Chapter 476: Hey, Have You No Shame?
"Self-Enhancement: Iron!"
Kain Hikaru slapped the ground as he fell, violently arresting his momentum and instantly shifting his body composition from fluffy cotton back to solid iron.
CLANG!
Erza's downward slash connected the exact microsecond he transformed. The blade sparked against his iron skin, failing to cut through.
Using the recoil, Erza bounded away, momentarily halting her assault to reassess the situation.
Kain didn't pursue her. He simply stood there, glaring warily.
Despite his surprising agility, Kain's massive, rotund physique inherently restricted his movements. Against weaker opponents, this flaw was negligible. But against a master swordsman whose speed completely eclipsed his own—and who had already proven capable of shattering his iron defense—it was a fatal weakness.
He had no choice but to play defensively, waiting for Erza to make a mistake so he could launch a devastating counterattack.
"Requip: Purgatory Armor!"
Erza didn't give him the chance. Swapping back to her heaviest, most destructive armor, she gripped her serrated greatsword and charged straight at him. If Kain had no other tricks up his sleeve, she already knew exactly how to dismantle him.
The brutal clash of iron and steel resumed.
"I didn't expect my opponent to be a literal goat. Though, honestly, something about you feels incredibly strange," Sorano murmured, tilting her head as she analyzed the tall, suit-wearing goat-man standing before her.
"Baa. You simply lack worldly experience," Capricorn replied coolly, dropping into a poised martial arts stance.
"No, that's not it. I trust my intuition. Having contracted and summoned countless angels—beings completely outside the human spectrum—I know what a normal summon feels like. There is definitely something wrong with you," Sorano shook her head. Her instincts were screaming that the creature in front of her wasn't just a talking animal.
"Baa. Words are meaningless. I have two objectives: capture Zeref and deliver him to Master Hades, and completely annihilate Fairy Tail!"
Capricorn's voice dropped to a menacing growl. He kicked off the ground, rocketing toward Sorano with terrifying speed.
"Hit a nerve, did I? Battle Angels!"
Sorano didn't flinch. Two heavily armored, spear-wielding angels materialized instantly in front of her, moving to intercept the goat-man's charge. As the angels engaged him in close-quarters combat, Sorano continued her interrogation. "Why exactly do you guys want Zeref so badly?"
"Baa. Because once we acquire him, a new era of magic will dawn! The Ultimate Magic World! A world ruled by chaos and darkness—the true, primordial state of magic!
"In this new world, those without magic will be unable to survive. It will be a utopia exclusively for those who wield magic! Once Zeref awakens as the King of this world, the Ultimate Magic World will be complete!" Capricorn declared fiercely, effortlessly weaving through the angels' spear thrusts and delivering punishing counter-attacks.
"Are you completely insane?! A world like that is inherently broken! Is your entire guild braindead? A world of pure chaos benefits literally no one!" Sorano cursed loudly, genuinely baffled by the sheer stupidity of their grand plan.
Were these people just bored out of their minds? Why couldn't they just stay home and knit instead of trying to casually orchestrate a global apocalypse?!
"In truth, even I do not fully comprehend Master Hades' true intentions... That is a realm of understanding only achievable by one who has stared into the absolute abyss of magic. But Zeref is on this island. Once we secure him, this world shall be bathed in magic and reborn!"
Capricorn continued his relentless assault. With a flurry of devastating kicks, he finally shattered the guards of the two Battle Angels and lunged directly at Sorano.
"Battle Angels!"
Sorano hastily retreated, instantly summoning two more angels to block his path. The four angels quickly surrounded Capricorn, attacking him from all sides in a synchronized formation.
Finding himself temporarily bogged down, Capricorn leaped high into the air, flipping backward to escape the encirclement. He landed a safe distance away, analyzing Sorano and her summons.
Weird... this is really weird. It's not just him. I feel weird too, Sorano frowned deeply, her eyes darting around the battlefield.
She happened to glance over at Natsu and Gray brawling in the distance. Suddenly, their movements seemed incredibly fast to her—so fast that she subconsciously felt she wouldn't be able to react to them in time.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, alarm bells blared in her head. She was an S-Class mage! She had fought alongside Natsu and Gray countless times; she knew their speed. She would never normally feel overwhelmed just by watching them fight.
She snapped her gaze back to Capricorn. There was only one logical explanation: the goat-man's magic was actively affecting her.
"Solar Angel!"
A radiant, multi-winged angel materialized beside Sorano. The angel opened its mouth and fired a concentrated beam of holy light directly at Capricorn.
Capricorn calmly sidestepped, letting the beam scorch the earth beside him.
"I knew it. My magical output has dropped," Sorano muttered, staring at the scorched earth.
She had channeled her usual amount of magic power into the summon, yet the resulting laser was noticeably weaker than normal. Looking back, she realized her Battle Angels had also been fighting sluggishly, lacking their usual overwhelming physical strength. Her overall combat capacity had been artificially lowered.
"Baa!"
Seeing Sorano analyzing the situation, Capricorn didn't give her time to think. He stomped the ground and charged at her again, intent on breaking her focus. He was confident in his magic, but in a chaotic warzone, ending fights quickly was the smartest tactical choice.
Sorano commanded her four Battle Angels to intercept him while the Solar Angel provided covering fire.
"Haaa!"
Simultaneously, Sorano began forcefully gathering magic power. A dense, swirling aura erupted around her, causing the ground beneath her feet to tremble violently.
"Battle Angels!"
Four brand-new, heavily armored angels materialized and lunged at Capricorn. The moment they engaged him, the previous four angels dissolved into golden light.
Sorano watched with a satisfied smirk as Capricorn—who had been handling the previous angels with relative ease—was suddenly forced onto the defensive, scrambling to block the ferocious, significantly heavier strikes of the new summons.
Sorano genuinely loved one of Noah's favorite catchphrases: "Absolute power creates absolute miracles."
If the enemy's magic was artificially suppressing her magical output, the solution was brutally simple: just output more magic. By forcefully overcharging her spells, she completely bypassed the suppression debuff, restoring her angels to their original, terrifying strength.
It was a massive drain on her reserves, but it was a straightforward, foolproof solution.
"Open! Hero of Rubengard!"
Overwhelmed by the newly empowered angels, Capricorn was forced to retreat. He leaped backward, swiping his right hand through the air. A humanoid figure materialized beside him.
"San Jiao Xin!"
As the figure fully materialized, Sorano's eyes widened. It was a tall, heavily bearded human man wearing flowing green robes and wielding a massive Guandao halberd.
The man charged forward silently. With a single, devastating sweep of his halberd, he cleanly cleaved one of the Battle Angels in half. The heavily damaged angel instantly shattered into golden light and returned to the Spirit World.
Having delivered his singular strike, the bearded man vanished into thin air.
"Was that... a human?!" Sorano gasped in horror. Had Capricorn just summoned a literal human being to fight for him?!
"In the year X779, during the Rubengard Civil War, General San Jiao Xin led the rebel army to a miraculous victory. Official records state that he went missing in action shortly after the war ended. In reality, he became one of my subordinates," Capricorn boasted, clearly immensely proud of his 'collection'. The pressure Sorano had put on him forced him to reveal his hand.
"I know what your magic is now! It's the Ancient Magic: Human Subordination! Also known as the Magic of Rulers! It allows the user to temporarily suppress the combat abilities and magic power of any human they face! No wonder I felt so sluggish and weak!" Sorano deduced, her eyes narrowing.
Noah had mentioned this specific Lost Magic during one of their study sessions. It allowed the user to physically capture humans and summon them as mindless, enslaved puppets. The captured humans entirely lost their sense of self, becoming nothing more than hollow husks acting on the caster's commands.
Because the magic was profoundly inhumane and evil, it had been aggressively hunted down and lost to history. Noah had expressed a fleeting regret at not being able to study the unique magical mechanics, but ultimately concluded that the world was better off without such an unethical spell.
Sorano had never expected to actually face it in combat.
"I know what your magic is, but that still doesn't explain why you feel so weird to me," Sorano muttered, still trusting her gut.
Capricorn didn't respond. He simply summoned another enslaved human from his collection and charged at Sorano once more.
Sorano instantly pushed her thoughts aside, focusing entirely on the battle. She was already fighting under a severe debuff; she couldn't afford to be distracted. If she lost because she was daydreaming, she would never live it down. She absolutely refused to let that happen.
"Blessing of Light!" "Enchant: Stamina Boost!"
From the backline, Meredy and Wendy continuously cast wide-area auxiliary magic, layering powerful buffs over the Fairy Tail vanguard and the candidates fighting the massive grunt army.
"Good job, you two. Take a breather," Lucy said, holding her Fleuve d'Étoiles whip at the ready as she constantly scanned their flanks for ambushers.
"It's okay! I'm just so happy I can actually help everyone!" Wendy smiled brightly, wiping sweat from her brow.
"You need to pace yourselves. You're both panting heavily," Carla scolded gently, floating beside them.
"Understood," Wendy nodded, forcing herself to take several deep, calming breaths.
"Don't worry, Meredy. Erza and Natsu will definitely avenge your home," Lucy comforted Meredy, noticing that the pink-haired girl's eyes were constantly darting between Natsu's and Erza's respective battles. It was obvious who her targets were.
Meredy simply nodded silently, her gaze glued to the fights. When she saw Natsu fighting Zancrow to a standstill, her fists clenched nervously. But when she saw Erza thoroughly dismantling Kain Hikaru, a small, vindictive smile graced her lips.
She had desperately wanted to cast a few more specialized, targeted buffs directly onto Natsu and Erza to ensure their victory, but Lucy and Carla had strictly forbidden it. Her continuous, wide-area buffing had already drained a massive chunk of her magic reserves. Over-exerting herself now could cause severe magical deficiency syndrome. It wasn't worth the risk when Fairy Tail was clearly winning.
However, they promised Meredy that once she recovered her magic, she could buff them as much as she wanted.
Accepting the compromise, Meredy didn't argue. She pulled a high-grade magic recovery potion from her spatial pocket and downed it quickly, sitting cross-legged to accelerate the absorption process so she could get back into the fight. Wendy followed suit, drinking her own potion. Noah had given them an extensive supply specifically for this scenario.
Yukino, having summoned Pisces to patrol the perimeter and pick off any stray Grimoire Heart grunts, kept her eyes glued to her older sister. Seeing Sorano holding her own against the terrifying goat-man and even occasionally pushing him back, Yukino finally let out a sigh of relief.
"They're all fighting brilliantly," Ur remarked with a soft, proud smile. She stood a short distance behind Wendy and the support team, acting as the ultimate rear-guard. Watching Gray, Lyon, and the others ruthlessly and efficiently clear out the dark guild grunts, and seeing Erza and Laxus dominate their respective Seven Kin, she felt a profound sense of satisfaction.
"Exactly! Cana-chan is fighting flawlessly!" Gildarts cheered, his eyes locked entirely on Cana as she effortlessly crushed the massive metal beasts Rustyrose kept summoning. His face was split in a massive, doting grin.
"You need to pay attention to the entire battlefield, idiot. Don't let anyone suffer a critical injury while you're daydreaming," Ur scolded him, exasperated by his blatant favoritism.
"I know, I know. But you and Noah's projection are here too, right? We've got this covered," Gildarts waved her off without even turning his head.
"Oi, oi. I'm just a Thought Projection over here, and my main body is literally fighting a war of his own. Have you no shame pushing the work onto me?" Noah's Thought Projection deadpanned, effortlessly calculating and projecting the massive containment barrier while simultaneously logging combat data from a dozen different fights.
"Don't give me that. I know exactly how ridiculously strong your projections are. You could easily intervene and save anyone in danger before I even blinked," Gildarts retorted, finally looking back at him.
Noah's projection just rolled his eyes and ignored the lazy old man.
Gildarts chuckled and finally shifted his gaze across the rest of the battlefield, ready to intervene the second things went south. Ur shook her head with a smile and returned her focus to the vanguard.
Meanwhile, Mavis hovered silently near Noah's projection. She hadn't said a single word since the battle began. Her ethereal eyes were locked entirely on the distant, apocalyptic clash between Noah and Precht.
Her heart was a chaotic maelstrom of sorrow, betrayal, and deep confusion. She had recognized Precht the moment he appeared—her closest friend, her comrade in arms, the man who had stood by her side as they founded Fairy Tail together.
She simply couldn't fathom how the kind, steadfast Precht she knew had warped into this tyrannical monster. She had entrusted the guild to him, and Makarov had confirmed that Precht had been an excellent Master during his tenure.
So why? Why had he fallen so deep into the darkness? Why was he leading an army of monsters to slaughter the very children of the guild they had built together?
KABOOM!!!
A catastrophic explosion shattered her thoughts. The entire island trembled violently, and a massive shockwave ripped across the battlefield, forcing everyone to temporarily halt their fights and brace themselves against the gale-force winds.
All eyes turned toward the source of the blast.
"HAHAHA! With an explosion that massive, that arrogant brat was definitely annihilated by Master Hades!" Zancrow laughed triumphantly, leaping backward to avoid the shockwave.
"You wish! Your Guild Master took that blast point-blank too! You should be worrying about whether he's still in one piece!" Natsu shot back, bracing himself against the wind.
"Hah?! Master Hades would never be defeated by an attack like that! He is absolute perfection!" Zancrow roared fanatically.
In the distance, the two catastrophic spheres of light generated by Noah and Precht's overlapping ultimate runic arrays reached their maximum expansion, hovered for a few agonizing seconds, and finally collapsed inward, dissipating into the air.
As the blinding light faded, Noah and Precht were revealed once again.
Both men were completely encased in their respective defensive barriers—one glowing a brilliant gold, the other a deep, ominous purple. The barriers had flawlessly tanked the apocalyptic detonation.
As the shields faded away, the battlefield fell dead silent. Both Noah and Precht stood amidst the glassed, utterly annihilated crater, without a single scratch on their bodies.
~~~
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