The truth behind the curse finally began to unravel as Lyon spoke. He explained that a short man named Zalty had approached him years ago, revealing that the ancient magic circle atop the Galuna Island temple could be used to aggregate "Moon Drip"—a potent ritual energy—to melt the Iced Shell and free Deliora.
Driven by his obsession, Lyon had spent three years transporting the frozen demon to the island and preparing the ceremony. They were only days away from completion when Goku's team arrived.
As for the purple barrier that had plagued the villagers, it was merely a localized side effect of the massive magical distortion caused by the Moon Drip ritual. Since the effect only seemed to warp the perception of demons and left humans untouched, Lyon and his subordinates had simply ignored it, indifferent to the suffering of the local tribe.
"From the sound of it, this 'Zalty' guy is incredibly suspicious," Lucy noted, her brow furrowing. "Hiding behind a mask and manipulating an egomaniac like Lyon into unsealing a world-ending calamity? That's Villainy 101."
"Hmph, of course I knew he was suspicious," Lyon retorted with a dismissive sneer. "But schemes mean nothing in the face of absolute power. If he had tried to betray me, I would have crushed him."
"Crushed him? If you actually unsealed Deliora, you'd be dead before you could even realize you were betrayed," Gray muttered, rubbing his temples in frustration at his brother's stubbornness. "What does he look like? Is he still on the island?"
Gray was determined to find this manipulator. If Deliora were truly unleashed, the resulting catastrophe would dwarf any petty rivalry.
"Ice-Make!" Lyon's hands flared, and a life-sized, incredibly detailed ice sculpture of Zalty appeared before them. "He doesn't stay on the island consistently. He comes and goes as he pleases, so I have no idea if he's still here."
"Hey! It's that guy!" Goku shouted, jumping up from his seat.
"Goku, you've seen him?" Gray asked, instantly alert.
Goku nodded vigorously. "Yeah, just a few minutes ago. He was the guy hiding in the tree watching us."
"Can you find him?" Gray pressed. He knew Goku possessed the uncanny ability to lock onto a person's ki and close the distance instantly, much like how he had retrieved Natsu from the train back in Onibus.
"I'll try!" Goku closed his eyes, centering his focus. Initially, he felt nothing—the man had likely fled beyond his normal sensory range. But Goku didn't give up. He drew a deep, rhythmic breath, his lungs expanding as he activated a specialized technique.
"Breath of Ki, Eighth Form: Myriad Mile Tracer!"
This form possessed no offensive power; instead, it hyper-stimulated his nervous system and sensory organs, exponentially boosting his ability to detect ki signatures across vast distances. His mental map expanded, sweeping across the island and out over the dark ocean.
"Found him!"
Goku's eyes snapped open, and his body vanished in a blur of displaced air.
...
When Goku reappeared, the environment had shifted from the forest to the cramped, swaying cabin of a sailing vessel out at sea. Standing across from him was no longer a short, masked man, but a striking woman with long, midnight-black hair, straight-cut bangs, and a sophisticated white outfit cinched by a yellow belt.
The woman's pupils constricted in genuine shock at Goku's sudden appearance, but she regained her composure with terrifying speed. She immediately slumped her shoulders, putting on a front of frail, trembling vulnerability. "Who are you? How did you get onto my ship?"
"I'm Son Goku. We just saw each other on the island," Goku said, blinking at her. To anyone else, the transformation would have been perfect, but to Goku, a person's ki was as unique as a fingerprint. "You're Zalty, right? Lyon and the others want to talk to you."
"Arc of Time!"
Realizing her cover was blown, the woman—Ultear Milkovich—discarded her act instantly. A glass orb appeared out of thin air, launched at Goku with a velocity that defied the naked eye.
*CLACK!*
Goku swatted the orb away with the back of his hand, shattering it. His eyes lit up. "Whoa, that was fast! You're way stronger than that Lyon guy."
Ultear didn't seem bothered by the destruction of her weapon. In fact, a predatory smirk played across her lips. "Little boy, the magic I wield is a Lost Magic—the Arc of Time. I can command the temporal state of all things. Since you've seen my true face, I'm afraid I have to send you to hell."
Suddenly, the shards of the shattered orb on the floor began to glow. As if time were flowing backward, the fragments flew upward and reassembled in mid-air behind Goku's head, slamming into his skull with the force of a falling meteor.
*CRACK!*
The orb shattered again upon impact. The force was enough to jerk Goku's head forward, but when he turned back around, there was no blood—not even a bruise. Instead, his grin had grown wider.
"That was great! I didn't even see that coming," Goku laughed. "You're really good!"
Ultear's expression soured. 'His physical durability is insane,' she thought. Her orb wasn't a common trinket; it was a focal point for her magical energy. The fact that it shattered against his skin without leaving a mark meant his natural "defense" was higher than the structural integrity of her enchanted weapons.
"Flash Forward!"
Ultear's magic circle flared with intensity. Suddenly, dozens of identical crystal orbs manifested in the air, surrounding Goku in a spherical cage. She was using her magic to pull future iterations of the orb into the present.
The orbs became a whirlwind of high-velocity strikes, battering Goku from every conceivable angle. Goku's arms became a blur as he punched and swatted them away, but it was like fighting a ghost. Every time he crushed an orb, it would simply "rewind" its state and strike him again. To an outsider, it looked like Goku was being completely suppressed by the relentless storm of crystal.
'It doesn't matter how hard you hit,' Ultear thought triumphantly. 'My orbs will always return. And if you try to use that Giant Magic to increase your power, you'll only give me a bigger target to hit. I'll send my orbs into your eyes, your ears... no matter how tough the outside is, the inside is always soft.'
"Giant's Wrath!"
Goku, a veteran of countless battles, understood the disadvantage of size in this specific scenario. He didn't expand his body; instead, he used a specialized application of the Giant Magic taught to him by Master Makarov.
A golden magic circle erupted beneath his feet, and a massive, explosive burst of ki—amplified by magical pressure—radiated outward like a solar flare. The shockwave was so violent that every single orb in his vicinity was not just broken, but vaporized into dust before they could even attempt to rewind.
Before the dust could even settle to allow for a temporal reconstruction, Goku was gone. He appeared inches from Ultear's face, his fist pulled back.
"Breath of Ki, Fourth Form: Thunder Tiger Flash!"
The same strike that had threatened to pierce the island now aimed at the dark mage. The air ionized around his knuckles, and the roar of a phantom tiger filled the cabin. For the first time in years, Ultear felt the cold, suffocating grip of true mortality.