"You did what you had to," Erza said. "So did I. But silence isn't redemption. Community is."

Without them, the world had no seasons.

"Hey, Lucy," he said. "Think we'll ever run out of crazy quests?"

Winter returned not as a weapon, but as a quiet blanket over Magnolia—soft, forgiving. The final trial belonged to Verna, hidden in the Great Hollow Tree. She was the youngest spirit, afraid to bloom because every spring reminded the world of what was lost before. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, Juvia, and even a grumbling Happy gathered around her.

"We're not the same guild we were," Lucy said. "We've lost people. We've changed. But that doesn't mean we stop growing."

Natsu, shivering but stubborn, shouted back: "Summer isn't about war. It's about the feeling after a fight—when you lie in the grass, eat a watermelon, and laugh with your friends."

She smiled. "Not if the seasons have anything to say about it."