Erza adjusted her armor. "We split into four teams. One for each season. We bring them home." Natsu, Happy, and Wendy traveled to the Sunstone Caldera, where Solara had imprisoned herself in a core of eternal daylight. To reach her, Natsu had to endure a day without fire—no flames, no heat, no dragon slayer magic. He sat in freezing shadow while the sun mocked him from a distance.

The guild's request board remained empty. Villagers whispered: "Fairy Tail is too powerful now. They broke the world to save it." Lucy found the first clue in an old, dust-covered book in the guild's basement: The Celestial Spirit of the Equinox . It spoke of four ancient spirits—Verna (Spring), Solara (Summer), Aurel (Autumn), and Glacies (Winter)—who had hidden themselves away after the Dragon King's fall, fearing mortal magic had grown too reckless.

"You think I don't remember?" Gray whispered, stripping off his shirt despite the cold—a nervous habit. "I carry them in my ice."

Below them, the guild roared with laughter—a sound warmer than any sun, brighter than any magic.

Gray crossed his arms. "You mean something to fix ."

It started subtly. The cherry blossoms of spring didn't bloom. Summer sun refused to warm the cobblestones. Autumn leaves fell brown and brittle within a day. Winter brought only a hollow, colorless frost. The world outside Fairy Tail was stuck in a perpetual gray twilight. The Seasons themselves had been fractured, and the magic that once flowed through the land was fading.