The Dragon Slayers are breathing heavily after bombarding Acnologia with their best spells. They only attacked Acnologia who couldn't fight back and they already got this tired.
Yet Alex who fought Acnologia for a much longer time, getting hit many times, and using even stronger attacks than them doesn't even look that tired, at least outside.
That Alex suddenly stabs Acnologia's chest from the back, piercing the dead Dragonized man's chest with his very sharp claws. It surprises everyone, but the next thing he does is even more surprising.
Using Isobu's ability to control water, he controls Acnologia's blood. He takes every drip of Acnologia's blood out and splashes them at the 7 Dragon Slayers, completely soaking them in Acnologia's blood.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Natsu slips on the blood and falls on the black ice platform.
"Ugh! It's disgusting." Sting still feels disgusted being covered by blood even though as a Mage, he's used to seeing and touching blood.
"Don't remove it. I told him to do that. Let that blood soak you for a while and let your body absorb the remaining power remain in that blood. It will strengthen your Dragon Slayer Magic." Igneel suddenly comes.
"But you also need to be ready. Acnologia's intent still stays in his blood and it will try to coax you and if you lose, you will be a bloodthirsty monster like him who only knows destruction. There is a price to pay for power and if you think you aren't ready for that, then remove that blood now." Weisslogia adds.
"However, you must know that this is your opportunity to be full-fledged Dragon Slayers. You become true Dragon Slayers once you kill and bathe in Dragon blood." Skiadrum also adds.
"Hmph! If you don't even have the strong will necessary to fend off the left-over desire from the dead Acnologia, then you won't progress as Dragon Slayers anyway. So if you are satisfied with your current power and don't want to reach whole new levels, then just clean yourself." Metalicana scoffs.
"No need to listen to that. While what he says is true, you are free to decide your future. Only you know your limits. One needs to break their limit to grow, but not everyone can do it. Sometimes it might endanger themselves and can cost them their lives, so it's fine to give up." Grandeeney says like a worried mother.
The Dragon Slayers only think for a moment before they just sit on the black ice platforms without removing the blood. They all want to get stronger so they won't be helpless like today.
Although there shouldn't be anyone at Acnologia's level left in the world, there is no guarantee that they'll never face anyone too strong for them.
Well, there is 1 such person right in front of them right now. Thankfully Alex isn't their enemy. But it doesn't mean they don't want to be as strong as him. Also, they often fight a whole group instead of just 1 person and a whole group can be much stronger than them.
While they let Acnologia's magic power that's left in his blood seep into their bodies, Alex returns to his normal form. He is also very tired, even more tired than them because he has the most battles today.
Fighting the 8 Demon Gates, Mard Geer, Zeref, and lastly Acnologia. Even at his level, fighting many powerful beings continuously is still tiring.
He doesn't seem injured in his giant Asura Six Path form because it's mostly made of magic power. But when he returns to his normal human form, everyone can finally see that he has a lot of injuries.
Cut wounds and bruises are everywhere, some of his bones are cracked, especially on his hands and skull, some ribs are broken, his Rinne-Sharingan eyes are a little red because of blood, and there's a little blood coming out of his eyes like tears too.
It's proof that Alex also has pushed himself so much when fighting Acnologia. Well, it should be obvious because he even needed to use other people's magic power to keep up with Acnologia's incredible amount of magic power.
Even his incredible amount of magic power was nothing compared to Acnologia, and he has more magic power than anyone here. That really showed how much magic power Acnologia had and Acnologia could replenish it fast anytime.
He had run out of his own magic power and took other people's magic power to keep fighting. So he was obviously overexerting himself, forcing himself to fight beyond his limit, physically and magically.
So now Alex really needs to rest. He just lies on the ground after transforming back to his normal form and everyone is rushing to him to check on his condition.
However, many people are also concerned about something. They try to find Acnologia's body that suddenly disappears when Alex also returns to his human form.
Alex actually absorbed Acnologia's dead body, pulling it into his Soul Realm where the Tailed Beasts are. Even after death, Acnologia's body still stored a lot of power that can be used to strengthen the Tailed Beasts, which then will also strengthen Alex.
But that's not the main reason. The main reason is he doesn't want the Council to get a hold of Acnologia's corpse. It's too dangerous to be kept and it will surely cause a big problem in the future.
There's no doubt they will use Acnologia's body for research. They can also use his body parts to create incredibly powerful weapons. Even a scale from Acnologia can be used to create an impregnable shield.
Their purpose will be good at first, but there's no guarantee the research and weapons gotten from Acnologia's body will keep being used for good things.
Even if the Council keeps them and tries to only use them for good causes, other people might not think so. Acnologia's body is a big enough reason for people to kill each other and start a war.
Criminal organizations might try to get it, countries might fight each other for it, countries from other continents might attack to get it, and it's highly possible because Ishgar has been clashing with Alvarez Empire from Alakitasia for decades, and Acnologia's body can motivate them even more.
The Dragons also have another concern about Acnologia's dead body. They were afraid that someone would use Acnologia's body to learn his Dragon Slayer Magic and become the next Acnologia.
That's why they were actually asking Alex to destroy it, so he came up with this solution. This way, Acnologia's body will be destroyed and it will strengthen the Tailed Beasts, so he still gets a benefit.
The Dragons agreed because Alex was the one who killed Acnologia. But they knew it would confuse people, so they discussed the explanation through telepathy in such a short amount of time.
When people are questioning Acnologia's corpse, the Dragons quickly explain that they've destroyed it, completely turning it into ethernano that spreads in the atmosphere.
They explained that even after death, Acnologia's negative energy, desire for destruction, and resentment are still lingering in every cell of his body. That's also why they told the Dragon Slayers to be cautious after soaking in Acnologia's blood.
If left alone, Acnologia's corpse can badly affect its surroundings. It will affect people's minds, slowly corrupting them with negative thoughts. It might even mutate the nearby magic power to have strange characteristics.
Their explanation is believable because it's known that places where Dragons died in the past usually become hotspots for magic and the creatures that lived around the graves often have unique mutations, even if they are slight.
"In short, we don't want you humans to misuse Acnologia's corpse. Your intention might be good now, but no one knows about the future. Even Acnologia was a decent man in the past, but look at what he has become now. Zeref is also the same. So rather than taking such a risk, it's better to not make any chance for that risk to happen. We don't want another Acnologia to appear even if the chance is low. Besides, even if you disagree, you don't have the right for that corpse because you didn't kill him. You didn't even fight him and only helped by providing some magic power, so just accept it."
Igneel only explains and doesn't ask for their opinions, so he shuts them up immediately. He knows none of them dare to refuse a Dragon King and even if they want, they don't have any valid argument because they really don't have much contribution in defeating Acnologia.
Alex who contributes the most doesn't say anything, so they also can't say anything. Right now, being on Alex's bad side is without a doubt a stupid move because with this battle, he has proved that he is Ishgar's strongest Mage.
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Ch. 279. Helpful Enemy