano let out a sweet, muffled cry against his neck. The sheer thrill of acting so brazenly while her innocent younger sister was communicating directly into Finn's mind clearly excited her to a dangerous degree.
Fortunately, telepathy wasn't a standard Lacrima communication device. It was a purely mental link. Even though Sorano was being incredibly noisy in the physical world, Yukino couldn't hear a single thing.
At least I can preserve what's left of Sorano's image, Finn thought with a heavy mental sigh. Still, does Sorano even have a respectable image to begin with?
Finn pushed the physical distractions aside and focused his mind on the conversation.
"Just as you predicted, Finn-san. The Royal Guard invited me to join them," Yukino reported, her mental voice clear but laced with lingering uncertainty. "Arcadios-san personally came to meet with me to discuss the Kingdom's true purpose for hiring me."
If Yukino hadn't run into Finn the night before, she knew she would have swallowed Arcadios's grand rhetoric hook, line, and sinker. After being violently stripped of her worth and discarded by Sabertooth, if a high-ranking military official told her she was "special" and that her magic was required to "save the world," how could she possibly refuse?
Especially when the man delivering the speech was Arcadios, the Chief of the Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron and the de facto military commander of the Kingdom of Fiore.
But Finn's existence completely changed everything. In Yukino's eyes, Finn was the Chief of the Fiore Magic Council—the highest magical authority in the land. He had explicitly warned her that the Royal Family was hiding a massive conspiracy. When Arcadios approached her with honeyed words about saving the world, all Yukino saw was a corrupt government official trying to manipulate her.
"So, what exactly did you find out?" Finn asked, deliberately pacing his breathing to ignore Sorano's aggressive, rhythmic movements.
He already knew what would happen from the memory of his past life, but he needed confirmation. He had to know if his massive disruption of the Grand Magic Games had triggered a butterfly effect.
The Butterfly Effect. The concept that a single flap of a butterfly's wings in South America could trigger a tornado in Texas. Considering Finn had already beaten up the Sabertooth, utterly broken Natsu, and casually exposed Jellal to the Council, he had essentially taken a sledgehammer to the original timeline.
Would his actions trigger premature apocalyptic events?
Would Zeref, Acnologia, or the Dragon Gods suddenly accelerate their plans?
Finn didn't think it was highly probable, but the possibility always existed. The world had always revolved around Fairy Tail. As long as he stayed relatively close to the main cast and monitored the core plot beats, he could likely manage any deviations.
To give an example, even though Yukino joined the Royal Knights under completely different pretenses this time, she was still exactly where she needed to be.
"Is it safe for you to be talking to me right now?" Finn asked, a sliver of genuine concern slipping into his mental voice. If Arcadios caught her leaking state secrets to the Magic Council, she would be executed for high treason.
"Yes, don't worry," Yukino reassured him. "I am alone in my private quarters. And since we are using telepathy, there's no way anyone can intercept the conversation, right?"
"That is true. But your physical expressions can still betray you, especially since you are bad at masking your emotions," Finn warned her dryly.
"...." Yukino fell silent. "Are... are you teasing me, Finn-san?"
"No, no, I am not."
"Really?" Yukino pouted mentally, suddenly wondering if he was secretly making fun of how hard she had cried the night before.
"I am not. Really," Finn replied, his mental voice suddenly straining.
"Hmm..."
"Finn-sama?" Yukino asked, concerned by his sudden hesitation.
In the physical world, Finn's eyes squeezed shut. Sorano, completely unbothered by the gravity of the espionage report, had just clamped down with terrifying, vindictive strength, determined to break his concentration.
"C-Can you just continue with what Arcadios told you, Yukino?" Finn asked, his mental projection forcing an aura of absolute professional calm.
"Yes," Yukino agreed, completely oblivious to the war occurring in Finn's bed. She immediately relayed everything Arcadios had told her, hiding absolutely nothing.
"He wants me to help him open the Eclipse Gate."
In the physical world, Ultear, Flare, and Meredy were all wide awake, actively listening to Finn relay the telepathic conversation to them. Finn felt incredibly helpless. They were all intently analyzing the implications of Yukino's report... while simultaneously continuing to take turns ruthlessly draining his stamina. It was a bizarre, distracting mix of high treason and extreme debauchery.
"What exactly is the Eclipse Gate?" Ultear asked out loud, pausing her movements slightly.
"I don't know," Yukino's mental voice echoed through Finn's mind. "But Commander Arcadios told me it is a magical door that will lead humanity to absolute victory against Zeref."
"Zeref?!" Meredy gasped aloud, her eyes widening.
"Yes," Yukino confirmed. "The Commander said it is the ultimate key to defeating the Black Mage. Do you know why that is, Finn-san?"
"Probably because it's a time machine," Finn answered bluntly, deciding there was no point in dancing around the truth.
"A time machine?!" Yukino gasped.
"Wait, you can't be serious," Ultear frowned deeply, looking down at Finn. "A door that leads to the past?"
"It's a gateway that connects directly to the era four hundred years ago," Finn explained aloud, projecting the explanation to both the women in his bed and Yukino in her quarters. "Arcadios intends to use the gate to travel back in time and assassinate Zeref before he became the immortal Black Mage."
"Wait! Wait!" Ultear shook her head, completely baffled. "Why would Arcadios want to kill Zeref now?! Zeref hasn't even been seen on this continent in centuries, right? Why is the Fiore military suddenly trying to assassinate a ghost?!"
"Because someone likely whispered a terrifying prophecy into the royalty's ear," Finn deduced smoothly. "Someone told them that Zeref was going to return and plunge the world into ruin. To prevent that terror, Arcadios and the Fiore Royal Family are trying to play the heroes. They want to rewrite history before the apocalypse can begin."
"..."
The girls in the hotel suite and Yukino in the palace were completely stunned into silence.
"However, there is a massive, fatal flaw in their logic," Finn continued, his eyes darkening as he looked at the ceiling. "What if the person who fed them that prophecy was lying?"
"Eh?" Yukino asked nervously.
"There is absolutely no guarantee that opening the Eclipse Gate will successfully lead them to Zeref four hundred years ago," Finn stated coldly. "More importantly... a door swings both ways. If Arcadios opens a temporal rift connecting the present to an era four hundred years in the past... what exactly is going to step out of that door and into our timeline?"
"What... what would come out?" Meredy asked, a sudden, suffocating sense of dread washing over her.
"I don't know," Finn lied smoothly. He knew exactly what was coming: ten thousand dragons. But he wasn't about to cause a panic. "But whether opening that gate leads humanity to salvation or drags us into an absolute, extinction-level nightmare... I suppose we will just have to wait and see."
Finn closed his eyes, finally giving in to the aggressive physical demands of his harem.
"Just stay there for a while, Yukino. Gather all the intel you can, but do not put yourself in danger. Let's see what tomorrow brings."
"Yes!"
The transmission cut. The long, exhausting third day of the Grand Magic Games had finally concluded. But the true, apocalyptic battle was rapidly approaching on the horizon.