The following contains spoilers for episode 7 of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, “All’s Well That Ends Well,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.

So far the story of Fairy Tail: 100 Years of Adventure focuses on Team Natsu’s enormous challenge to confront and somehow lock away the Five Dragon Gods while Touka/the White Magician returns home to Magnolia against Fairy Tail. Episode 7 advances the White Magician’s plan, focusing primarily on what Team Natsu is doing on the continent of Guiltina, with various storylines taking place to enrich that journey.

The great battle against Mercphobia already ended in Episode 6, so Episode 7 offers the opportunity to explore the merciful consequences of this clash in Ermina and also gain some insight into the personality of Ignia and the other dragon gods. Team Natsu learns just enough about the other Dragon Gods to target Aldoron. and that means going even deeper into Guiltina’s landmass towards the city of Tekka, where they will take a train to Drasil. Overall, Episode 7 is an introductory episode to prepare everyone for the next and presumably much bigger phase of the 100-Year Quest.

In Ermina there is a happy ending for everyone

Team Natsu gets a much-needed head start over the other Dragon Gods

As a conventional Shonen anime series that aims to give fans a good feel for its main characters and plot, Fairy tale is rather gracious with its main characters and tends to turn former enemies into allies, and the same is true here in episode 7 of the Fairy Tail: 100 Years of Adventure. In this case, Mercphobia was both Ermina’s protector and her biggest problem with his massive water powers, and Mercphobia was willing to die to spare the people of Ermina his unintentional wrath. The good news is that Team Natsu had what it took to defeat him without killing him, and it helped that Mercphobia wasn’t even at his full power to begin with. With that, Episode 6 ended on a hopeful note, and Episode 7 concludes with a peaceful, joyful, and constructive post-fight sequence.

The majority of Episode 7’s story is made up of the two-part development where Team Natsu learns more about the Five Dragon Gods from Mercphobia and uses that information to continue their journey deeper into the interior of Guiltina. It’s a fairly straightforward development with no serious twists, though this anime is already making things complicated with the Diabolos Guild and the White Mage’s plans. So it’s understandable if the story keeps things simple for now to get Team Natsu in position for the next adventure before things get chaotic again. This makes Episode 7 pretty forgettable in many ways, but it still does its job of bringing the Mercphobia conflict to a happy end and preparing fans for the presumably epic battle against Aldoron in future episodes.

One of the developments is a personal one for Mercphobia, who appears in his horned human form in episode 7. He doesn’t just look human again in this episode – he’s basically a regular human now, with no dragon form or water powers. This is the best possible outcome, as the threat of Mercphobia’s power is over while Mercphobia can continue to enjoy life in Ermina, and his loyal assistant Karameel is thrilled about it too. It’s one of the cleanest battle resolutions shonen fans have seen in months, a sharp contrast to the events of recent times. My Hero Academia Episodes or the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. Such a clean, happy ending may not be thought-provoking or clever, but it does provide comfort to shonen fans and reminds them that shonen is supposed to be fun. Dark, brutal plot twists are legendary, but shonen must not forget its positive roots.

Now that the threat is over and Mercphobia is harmless, Team Natsu can talk to the former Water Dragon God to learn more, and Mercphobia has a lot to tell. He reports the shocking development that Ignia is Igneel, the son of the dragon, and in fact Igneel is one of the five Dragon Gods. This means that Natsu Dragneel will eventually have to fight his own adopted brother, who is also his Shonen-style rival at the moment. Ignia was also the one who recently gave Natsu a power-up to make Natsu a more worthy rival. However, Ignia is not Team Natsu’s target at the moment. Instead Mercphobia summarizes what little he knows about the other Dragon Gods, and Natsu and his friends decide to pursue Aldoron, the Forest Dragon God, next.

Team Natsu has no business in Ermina and there isn’t much to see there, least of all an exciting world, so Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Wendy and Gray soon continue their journey and consult their map of Guiltina to find the town of Tekka, which has a train station. Funnily enough, Natsu has erased the train tracks from the map as he is afraid of riding in a vehicle that could cause motion sickness in him and Wendy, but Lucy insists on taking the train anyway. The journey continues without incident and Team Natsu arrives safely in Tekka, another generic Fairy tale City where Natsu and his friends have only one sight to explore before boarding a train to Drasil to hunt down Aldoron.

Episode 7 introduces viewers to the Fairy Nail Group

It is unclear whether Fairy Nail is important or just a gag

Already, Fairy tale Anime fans have seen a parallel to the Fairy Tail Wizards Guild, namely the non-magical Fairy Tail Guild in the pseudo-isekai world of Edolas. Although Lucy Ashley and her fellow fairies in Edolas did not possess magic, they were still serious characters who did everything they could to support the Earthland Fairy Tail Guild, leading to the defeat of King Faust. Now, Team Natsu encounters another parallel to their guild, but this one seems to be far removed from the Edolas Fairy Tail Guild. In fact, there’s a big chance that this group is just a big gag and doesn’t add anything substantial to the story.

When Natsu and his friends arrive in Tekka, they are stunned when a group of worshipping locals surround Erza Scarlet and call her Elkis, a name no one on Team Natsu has ever heard. The worshippers seem to have confused Erza with someone else, and this is confirmed when an Erza doppelgänger appears on the scene. This is the real Elkis, who is identical to Erza except for her outfit of a lavender sweater and glasses, giving her a civilian appearance that contrasts sharply with Erza Scarlet’s chivalrous aura. At the end of episode 7, Team Natsu is led to the entrance of the Fairy Nail group and so far there is no real indication that Fairy Nail is a wizard’s guild. It’s not yet certain what Fairy Nail is about, but the clues so far point to something frivolous. Fans will know for sure when Episode 8 drops.

Episode 7 shows more of Diabolos, the White Mage and Sabre-Toothed Tiger

All three parties are preparing their next steps

The majority of Episode 7 follows Team Natsu and their enlightening journey from Ermina to Tekka, although there is still time to update viewers on the activities of the other major groups. Three different groups each get a small portion of this episode’s runtime to keep viewers updated, and the Sabertooth guild is one of them. This wild guild has the least to do in Episode 7, arriving at Fairy Tail’s guild hall and staring in shock at the empty and dark interior, not knowing what to make of it. No doubt the members of Sabertooth want to warn Fairy Tail about the White Mage and help them fight her, but Sting, Rogue, and their allies arrive too late. This symbolic scene gives Episode 7 an ominous atmosphere, leaving fans wondering what on earth the White Mage has been doing with all of Fairy Tail’s captured members.

Likewise, Touka/the White Magician herself adds a bit of tension to the narrative as the episode switches to her perspective and shows her relaxing as her giant wooden ship sails across the ocean, most likely heading towards Guiltina to find Team Natsu. The White Magician doesn’t say or do much in this scene, but she doesn’t need to. Fairy tale Fans already know that she is the Fairy Tail guild’s worst enemy at the moment, and that’s enough confirmation that she’s on her way to Guiltina to hunt down Team Natsu. There’s also the question of where the captured members of Fairy Tail are and what their status is, and the answer might lie somewhere in the White Mage’s boat, which is currently out of sight.

The last part shown is the Diabolos Guild, a guild made up not of dragon slayers but of dragon eaters who eat dragon flesh to become stronger. Kiria, Madmole and Skullion all return to their spooky guild hall to speak with their leader, Georg Reizen, who mentions his intense desire to eat dragon flesh. Not much is explained in this scene other than Georg’s intention to eat a dragon god, which puts Diabolos on a collision course with Team Natsu again on the 100-year quest, and that will likely happen when the Battle of Aldoron begins. In short, Episode 7 may just be an exposition and build-up episode, but it promises some explosive clashes between the main parties of this anime in the near future, and that’s enough to keep fans hooked for now.