Across the twelve domains, the battles between the Celestial Spirits and the humans were in full swing.
In Libra's domain, Yukino and Libra were locked in a deadlock.
Unlike Lucy, who was more or less defenseless in close combat aside from a barely passable whip technique and the occasional Lucy Kick, Yukino was genuinely skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and she also had several Silver Key Spirits suited for battle.
But even so, she didn't dare fight without restraint, because the trial Libra had set up was incredibly dangerous.
The two of them stood atop a giant oval-shaped boulder balanced on the edge of a cliff.
Yukino stood on one side, Libra on the other.
The boulder rested on a natural pivot point atop a towering rock formation that disappeared into the clouds. Its two sides were evenly weighted, tilting now and then to one side or the other like a real set of scales.
And on top of that precarious balancing point, Yukino and Libra fought fiercely.
They were limited to hand-to-hand combat, and on top of that had to keep stabilizing themselves and preserving the balance of the boulder.
The battle had become an exhausting stalemate.
Libra refused to lose to a human in terms of "balance," while Yukino was equally unwilling to let Libra fall off the cliff.
It was clearly going to be a long fight...
...
Meanwhile, Gray had been thrown into the most humiliating challenge of his life.
Cancer's domain was a gigantic disco hall.
And there, the cool and stoic Gray was forced into a dance battle against Kaysa, who looked suspiciously like Michael Jackson and kept grabbing his crotch while shouting random sound effects!
The fight was going terribly.
Kaysa was completely immersed in the music and dancing, while Gray, being far too self-conscious and painfully aware that his son was watching, couldn't loosen up at all.
The rules of the domain were simple: the sexier one side danced, the more hearts appeared on the screen—and those hearts directly translated into unavoidable damage dealt to the opponent.
Grinju couldn't dance at all.
Gray technically could, but with his son standing there watching, how was he supposed to shamelessly throw himself into a seduction dance against an enemy?
What would happen to his dignity as a father in the future if he did that?!
As for Juvia's side, her situation was even more frustrating.
Aries's domain was an endless desert.
Juvia had been searching through the blistering heat and bone-dry air for quite some time, but she hadn't even caught a glimpse of Aries.
Apparently, Aries intended to wait until Juvia was completely parched and exhausted before reappearing to finish her off.
Aside from those few locations, however, the other battlefields were going extremely well.
Gajeel faced Taurus, whose track record against Lucy was already catastrophically bad.
Since Taurus relied entirely on simple brute force and straightforward head-on combat...
Gajeel had no trouble crushing him.
He became the first person to forcibly seal a Celestial Spirit Gate shut.
Erza's side was even more ridiculous.
Sagittarius insisted on competing with Erza—who was practically a master of everything—in horsemanship, archery, and marksmanship.
After absorbing a trace of Atoosh's divine power earlier, Erza had fully digested what she'd gained from it, and utterly dominated Sagittarius in all three disciplines.
Sagittarius, to his credit, admitted defeat without fuss.
Erza won and forced his gate shut.
In Pisces's oceanic domain, the kappa half of Pisces kept hurling insults at his shark mother, and they were not even remotely polite.
That immediately infuriated Mirajane, who cared deeply about the respect and etiquette between parent and child.
She transformed on the spot into Halphas, overturning the entire ocean like some deep-sea tyrant and knocking the kappa unconscious almost instantly.
Anmi was badly startled by the way his mother looked in that form and kept his mouth firmly shut, too afraid to provoke her.
At the same time, he quietly cast his magic, splitting the ocean into multiple zones and smoothly dealing with the rest of Pisces.
As for Garell and Galena, they were facing Gemini, whose powers had changed.
Instead of turning themselves into anyone, Gemini could now turn other people into anything.
Only a few minutes into the fight, Garell was turned into a tiny squirrel.
Fortunately, Galena reacted instantly, scooped up her "brother," and dodged the follow-up attack.
And once she had figured out how Gemini's power worked, the ending was easy to predict.
Galena released the seal on something called "gentleness," then took on both twins alone and beat them so badly they ended up sitting on the ground crying, begging her to forcibly shut their gate.
That was the kind of overwhelming presence expected from the only young female mage in the next generation who could truly rival Elysia.
As for poor Garell...
Once he was turned back to normal, he squatted in a corner sulking while Galena smiled and tried to comfort him.
...
"Fairy Tail Knowledge Quiz — Question One!"
While other domains were filled with fighting and chaos, Levy and Elysia were currently playing a quiz game with Capricorn.
Levy felt incredibly uneasy about the whole setup.
Elysia, on the other hand, looked like she was having the time of her life.
Before long, the voice of the host echoed through the space, and a question appeared on the giant screen.
"Please identify this person's full name!"
Levy immediately perked up.
The moment she saw the familiar face on the screen, delight flashed across her eyes, and she slammed the buzzer beside her seat with lightning speed.
Of course she recognized that girl.
It was Naciel. They'd only just parted ways not long ago!
"Naciel Dragneel!"
Elysia's expression changed. "Wait—"
"Incorrect!"
"Huh?!"
Levy blinked in shock, then looked carefully at the image again and said, "But that's definitely Naciel!"
Capricorn gave her a sly smile. "Rushing is the worst mistake you can make in a quiz game, Levy."
The host's voice then announced the correct answer:
"The correct full name of the person in the image is Naciel Heartfilia. So close... only off by the tiniest little detail!"
"What?!" Levy's eyes widened in disbelief.
At her side, Elysia sighed and explained, "Before she was born, Uncle Natsu already said that if the baby was a girl, she would take Aunt Lucy's surname."
That was because when Lucy had been pregnant, Jude had secretly gone to Natsu and explained that Heartfilia was a family name that had lasted for over a century, and he couldn't bear to see it disappear.
Natsu had agreed immediately, thumping his chest in confidence.
As for the real meaning behind that father-in-law/son-in-law conversation...
Thick-headed Aunt Lucy still had no idea to this day.
"People can do that?" Levy slumped a little in defeat.
Elysia nodded. "Uncle Natsu said they could just give the Dragneel surname to one of the later children."
Levy stared blankly for a second.
"..."
That did sound exactly like Natsu!
Capricorn cut off their side conversation with a grin. "Enough. Since you answered incorrectly, it's time for your punishment."
At once, Levy's chair was raised several more meters into the air, and the slide beneath it became even steeper and more terrifying.
Levy's face turned pale.
But before she could do anything, the second question had already appeared.
"As Ankh's second son, who was Anmi's first innocent crush?"
Levy looked even more bewildered.
This was supposed to be a quiz game?
It was clearly just a contest to see who knew the most gossip!
And why were all the questions about the kids?!
Levy didn't manage to hit the buzzer this time.
Capricorn hesitated too, because the questions in this space weren't actually under his control, which meant he genuinely didn't know the answer either.
But then—
Elysia, who had memorized more than eight hundred of her younger brother's embarrassing black-history moments, lit up like she'd been struck by divine inspiration and slammed the buzzer with all her might!