Chapter 578: The Surroundings Are Quite Nice. They'll Make a Suitable Grave for You.
Even though Heine and Juliet didn't understand why Irene was suddenly enraged, their combat instincts flared the moment their master grew hostile. Both women immediately dropped into defensive stances, their magic surging as they glared at Noah.
The atmosphere in the boutique instantly plunged to sub-zero temperatures.
The mundane customers and employees, sensing the apocalyptic magical pressure radiating from Irene, panicked. They desperately scrambled out of the shop, scrambling over each other to escape the impending warzone. Within seconds, the boutique was completely empty, save for the cowering store manager hiding behind the counter.
Irene completely ignored the fleeing civilians. Her draconic eyes remained locked onto Noah.
She could smell it. The scent was incredibly faint, masked by layers of cleansing magic, but her dragon senses were absolute. It was a scent she hadn't encountered in decades. It was the scent of her own bloodline. The scent of the child she had abandoned in Rosemary Village.
The sheer emotional whiplash of detecting her daughter's scent on a strange, overwhelmingly powerful man completely shattered her usual composure. The suffocating pressure of her magic began to leak uncontrollably, crushing the air in the room.
Even Heine and Juliet, who were used to Irene's power, involuntarily shuddered and backed away several paces just to breathe.
"Calm down. This isn't the place for this conversation," Noah said, his voice perfectly steady despite the suffocating magical pressure.
He didn't answer her question immediately. Discussing Erza's parentage in a public boutique in the middle of a hostile empire was a terrible idea.
Noah took a few steps forward, casually walking past Irene. He moved with a smooth, unhurried gait, yet he crossed the room and exited the boutique in the blink of an eye.
"He's incredibly fast!" Heine gasped, her eyes widening in shock.
Neither she nor Juliet had been able to track his movements. By the time their brains processed his first step, he was already out the door and walking down the street.
Irene was equally startled by his speed, but her shock was quickly overshadowed by rage. Seeing the man simply walk away without answering her, she immediately raised her massive staff, preparing to obliterate him and the entire street.
But as she raised her weapon, she caught sight of Heine and Juliet bracing themselves, and the terrified store manager curled into a ball behind the counter. She remembered where she was.
She looked out the door. Noah was walking away from the city center at a brisk pace, clearly intending for her to follow him to a more secluded location.
Irene lowered her staff, her eyes burning with a dangerous light. She swept past her subordinates and stepped out into the street, rapidly following Noah.
"Lady Irene, wait for us!" Juliet called out, finally snapping out of her daze and hurrying after her.
"Stay here. Do not follow me," Irene ordered sharply, stopping and glancing back at them. "That man is far beyond your capabilities. You will only be a liability."
"But, Lady Irene, we can help—!" Juliet protested.
Heine grabbed Juliet's arm, cutting her off. "Do as Lady Irene commands, Juliet. If we go, we'll just get in her way. The civilians here are terrified; our duty is to remain here and restore order."
Unlike the bubbly Juliet, Heine was incredibly perceptive. She had realized the terrifying truth the moment Noah walked past them: if that man had wanted to kill them, he could have snapped their necks before they even realized he moved. They were entirely out of their depth.
Juliet pouted but ultimately yielded to Heine's logic.
Satisfied that her subordinates wouldn't interfere, Irene turned and rapidly followed Noah toward the city limits.
Noah didn't look back. As soon as he cleared the city gates, he accelerated, moving deep into the surrounding wilderness.
Irene matched his pace, maintaining a fixed distance. As they moved further away from the city, the cool forest air helped clear her mind slightly, allowing her to rein in her chaotic emotions. She was curious to see where he was leading her, so she allowed him to dictate the location.
After traveling several kilometers—ensuring they were safely out of the city's blast radius and far away from where August and Mavis were hiding—Noah finally stopped and turned around.
"Have you finally decided to stop running?" Irene asked, her voice laced with an icy, murderous chill.
She stopped a few dozen yards away, her eyes locked onto him like a predator.
"You will tell me who you have been with," Irene demanded, her grip tightening on her staff. "If you refuse to speak, I am more than capable of ripping the truth directly from your mind."
"I will answer your question," Noah replied, completely unbothered by her terrifying aura. "But before I do, I have a question for you."
"Oh? You refuse to answer my question, and demand to ask one of your own?" Irene's eyes narrowed dangerously, a dark, pulsing crimson magic beginning to gather at the tip of her staff. "It seems you need to be taught some manners."
"You have a daughter, don't you?" Noah asked abruptly, ignoring her threat entirely.
Irene froze. The gathering magic at the tip of her staff instantly dissipated.
"How do you know that?!" Irene demanded, her icy composure fracturing once more.
"Well, for starters, I've spent the last few months deeply involved in bloodline-tracking magic. Secondly, your hair color is incredibly unique. I've only ever seen that exact shade of vibrant scarlet on one other person.
"But mostly... I know you have a daughter because I know her personally. I am intimately familiar with the woman you abandoned in Rosemary Village," Noah stated calmly, looking directly into Irene's eyes.
Irene's expression instantly shifted into a mask of pure, absolute ice.
"How you discovered that relationship is irrelevant," Irene said, her voice completely devoid of emotion, though her knuckles were white as she gripped her staff.
"It doesn't matter," she continued, her tone adopting a chilling, forced indifference. "I do not care if I have a daughter. As far as I am concerned, that child died the day I left her there.
"However, the fact that you dared to approach me and speak of such things has greatly displeased me. You will be punished for your insolence.
"Did you choose this location because you wanted it to be your grave? The surroundings are quite nice. They'll make a suitable resting place for you. I will happily grant you that."
Irene glared at Noah with a look of pure, unadulterated malice.
Noah wasn't surprised by her reaction.
Having extensively reviewed the intelligence surrounding Irene Belserion, he knew exactly how twisted and volatile her personality had become. While she rarely left her castle, the few actions she had taken in recent decades painted a picture of a cruel, sadistic, and deeply unstable woman.
Which made perfect sense.
Four hundred years ago, Irene had been a kind, compassionate queen who genuinely believed humans and dragons could coexist. She had invented Dragon Slayer Magic to save humanity, only to be cursed by it. Her body began mutating into a dragon. In return for saving her kingdom, her people turned on her, and her husband threw her in a dungeon, subjecting her to three years of torture and humiliation while she was pregnant with Erza.
When her husband threatened to cut her unborn child from her womb, she finally snapped, fully transforming into a dragon to kill him and escape.
For the next four hundred years, she lived as a monster. She despised her dragon body and spent centuries desperately trying to turn back into a human, failing every single time.
When Zeref finally restored her human appearance, she thought she was saved. But she quickly realized it was only a cosmetic illusion; she couldn't taste, she couldn't sleep, and her physical sensations were completely distorted. The psychological whiplash of that realization completely broke her mind, driving her to the brink of insanity.
She had tried to overwrite her own infant daughter's personality to escape her torment, but at the last second, she couldn't bring herself to do it. The mother's love she still possessed stopped her. But the trauma of nearly murdering her own child forced her to abandon Erza and flee.
Four hundred years of torture, isolation, and biological dysphoria had shattered the kind queen, leaving behind the cruel, unstable "Scarlet Despair."
Noah understood her pain. Anyone subjected to centuries of that specific torment would go insane.
But Noah also knew that Irene wasn't completely lost.
She hadn't abandoned Erza because she hated her; she abandoned Erza because she was terrified she would lose control and hurt her. It was a twisted, desperate act of maternal protection.
Furthermore, Irene's entire descent into madness was rooted in her inability to reclaim her humanity. She desperately wanted her human senses back.
If Noah could cure her biological dysphoria and restore her true human body, he could fundamentally cure her madness. If he cured her, there was a massive probability she would defect from the Alvarez Empire and join Fairy Tail, or at the very least, remain neutral to protect Erza.
But Noah couldn't just walk up to Irene and say, "Hey, I know you're crazy because you're actually a dragon, but I can fix you!"
Given her current volatile state, she would instantly attack anyone who brought up her trauma.
Therefore, Noah's plan was simple: beat her in a fight first, establish dominance, and then negotiate from a position of absolute power. Once she realized she couldn't kill him, she would be forced to listen.
"I didn't choose this location because I wanted to die here," Noah shook his head calmly. He raised his hands, dropping into a relaxed combat stance. "I chose this location because it's a good place for a fight. In my estimation, the only way we can have a rational conversation is if I beat some sense into you first."
"Ha. You know exactly who I am, yet you still dare to challenge me?" Irene sneered, her eyes flashing with dangerous amusement. "Should I commend you for your bravery, or pity you for your sheer, staggering arrogance? No... I suppose it's simply your raw power giving you a false sense of invincibility."
As the creator of all Enchantment Magic, Irene could clearly sense the monstrous density of Noah's Ethernano. It was the only reason she had bothered to come out here.
But to her draconic senses, his power, while vast, didn't feel superior to her own. He was likely just another arrogant prodigy who thought he was untouchable. She had slaughtered dozens of men just like him over the centuries.
"Is it false invincibility? Let's fight and find out," Noah smirked.
"Ignorant child," Irene hissed.
She raised her staff. The ambient Ethernano in the atmosphere violently converged at the tip.
BOOOOOM!
A colossal, hyper-condensed sphere of explosive fire materialized instantly, screaming through the air directly toward Noah.
Noah didn't dodge. He raised his right hand, firing a highly concentrated golden laser from his palm.
The laser cleanly pierced the massive fireball, neutralizing the explosive core and screaming directly toward Irene's chest.
Irene smoothly sidestepped, allowing the laser to harmlessly fly past her.
KABOOOOOM!
The laser slammed into the forest miles behind her, instantly detonating and carving a massive, smoking crater into the earth.
Using the distraction, Noah activated his speed enchantments, closing the distance in a blur.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Noah unleashed a rapid, heavy barrage of punches, his fists generating sonic booms as they targeted Irene's vital points.
Irene didn't retreat. She smoothly twirled her massive wooden staff with one hand, effortlessly parrying every single strike.
Noah noted that her staff was incredibly dense. Even enhanced by his monstrous physical strength, his punches didn't leave a single dent in the wood. More terrifyingly, Irene was casually parrying his physically enhanced strikes with one arm. Her baseline draconic physical strength was truly absurd.
Irene wasn't content to just defend. While parrying with her right hand, she subtly flicked her left wrist.
Instantly, the earth directly beneath Noah's boots began to glow a furious, burning red.
Noah realized the trap immediately. He threw a heavy straight punch, using the kinetic rebound against her staff to violently launch himself backward into the air.
KABOOOOOOOM!
The ground where he had just been standing violently erupted into a towering pillar of explosive magical energy.
Before Noah could land, Irene pointed her staff at him. A massive, hyper-condensed shockwave of atmospheric pressure violently erupted from the tip, screaming toward him.
In mid-air, Noah raised his hand and fired an identical atmospheric shockwave back at her.
KABOOOOOM!
The two invisible shockwaves collided midway, generating a deafening sonic boom that shattered the earth below them, whipping up a massive dust cloud.
Irene completely ignored the explosion, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto Noah as he landed smoothly on the dirt.
"An Enchantment?" Irene said, her tone laced with genuine surprise. "You used a High Enchantment to counter my atmospheric manipulation."
"I did. I'm quite proficient in Enchantment Magic. How was my technique?" Noah asked with a confident smile.
"Hah. Is that the source of your arrogance? You think because you know a few enchantments, you can challenge me?" Irene laughed, a chilling, condescending sound. "How pathetic. When it comes to Enchantment Magic, you cannot possibly hope to defeat me."
Her supreme confidence was entirely justified.
Irene Belserion was the absolute, unquestionable pinnacle of Enchantment Magic in the world. She had literally invented it. With four hundred years of continuous research and practical application, her mastery over enchantments defied logic.
Even if Noah was a once-in-a-generation genius, a few decades of study could never surpass her four centuries of absolute mastery.
~~~
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