"Hey Luce, I've been meaning to ask you this but... why do you look like you've only aged three years?"
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked as she finished her milkshake.
"Seriously?" Natsu just looked at her with an unconvinced expression with his arms crossed. "Everyone else in the guild looks so much older after the seven year skip, so what's the deal with you?"
Natsu and Lucy, along with the rest of Team Natsu, Team Shadow Gear, Juvia and Nashi had all gone to the beach to train for the Grand Magic Games. They had stayed at the Dragon Realm for four days before returning to Earthland, and like Lucy had said, no time had passed during their stay. While they stayed with the dragons for four days, only an hour had passed in Earthland. Natsu extremely happy about that fact because of all the training they had done during their stay.
After Gajeel and Metalicana's battle, the latter being the victor in the end, Natsu and Lucy had their rematch as promised and like the blonde empress said, she did not hold back on her fight and Natsu lost after ten minutes (which was expected by everyone present including Igneel). After that, Lucy surprised the dragons and Nashi by saying she would like to introduce her nakama to the other dragons that she had trained with instead of going back to her work - making them excited.
Gajeel had decided to train with Metalicana while others went so Levy and Pantherlily decided to stay and watch over them, leaving Igneel to be the one to give Team Natsu a ride. Nashi was eager to get going that she was the first one to get on Igneel's back while Team Natsu just laughed at her cuteness. They soon followed and boarded Igneel's back, first visiting the spatial dragon queen Celeste - who oversaw Lucy's celestial training with Akira and was the first to train the blonde before Igneel.
There was also the lightning dragon, Raiden; the poison dragon, Lunaria; the blade dragon king, Arhad; and finally the timekeeping dragon queen, Kumiko. All five dragons, including Igneel, Metalicana, Grandeeney, Kai, Ava, Weisslogia and Skiadrum were all members of Lucy's dragon council. Other dragons they were able to meet were Isla, Takeo and Akira; the sound dragon, Miwa; the oracle dragon, Mirai and finally the eldest and wisest dragons of the Dragon Realm - the law dragon, Hekima.
It was Hekima, Kumiko and Mirai that had told the dragon council to name Lucy their empress around the fourth or fifth year into her training. Before the blonde stumbled upon the Dragon Realm, Mirai had seen a vision of the future of when Lucy would come and that she would become a friend and family to the dragons because of her strong heart. She had only told Kumiko and Hekima of her vision and the other two had agreed that if the person who stumbles into their realm is as kind as she said, she would be empress.
And of course Mirai's vision was ultimately correct, which is why the three dragons decided to inform the others after Lucy had gotten acquainted with all of them. When Erza had asked Mirai why she was not a part of the dragon council, her foresight being a very valuable ability, the oracle dragon simply replied that her powers should never be used for personal gain (since it is a power that is very tempting and dangerous which is why Lucy never learnt it) and like Carla, her visions only came and went as they pleased.
After meeting the dragons, Lucy decided that she would help the rest of the her nakama train and had announced that she would relinquish her title as Fairy Tail's fourth master. This startled everyone with her sudden decision, but Lucy made a point that because she was doing all of the paperwork, Makarov had done nothing but drink booze since their return and the old man just coughed the remark away, grumbling about he wished that she never noticed. The others laughing at his reaction.
After that, they spent the last two days of their trip training, something the non core members and the dragons hadn't seen Lucy do in the time she became empress and guild master - Igneel knowing perfectly well that the change was all thanks to his son somehow some way. And just like that, the core members got even stronger than they currently were because of Lucy's tutelage and everyone left the dragon realm with very satisfied reflections.
After returning, Makarov 'attempted' to name Guildarts the fifth guild master, but was only met with disappointment as Guildarts had gone away again to travel (relinquishing his title as fifth guild master to appoint Makarov as the sixth master and reinstating Laxus as a guild member in the form of a letter). It wasn't long after that, probably about a day, that Romeo announced that the guild should participate in the Grand Magic Games in order to become number one again.
"What exactly is the Grand Magic Games anyway?" Wendy had asked then.
He had received bad feedback from the non core members but Romeo made it a point to remind them that the core members were back and that Lucy was no longer a guild master (and she wasn't stuck in the Dragon Realm during the games for once), so she too can also participate. When the others asked what the games were, Lucy simply explained it as a tournament that guilds all around Fiore participate in in order to become the strongest guild.
Romeo then explained that the Sabertooth guild was the one who had been holding the title since the games started and that it was all thanks to their new master and five members that make up the their strongest team. That got Natsu excited and he immediately said that they should get training right away. The rest of the non core members unsure about the decision. But Romeo had completely won over Makarov the minute he mentioned the prize money that would be given to the guild if they were the champions.
And that's where the fairies found themselves at the moment. They had just started their second day there and Lucy was taking a short break, sitting on a mat while watching Nashi build a sandcastle with Happy. Natsu had wanted the group to go to the Dragon Realm to train for a longer period of time but Lucy refused, saying that there was going to be more chance of procrastinating if they had more time than they had now. Makarov also agreeing with her decision.
"Oh~ that's what you meant." Lucy said as she stood up, stretching as she got ready to go back to training. "I'd tell you, but I don't think you need to know at the moment since we're here to train."
"Aw c'mon~" Natsu whined. "You said that even though you would stay in the Dragon Realm for a long time, your body still ages the same rate as the years on Earthland, so how come you're missing like... four years out of the seven?"
Lucy just laughed at his curiosity, grabbing the pouch that held her celestial spirits' keys, and placed a hand on her hip. "You can say that I found a place that doesn't follow that rule." She said. "But, when I went there the training was brutal and I could only stay there for a short amount of time every time I visited."
"What's this I hear about brutal training?" Gray asked, everyone else following right behind him.
"I wouldn't be surprised if Lucy had a much more effective method to training considering how she helped us back in the Dragon Realm." Erza said with a towel around her neck. "I was actually hoping that you would be able to guide us again to train much more effectively before the games, Lucy."
"Oh trust me, you guys would regret going to this place anyway." Lucy warned, trying to wave the idea off but everyone looked at her with begging eyes.
"C'mon Lu, don't hold out on us!" Levy said. "We gotta be in top shape if we wanna go against Sabertooth and the other guilds."
"The training can't be that hard." Wendy added. "And even if it is, that means we just have to work harder."
"Juvia would also like to train some new spells that Queen Isla and Kai taught her." The water mage said.
Lucy looked to Jet and Droy, who knew of the place where Lucy had her brutal training, and the two just shrugged since it was her decision whether she brings the others to that place if they want. The blonde also knew, with certainty, that the two males refused to go because they also knew just how 'brutal' that place was. But looking at the rest of her nakama's pleading eyes, she sighed and went over to Nashi, crouching down to meet her eye level and placed a hand on the child's head.
"Mama's going to bring Papa and the others to that place so stay with Uncle Jet and Uncle Droy, okay?" She asked, the peach haired girl getting the message and nodding. "Don't forget to behave."
"I won't!" Nashi declared, saluting to her mother. "But don't push them too hard, Mama!"
Lucy smiled as she stood up straight and took out Virgo's key while turning back to her friends. "You have to promise me that you won't regret nor get mad after this, okay?" She said, making the others tilt their head in confusion. "This is what you all want."
"Don't worry, Luce!" Natsu replied, placing his hands behind his head. "We got this training thing in the bag."
The blonde just sighed and forced a small smile on her face as she summoned Virgo. When the pink haired maid materialized, Lucy instructed that she transport everyone but Jet, Droy and Nashi to "that place", the celestial spirit nodding and raised her hands as a bright light surrounded the group. When the fairies uncovered their eyes, their clothes had been changed and they stood on a stone platform while the sky around them looked like night but there was enough stars shining around to make seem like daylight.
The group turned to face forward where an archway stood, only to be met with a completely rare sight. Lucy stood in front of them in her Aquarius Star Dress and behind her were all the golden key celestial spirits that she was contracted with. Both she and her spirits were smirking, as if scheming something, and Lucy turned around to nod at her zodiac spirits. The fairies didn't say a word as the spirits divided themselves and the blonde finally walked her way to her nakama.
"Welcome to the Celestial Spirit World." Lucy finally spoke.
It took a moment for the others to process her words, but when they did, their jaws dropped like when they first came to the Dragon Realm. "Whoa! Hold on Lu!" Levy shouted. "I thought humans couldn't go to the Celestial Spirit World!?"
"You will be fine so long as you wear celestial clothing like you are now." Lucy reassured as she gestured them to follow her to where her spirits stood. "This will be where you train, you will be training with me and my celestial spirits - whose strength knows no bounds in this world. We just ate so you all should be fine to keep going with no rest."
"No rest?" Carla asked.
"Of course, I don't expect you to fight but you may help Natsu and Wendy if you so desire." The blonde said referring to the two exceeds, before turning to her guildmates again. "My spirits and I will not hold back during this and don't worry about hurting them. They cannot be easily damaged because this world provides them protection."
"So how long are we gonna stay here, Lucy?" Happy asked.
"We're only going to be staying here for a day Happy, so not too long, but we won't rest nor stop since every second counts." Lucy warned. "Even when you begin to feel like you're low on magic power, you must keep going and try to persevere. You must heighten your senses and let your magic expand if you want to succeed.
"That seems fair." Erza said, liking Lucy's goals for their training session.
"Alright! So what's up firs-"
Cutting Gray off, Loke had kicked the raven haired mage square in the face so that he collided with one of the stone pillars behind him. The fairies' eyes widened in surprise, not understanding why the lion spirit had done that out of nowhere, and when Gray recovered from the attack, he had barely dodged Taurus' axe that sliced the said pillar clean. When the cow spirit turned around, Gray was forced to dodge both his and Loke's attacks.
"Gray-sama-!"
Before Juvia could go to his aid, she was suddenly attacked with water and sand. The water mage rolled across the stones and coughed, looking up to see Aquarius holding her urn and Scorpio's tail aimed at her, both of them with a smirk on their face. The two spirits sent another wave of attacks, the water and sand making their own cyclone, and Juvia's eyes widened as she was able to protect herself by surrounding her body in a water lock.
"Hold on! Why are you guys-"
Wendy was cut off when a cloud of pink wool hit her and she couldn't help but cuddle it in bliss, not even bothering to notice that five arrows were heading straight towards her at amazing speed. Luckily, Carla had noticed and immediately flew towards her respective dragon slayer and carried her away from the wool, snapping the bluenette awake and into reality. But the arrows just followed the two females, but Wendy was able to blow them away with a Sky Dragon's Roar.
Levy didn't even bother asking about what was going on and decided to keep her guard up. So when she could hear a certain pair of scissors coming her way, she immediately sent a spell of fire towards the crab spirit. Cancer immediately ducked and continuously tried to cut Levy with his scissors, but the girl was able to counter him somehow. What she didn't expect was for Virgo to appear from underneath her and landed a kick to her jaw.
Erza handling the situation better than the rest. She was surprised at first, since Gemini had decided to transform into herself, but it felt like the requip mage was back in Edolas. No matter what she did, Gemini would counter and continued to attack one after another, not giving Erza so much as a second to even breathe. But she didn't expect for Capricorn to also join in, his magic similar to that of Loke's and his fighting style similar to a certain demon butler that she's heard about.
Natsu and Happy watched in confusion and slight shock at the fact that Lucy's spirits were relentlessly attacking his nakama and all Lucy did was stand there like nothing was wrong. He was the only one that wasn't being attacked by the celestial spirits so he took the opportunity to look at his partner and best friend with a confused look. The blonde girl keeping the smirk on her face as she knew that none of her guild mates fully understood what was going on yet.
"What gives, Luce!?" Natsu asked, Happy sitting on his shoulder. "Why aren't you stopping Loke and the others!?"
Lucy just scoffed as she surrounded herself with her golden flames, which everyone now knew was a result of combining her celestial magic with her fire dragon slaying magic. "You still don't get it do you?"
"Stop dodging the question and tell us what you're doing!" He demanded, getting angry that she was letting her spirits attacking her nakama without reason. "This isn't the training you mentioned!"
The blonde just gave a befuddled expression. "I didn't say the training was going to be simple exercises in the first place, Natsu." She said, cracking her knuckles and taking the pink haired boy aback. "I said that it was brutal and that's exactly what this is. A spar that won't stop. Attacks that won't rest. You have to fight for your life..."
At that moment, Lucy's aura changed as her flames died down and water was summoned to her hands. She then dashed towards Natsu at an incredible speed, only for Happy to carry the dragon slayer into the air. But Lucy expected that as she casted a Water Dragon's Roar, Natsu countering it with a Fire Dragon's Roar. When the two spells collided, steam was produced and Lucy only smirked as she was glad that the Celestial Spirit King was perfectly fine using the place as a sparring field.
"Excuse me!? Fight for our lives!?" Natsu asked, getting the attention of the other fairies.
"That's right!" Lucy replied, using her whip to grab ahold of his ankle and pulling it down to force the duo to fall to the ground. "Fight as if an enemy is right in front of you! Don't stop for a second! There is no doubt that there will be countless battles in the games, so keep going! Use all ounce of magic in your bodies! Even when you think you have nothing, I know you have more!"
It was then that the fairies realized what Lucy was saying and smirked in determination. The point of this training, like she had said before, was to continue to fight even if they think they can't. They must heighten their senses in order to predict and dodge the spirits' and her attacks and in the process learn to maintain their magic energy without running out, regardless if they have been fighting for a long period of time. Like when they fought Grimoire Heart, if they had given up, they would've perished instantly.
Natsu, liking the fact that he got another chance to have a rematch with Lucy, called forth his fire to encase his fists and showed off a toothy grin. "Okay then... I'm all fired up now!"
When the others saw Natsu's determination to not go down in ten minutes like his last rematch, they too received motivation to fight their hardest against Lucy's spirits and they began to attack too. "Let's do it!"
It had been hours. Hours since they came to the Celestial Spirit World to go through the brutal training that Lucy spoke about. None of them had stopped fighting for even a second and all the fairies were out of breath, even Lucy and her spirits - though not as bad as the mages. The fairies all lay on the ground exhausted, sweat and minor injuries on covering their bodies. But that just meant that they fought long, hard and pushed themselves to do more.
Once their time was up, Lucy looked at her exhausted nakama with pride. She was sitting with her spirits, who had more or less recovered, and walked over to her friends with a smile. Using a healing spell that Grandeeney had taught her, Lucy was able to heal her friends to the point where they wouldn't be as exhausted as they are and they looked at her in gratitude. Loke then gave Lucy a drink that Plue had brought for her and she drank it, feeling her strength return.
"Man... I really overdid it with that fight..." Lucy thought, her muscles sore from both her and Natsu's continuous clashes.
Well done, you guys." Loke congratulated, also giving them a drink and some food to eat after their long and hard battle. "There's no doubt in my mind, you all have become exceptionally stronger compared to when we started."
"Thanks Loke." Gray replied, drinking from his glass until it was dry. "You and Taurus never let me catch my breath once."
"Miss. Luuuucy told us that we shooouuuuld take it easier if we notice yooooouuuu loooooosing a lot of magic power." Taurus explained, crossing his arms. "But we kneeeeew yooouuu could take it."
"I do believe that it is an appropriate time for me to send you back home." Virgo asked, earning a nod from Lucy. "Would you like me to send you and your friends back now, Princess?"
"I'd appreciate that Virgo but first let me explain the whole time thing here."
"Time?" Juvia asked. "What about it?"
"Is time here similar to the Dragon Realm?" Levy added.
"The only reason you all ended up coming here was because Natsu wanted to know why I was younger compared to the others. And that's because time also flows differently in the Celestial Spirit World, but our bodies follow the flow of time here." Lucy explained. "It was for that reason that I made you promise me that you wouldn't be angry or regret coming here."
"How could we regret coming here, Lucy?" Wendy asked, completely satisfied with herself. "I was able to fight for such a long time and use my magic to it's full potential thanks to you!"
"Is time here a little faster than the Dragon Realm?" Carla asked, a large magic circle forming under the fairies' feet thanks to Virgo. "Instead of three months being equal to one day in Earthland, is it one day here equals to five days?"
Lucy just smiled sheepishly as the magic circle's light enveloped the fairies and brought them to an empty beach. It didn't look like a tropical vacation like it had been when they left and there were no people around whatsoever. The mages, except Lucy, looked around and noticed the water was completely still and the wind passing by as if it they were standing in a wasteland. Suddenly, they heard footsteps from behind them and saw Nashi, Jet and Droy approaching, their luggages waiting on the sidewalk.
The peach haired girl jumped into her mother's arms happily and greeted her with a tight hug, the rest of the group not fully understanding what was going on. "Welcome back, Mama!" Nashi greeted.
"Hello sweetie!" Lucy replied, kissing her daughter's cheek before looking to Jet and Droy. "Anything bad happen in the last three months?"
At her words, Team Natsu, Levy and Juvia flinched. Three months? They were gone for three months? The thought rang in their head as they realized why Lucy made them promise to not regret nor get angry. It was their decision to go to the Celestial Spirit World in order to train despite Lucy's warnings (and she didn't want the time constraint to influence their decision like when Natsu asked to train in the Dragon Realm). It made sense to them now, the reason why Lucy only looked three years older despite seven years passing.
"So... the reason you're so young is because you had gone to the Celestial Spirit World at one point and missed four years?" Erza asked.
"Well she was first gone for two and a half years after coming back from the Dragon Realm, but only stayed with her spirits for ten days." Jet explained for Lucy, sighing as he expected their reactions.
"She went back for another year around the third or fourth year and then again for another half a year during the fifth year of your disappearance." Droy added. "Nashi stayed with Bisca and Alzack during those times because her body will not be able to handle the magic energy around her since she's so young."
Team Natsu, Levy and Juvia just stared blankly as the realization processed through their brains. Lucy, Nashi, Jet and Droy mentally facepalming at their expected reactions. "I warned them." Lucy thought with a sigh.