As usual, Ben turns Acnologia's corpse into a Dragon Lacrima. He doesn't feel anything after killing the Dragon King other than relief. This is the 2nd time he fight Acnologia and although it finished faster than the fight in his timeline, it is actually more dangerous.
"Defeating all the Dragons alone my ass. I thought I could defeat all the Dragons alone, but I already had a hard time against Acnologia. Fighting all those Dragons alone would surely kill me."
Ben sighs while looking at Acnologia's Dragon Lacrima. Acnologia's evil aura and bits of his personality are still attached to it. So he needs to purify this Dragon Lacrima before it becomes usable.
"Now, let's finish this war completely."
Ben eats a lot of sunlight to replenish his magic power. His magic power is too low to fight some powerful Dragons, after all. It doesn't take long for him to recover a lot of his magic power with his high absorption rate.
He immediately flies off to attack the remaining Dragons. Acnologia might've controlled them, but those Dragons were originally hostile against humans, so he still needs to kill them. The control only made them submissive to Acnologia, while their thirst for human blood is real.
Ben arrives at the nearest battle in a short time and sees his comrades are still having a hard time against a massive Dragon. This Dragon is many times bigger than normal Dragons. It is a Giant Dragon, after all, a Dragon that uses Giant Magic.
The one who faces it is the Martial Artist group from Eastern Continent. They have flight abilities, so they can move nimbly and attack the Dragons from above. But they still can't inflict significant damage on the Giant Dragon.
"Everyone, back off! I will take over from here."
They hear Ben's order and are surprised that he has finished his battle already. But they still follow his order and pull back to give him more room. Then they see Ben transforms into a Golden Dragon as he flies toward the Giant Dragon's neck.
The Giant Dragon is shooting a bright yellow Dragon Roar at Ben. But Ben evades it easily and keeps flying toward the Giant Dragon's neck that's almost as big as Ben's Dragon body. Ben hugs the huge neck and covers his body with Gravity Magic.
"The bigger you are, the easier it is to attack you."
After saying that, Ben tightens his hug. He even uses his tail to increase his hugging power. His hug slowly breaks the scales on the Giant Dragon's neck. Ben is choking the Giant Dragon with his hug and the Giant Dragon can't get rid of him because he makes a Gravity sphere to repulse anything that comes closer
The Giant Dragon doesn't have any choice but to shrink its body to normal size. However, the moment it shrinks, it is very vulnerable to attacks and Ben won't waste it. Ben uses his Dragon claws to rip the Giant Dragon's neck, killing it without any trouble.
"I can even kill Acnologia with these claws, so you don't stand a chance."
Ben turns the Giant Dragon's corpse into a Dragon Lacrima immediately before taking the Dragon Hunters here to assist the next group. With Ben's assistance, they can kill the Dragons quickly and reduce the casualties. Even with all the preparations they've done, they still lose a lot of people because these Dragons are powerful.
But even those powerful Dragons are powerless against Ben. He rips their head off of their bodies easily in his Dragon form when the other Dragon Hunters attack the Dragons from below. Ben can rip Acnologia's body apart, so ripping these Dragons is easy.
After turning all the dead Dragons into Dragon Lacrima, the only thing left to do is decide what to do with Irene. Unlike Elefseria, Irene has done a lot of crimes against humanity when she was still a part of Alvarez. She was also an enemy of Ishgar, so Ben can't just let her go because she might endanger his children.
"Are you going to kill me now?"
Irene is imprisoned in a small space barrier that Ben made to make sure she can't escape.
"I haven't made my decision, but I think killing you is the best course of action."
"How cruel. You will kill me even though I have helped you kill the Dragons."
"Don't try to play with me, Irene. I know you helped us because those Dragons were your enemies too. But it doesn't mean you are seeing us as allies. I don't know what you might do in the future, so setting you free is bothering me. Not only you were Ishgar's enemy, but you are also affected by your Dragonization."
Brandish once told Ben that Irene's Dragonization was affecting her mind. August was the one who told Brandish that Irene's Dragonization caused her to be cruel and insane even though she was a kind human in the past. But after turning into a Dragon, she was obsessed to become a human again.
"You wanted to be a human again, but ironically, you were doing inhumane things instead. Well, I know humans can also do those things if they have great power. But it just shows that releasing you is dangerous. This world has just suffered, so I can't let another danger threatens it again."
"Hah, just kill me already, no need for your boring speech. I will die anyway, so why bother giving me lectures?"
"Well, I am just trying to be nice by making sure you have someone to talk to for the last time."
"Talking with you isn't enjoyable. If you really want to give me a nice conversation, then let me talk with that blue-haired girl. Ah, and Brandish."
"You want to talk with Wendy & Brandish? Hmm, sure. Consider this my thanks for helping us earlier."
Ben lets Irene talks with Wendy & Brandish. He isn't worried because he knows Wendy can handle both of them if Irene suddenly attacks her and somehow Brandish helps Irene. The current Wendy isn't the same little girl he always needs to protect anymore.
Luckily though, Irene doesn't do anything stupid and just talks as she said. Ben doesn't ask anything, but he can guess that Irene herself is tired of her life. She has lived for 400 years, after all, and she kept losing her real self as he grows older.
Although Ben also thinks that maybe it's because Erza has died in this timeline. Wendy looks quite sad after talking to Irene, so Ben thinks that maybe they were talking about Erza. He doesn't want to ask Wendy about their conversation yet because it seems Wendy wants to talk about it later.
"Sigh, it's strange how I can do this twice."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, just pondering something unimportant. So, are you ready?"
"Just get it done wi-."
Irene can't finish her sentence because Ben has already headshot her using a very powerful solar bullet that he shot from his finger. It was very sharp that it could pierce through Irene's head like piercing tofu. Ben shot at an unexpected time to give her a painless death.
"That is my last mercy for you because you have helped us. It won't change my intention to turn you into a Dragon Lacrima though."
Ben turns Irene's body into a Dragon Lacrima, but unlike in his timeline, he doesn't separate Irene's magic into 2 Lacrimas, he only made 1. He hasn't had any plan for these Dragon Lacrimas made of the Dragon King level Dragons. But he needs to make sure that they'll be used properly.
At night, they celebrate their victory by having a feast in the wild. It's different from the past when they could hold a feast in a good building or even a castle. They don't even have alcohol because the world was on the brink of extinction and no one has the time to make alcohol.
Nonetheless, it's the best party they've ever had in their lives. Without a doubt, they are heroes of this world. But they know they won't get that much praise now because there aren't that many people left alive today. They still need to rebuild this world to be true heroes.
Ben talks with Elefseria regarding the Dragon Lacrimas and they agree to use them as rewards. There are 13 Dragon King level Lacrimas and they decide to split those into 4 because there are 4 continents that participate. Each continent will get 3 except for Ishgar which contributed the most.
Ishgar also has the right to take Acnologia's Dragon Lacrima because Ben killed that guy alone, so they get 5 Dragon Lacrimas and no one can protest it. Well, Wendy also helped by subduing Irene, but she is from Ishgar, so it doesn't change anything.
Because they have the highest contribution, Ishgar has the right to choose first. Ben knows the other continents are worried about how powerful Ishgar will be in the future, but he doesn't care. Still, he wants to be as fair as possible, so he chooses the Dragon Lacrimas made of the Dragons that Ishgar groups defeated.
He chooses Irene Lacrima whom Wendy defeated, Sound Dragon Lacrima that Lucy defeated, Darkness Dragon Lacrima that Ariel defeated, and Lightning Dragon Lacrima that Gabriel defeated. His choices make the other continents also do the same. They picked the Dragon Lacrimas made of Dragons they contributed the most to kill.
Well, Ben doesn't really care about the Dragon Lacrimas his continent gets because they are all powerful and there is still Acnologia's Lacrima. Besides, he can still get more after doing something to make sure this world won't get destroyed again.
The next day, they return home immediately using Ben's airship. But on their way back, the 5th Generation Dragon Slayers suddenly come and kneel to Ben. "Master Ben! Please help us!"
"Hmm? What kind of help?"
"We beg you to remove our risk of Dragonization. In the last battles against those powerful Dragons, we could finish the battle without getting turned into Dragons somehow. But we feel like we'll turn into Dragons if we use our magic again, we've reached our limits. We will give you our shares of Dragon Lacrimas, so please help us."
"I have a way, but I never tried it. It might work or succeed, but I'm sure it will be very painful. You might die while doing this procedure because I never tried it on anyone else with the same conditions as you. Even so, will you still take the risk?"
"Yes!"
They answer without any hesitation, so Ben smiles satisfiedly. "Then wait for a few weeks. You need to rest for now and stop using your magic to stabilize your bodies. I will come to you in a few weeks, so just wait patiently."
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You can read more chapters ahead of my fanfics and more pictures on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
Voting for this book is highly appreciate. Cover image is the MC, artist's ig: @fatmaqn_
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 443. The End (Fairy Tail: Sun Eater)
2. Chapter 480. Clown Supremacy (Transcended as Lord Buggy)
3. Pictures of both stories (ex: bounty poster & magazine cover) by fatmaqn_
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