Sting and Rogue were utterly ruthless. Nearly all the other contestants hobbled across the finish line.

Fairy Tail got off to a perfect start, securing 10 points from the opening competition. The battle portion later that day went just as expected, raising their score to 20 points and placing them solidly in first.

This year's battle format differed from that of seven years later. In the future, not only were the matchups arranged by the tournament organizers, but even the participating members couldn't be chosen freely.

That was done to ensure matches between mages of similar power levels, and of course, to make the magic collection process smoother.

But the organizers of the first Grand Magic Games clearly hadn't considered things so thoroughly—luck still played a role in matchups.

Each team would have four battles total. A lucky draw might mean facing off against a weak guild like Twilight Ogre, but drawing a strong team could mean bad news.

Of course, Charles wasn't worried. Even if they drew Lamia Scale, it would just mean a little more effort, nothing more.

For the first day's battle, the draw had landed them against Raven Tail.

Raven Tail, the dark guild founded by Makarov's biological son Ivan after being expelled from Fairy Tail.

Up until recently, Raven Tail operated as an unregistered dark guild not under the Magic Council's jurisdiction. They technically shouldn't have been eligible for the Grand Magic Games.

Charles remembered that in the original timeline, it wasn't until the return of the Tenrou Group that Raven Tail applied for legal guild status—purely to take down Fairy Tail out of spite.

Yet this time, Ivan had somehow managed to secure early entry into the Games.

And they didn't even try to hide their hostility toward Fairy Tail.

During the city race, Raven Tail had been among the most underhanded, targeting Sting and Rogue with the dirtiest tricks.

In the battle match, their contestant had unleashed poisonous miasma across the arena, trying to win through sabotage.

But once Kagura stepped in, a single slash of her "Gravity Blade: Abyss" cut through the poison and instantly defeated the Raven Tail mage still babbling arrogantly inside the fog.

Other villains might have at least knocked the protagonist down before dying due to excessive monologuing, but this guy? Total fool.

Charles noticed Ivan in the audience, his expression stormy. Probably ashamed at how pathetically his man had been taken out.

And so, the first day's competition came to a close, leaving everyone with a clear message: even without their usual heavy-hitters, Fairy Tail was not a guild to be trifled with.

No one could claim the title of Kingdom's Number One Guild just yet—not when Fairy Tail stood in their way.

As most competitors returned to their inns to rest and recover, preparing mentally and physically for the days ahead, there was one notable exception.

Under the cover of night, Charles silently slipped out the window like a ghost, gliding toward the heart of the Kingdom—the royal palace, Mercurius.

Earlier that morning, during the competitions, he'd been closely observing the city's flow of magic—and just as expected, most of it was being funneled underground toward the palace.

Which meant that the Eclipse Gate had to be located there.

Confirming the state of the Eclipse Gate was one of Charles's main goals in participating in the Grand Magic Games to begin with. And now, under the veil of darkness, he would accomplish it.

Without alerting the palace guards, Charles quietly infiltrated the royal palace.

He didn't exactly remember the layout of the palace's lower levels. Even Charles's memory had limits, so he'd made a conscious choice to commit only the most critical intelligence to memory.

Trivial or hazy details were naturally pushed aside to make room for more important data.

In fact, part of his reason for sneaking in tonight was to familiarize himself with the route.

But he wasn't wandering aimlessly—he was following the trail of the flowing magic.

Sure enough, he soon arrived at the Eclipse Gate.

Standing before the towering gate, etched with intricate, arcane patterns, Charles couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia.

This was the gate Ana-sensei had used to send him, Natsu, and the others to this era—though Charles had ended up diverted by World Magic and sent to other worlds in the process.

The gate itself was powered by Celestial Spirit Magic, which leveraged the temporal disparity between the Celestial Spirit World and the real world to achieve time travel.

Though on the surface, Celestial Spirit Magic seemed like a specialized summoning magic—and suffered the flaw of being unusable without keys—its applications were far-reaching.

The Eclipse Gate was just one extension of this magic. The Celestial Spirit Spell, Urano Metria, was another—an overwhelmingly powerful spell only Celestial Spirit Mages could cast.

There was also the summoning of the Celestial Spirit King himself, an ability that could only be used at the cost of a Golden Key—a technique that served as a trump card in its own right.

No wonder this magic was wielded by the story's heroine.

Charles carefully inspected the Eclipse Gate. Sure enough, it was connected to a complex magical array and was slowly accumulating magical energy.

However, the charging efficiency was abysmally low. It was still a long way from being fully activated.

Besides that, Charles didn't notice anything particularly unusual about it.

Still, he didn't let his guard down. The Eclipse Gate wasn't just a key element of the Grand Magic Games arc—it was shrouded in mystery.

After all, it was created by Zeref himself. You could never be too cautious.

Charles strongly suspected that the strange, black entity that had possessed Future Rogue in the original timeline had some connection to the gate.

And there was the question of why Acnologia had appeared in that future timeline to begin with.

A plausible theory was that Acnologia had sensed the activation of the Eclipse Gate and Zeref's magic lingering on it.

That would explain why, after Natsu destroyed the gate, Acnologia never appeared again in that timeline.

But right now, with the gate dormant, Charles couldn't confirm any of that. Still, at least he could now be sure that no unexpected disasters would occur anytime soon.

Just then, Charles heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He immediately slipped into the shadows, masking his magic and presence.

The footsteps, accompanied by the clinking of metal, drew closer. Soon, several figures stopped in front of the Eclipse Gate.

From the sound, at least one of them was wearing heavy armor.

"Captain of the Knights, what's the situation?" asked a voice that sounded oddly familiar.

Charles peeked out and saw a short, middle-aged man speaking.

He recognized that voice—it was the same as the tournament emcee, Pumpkin Head.

This man's real identity was none other than the King of Fiore: Thomas E. Fiore.

And standing behind him in thick armor was the captain of the royal guard, Arcadios.

Arcadios replied, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I wish I could say everything was going smoothly...

But we still have a problem—the rate at which we're gathering magical energy is far too slow. Even if we improve the Eclipse magic array, it won't be enough to collect the required energy in time."

Thomas said, "No matter. We're still missing some of the crucial Golden Keys. Even if it takes a little longer to charge, it doesn't affect our plans.

By the way, weren't there reports of the Pisces Golden Key turning up recently?"

Arcadios responded, "Yes, but by the time we arrived, someone else had already taken it. The primary suspect appears to be a mage from Fairy Tail."

Thomas fell silent for a moment before muttering, "In that case, most of the Golden Keys are already concentrated within Fairy Tail. I suppose that saves us some effort."

Hidden in the shadows, Charles showed no reaction. It didn't matter if people had their eyes on him. With so many keys in Lucy's possession, they'd long since become a target. One more changed nothing.

Still, the Kingdom's intelligence network was surprisingly thorough. Charles had retrieved the Pisces key while on a mission in a remote region, and they already knew?

Too bad they didn't realize—not only did he have Pisces, he also held Libra's key. All twelve Zodiac Golden Keys were already in Fairy Tail's hands.

Having confirmed through their conversation that the Kingdom wasn't up to anything else for now, Charles silently slipped away from the palace and returned to the inn.

His objective for the night had been achieved. Now, he could focus entirely on the competition ahead.

(End of Chapter)

[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]

[Every 50 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]

[Thanks for Reading!]