Chapter 178

I Will Be Beside You! is the one hundredth and seventy-eighth chapter of Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail.

Full Summary
The King and his Division commanders with Byro are talking about the magical energy inside Earth Land mages, the execution of Lucy and the faith of Natsu and Wendy. Byro explains that if they manage to extract Natsu and Wendy's magic, they will gain a semi-permanent amount of magic. The king orders him to quicken the extraction of the giant Lacryma. As the meeting finishes, everybody leaves except for Pantherlily. Pantherlily starts to ask the king about something but changes his mind and leaves.

Meanwhile, Lucy is sitting in her cell, thinking about Happy, Charle and the Exceeds. She found out that when the queen says that someone is to die, the human in question is to be executed without question. Suddenly, Erza Knightwalker arrives. Lucy asks her about the others and talks to her about Earth Land Erza, when Edo-Erza grabs a fistful of her hair and drags her, saying that she is not the Erza Lucy knows. Lucy tries to plead with her when Edo-Erza uses her spear to hoist Lucy off the ground and out a balcony. Lucy tries to plead with her again but Erza ignores her and lets her fall to her death.

Lucy is falling towards the ground when Happy and Charle arrived to save her. Edo-Erza is shocked to see that the Exceeds helped Lucy, she asks them to hand Lucy over saying that it was direct order from the queen to execute her. Edo-Erza continues to say that only the queen can overturn the command. Charle suddenly has an idea, and pretends that she is the daughter of Queen Shagotte, she is the princess of the Exceeds. Everyone is shocked to hear this, Edo-Erza bows down and begs for Charle's forgiveness. Charle ignores her and asks for the location of the Dragon Slayers and orders them to be released. Suddenly, Pantherlily arrives with a bunch of guards and tells Edo-Erza that Charle and Happy are fallen Exceeds, which means that they run away from Extalia. With their cover blown, the three flies away, while Edo-Erza orders her troops to find and eliminate them.

The three decided to go to the location of Natsu and Wendy to save them, when the Exceed Imperial guards arrives. The chapter ends with Lucy, Happy, and Charle with nowhere to go surrounded by Exceeds Imperial guards and the Royal Guards...

Characters
*Note: Bold+Italicized=First Appearence