Chapter 103: The Queen and the Tyrant
"I'm up."
Back in the Fairy Tail lounge, Erza Scarlet's voice was calm and firm. Gray, bruised and scalded but victorious, had just returned. Now, it was her turn.
"Go, Erza!! Let them know how strong you are!!"
"Go, Erza!!"
"Let them know what a Fairy Tail S-Class Mage is really like!"
The guild members cheered, their spirits soaring. Erza, their queen, was stepping up. She walked into the arena, her armor glinting, with determined steps.
"Oh! Representing Fairy Tail for the fourth match is the one, the only, 'Fairy Queen' Titania, Erza Scarlet!! COOOOL!"
The entire stadium, which had been buzzing from Gray's victory, now exploded in a deafening roar. This was one of the matches they had all been waiting for.
Swish—!
A gust of wind, heavy with a strange, sorrowful pressure, blew across the arena. A new figure slowly emerged from the Phantom Lord tunnel.
"And her opponent... Phantom Lord has sent out Aria of the Great Sky, the leader of the Element 4!!"
"What... what is that?" Lucy said, her voice filled with unease. "He's huge... and why is he crying?"
"He's blindfolded... is he blind?"
In the lounge, Mira said with a serious expression, "Don't underestimate Aria, Lucy. He is the leader of the Element 4 for a reason. He usually keeps his eyes closed... it's said that he only keeps them covered to suppress his own overwhelmingly powerful magic."
Aria, a large, heavyset man in robes, his face covered in a blindfold, wept openly. "Oh, such sadness... such sorrow... to see my comrades fall one by one... C'est la vie... it is a tragedy..."
"Hehehe… Since my opponent is the 'Fairy Queen' herself," he continued, his voice shifting, "I must also go all out. It is only polite."
As Aria spoke, he reached up and removed the cloth covering his eyes. He opened them, revealing a piercing, cold gaze. The air in the stadium instantly became heavier, as if the gravity had increased.
"Fairy Tail VS Phantom Lord, the fourth match!"
"Start—!!"
Clang—!!
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!!"
Erza didn't wait. She was enveloped in a flash of golden light. Her standard armor was replaced by one of her most famous: a suit of silver armor with large, angelic, metal wings and a flowing blue skirt.
[Akarin's Note: Heaven's Wheel Armor (天輪の鎧 Tenrin no Yoroi) is one of Erza's most versatile armors, specializing in a sword-based "Knight" Requip.]
"Heaven's Wheel: Bladeworks!!"
With a wave of her hand, a large number of magic swords appeared in the air behind her, all pointed at Aria. They shot forward like a silver tide.
Aria raised his palm and softly chanted, "Airspace: Zero!!"
A large number of invisible, compressed impact "bullets" made of air shot out from his hand, colliding with the magic swords.
Boom boom boom boom boom!!
All the magic swords were struck down, shattering in mid-air before they could even get close.
"Airspace: Zero!"
Aria raised his other palm and once again released a large number of invisible impact bullets, this time aimed directly at Erza.
Erza, her eyes sharp, quickly swung the sword in her hand, her movements a blur.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
She cut through all the invisible impact bullets, sparks flying from her blade as she deflected the unseen attacks.
Seeing this, Aria was somewhat surprised. His magic was almost silent, invisible to the naked eye. Many people didn't even know how to resist it, let alone that they were being attacked. But Erza, relying purely on her superhuman instinct and skill, had managed to cut through all of his impact bullets. Such talent... it made him feel a shiver of... excitement.
"As expected of Titania," he mused.
"Heaven's Wheel: Circle Sword!!"
Erza, not giving him a moment to rest, commanded the numerous steel swords still in the air. They formed a rapidly spinning circle, like a buzzsaw, and slashed towards Aria.
Swish—!
Aria's figure... dissipated. His body turned into pure wind, and the swords passed harmlessly through him. He then reappeared elsewhere, his form re-solidifying.
"As expected of the 'Fairy Queen.' It seems ordinary moves won't decide the winner between us. What a... sorrowful... battle this will be."
"If that's the case," Aria said, his voice dropping, "then let's finish this quickly."
Powerful, heavy magic power—a pressure that made the air itself feel dead—emanated from Aria. The air began to drain of all sound.
"Death Airspace: Zetsu! Activate!!"
[Akarin's Note: This spell is Zetsu (空域「滅」Kūiki: Zetsu), which means "Extinction" or "Destruction."]
"This Airspace," Aria cried, tears of "sorrow" streaming down his face, "will steal all life from this place! Enjoy it to the fullest! Can you defeat this Airspace magic, Fairy Queen!!!"
A vortex of purple, life-draining wind began to swirl around him, spreading out and killing all the grass and small weeds in the arena.
"Erza, be careful!!"
"Get out of there!"
The Fairy Tail members couldn't help but shout warnings after seeing this.
Erza, however, remained calm. She took a deep breath, and concentrated all her spirit. She remembered her duel with Ren. She remembered his speed, his precision, his perfect, flowing forms.
She had learned.
"Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt!"
Erza, like a continuously leaping and dancing spirit, shot forward. She requipped dozens of swords at once and, in a beautiful, deadly dance, cut through all the incoming magical wind, all the invisible attacks, one by one.
"How is that possible?! She actually cut through... my Airspace... my Zetsu... How…?"
Swish swish—!!
Before Aria could even process it, Erza was upon him. Her swords, now glowing with a holy light, struck his body.
"Ugh ah ah ah ah!!"
Aria screamed as he was struck by the flurry of blades. He was sent flying backward, his robes in tatters, and he fell to the ground, completely losing consciousness.
The arena was silent for a beat.
"The... the winner has been decided!!" Chapati screamed, his voice breaking.
"Winner: 'Fairy Queen' Erza Scarlet!!!"
Boom—!!
The audience, which had been silenced by Aria's magic, erupted in the most enthusiastic, deafening cheers of the day. To instantly, and so beautifully, defeat her opponent, the leader of the Element 4... it was truly amazing.
"That's great, Erza!"
"She's truly amazing!!"
"She's so cool!!"
The members of the Fairy Tail Guild also cheered, their spirits now soaring. Four to zero!
Many of them, especially Gray and Mira, also noticed that Erza's move... that beautiful, flowing, sword-dancing attack... it was very similar to one of Ren's moves from their duel. Recalling Ren and Erza's duel not long ago, they realized Erza had actually learned from it, adapted it, and created her own move so quickly.
"As expected of Erza!" Ren said from the lounge, a rare, genuine smile of approval on his face.
He had been a genius in his own right, but he knew how vast the gap between a genius and an ordinary person was; it was a feeling that couldn't be described in words. Erza was, without a doubt, a true genius.
Phantom Lord's Rest Area
"..."
Jose Porla said nothing. He was just... staring. Everyone around him was trembling, their bodies shaking with fear. They could all feel that their Guild Master was truly angry.
"Impossible!!" he finally whispered, his voice a low, ghostly hiss. "The Element 4... my Element 4... were completely wiped out... by those Fairy Tail good-for-nothings?!"
Four matches. Four losses. What an utter, public, humiliating disgrace!
Didn't this mean that the Element 4, the team he had painstakingly cultivated as the pillars of his guild, were no match for Makarov's... brats? How would the audience, how would all of Fiore, view this? Wouldn't they think Fairy Tail was stronger than Phantom Lord?
Gajeel Redfox, who had been leaning against the wall, finally stood up, his 'Gihi' laugh gone. He sneered, "The Element 4 being wiped out and defeated by good-for-nothings only proves that they are also good-for-nothings."
He cracked his iron-plated knuckles. "Leave the rest to me. I'll make those Fairy Tail trash understand that trash belongs in the trash heap."
"It all depends on you, Gajeel," Jose said, his voice cold. "Don't disappoint me."
"Gihi," Gajeel's grin returned. "Have I ever disappointed you?"
Without waiting for the commentator's announcement, Gajeel stomped out of the lounge and directly entered the arena. He was already getting impatient. If he had known that the previous few guys were so useless, he should have just gone in first and taken care of everyone on the other side himself.
At this moment, Erza also returned to the Fairy Tail rest area, her armor still pristine.
Ren smiled at Erza and said, "You worked hard."
Erza looked at Ren and said, "The rest is up to you, Ren. Gajeel... he's the one who destroyed the guild. He's... he's a Dragon Slayer. Be careful."
Ren just chuckled. "Don't worry," he said as he walked past her. "I'm best at holding back."
Ren said this as he walked towards the arena.
And as Ren advanced towards the center of the arena, his appearance slowly began to change.
Ren's muscles began to bulge, his simple shirt and pants straining, becoming more powerful.
His hair became slightly flattened, and his clothes began to change from top to bottom, his guild-provided outfit dissolving into a black, muscle-hugging T-shirt that tightly conformed to his body, easily revealing his powerful muscle lines. His lower body became a pair of loose, gray jogger pants, and he wore a pair of simple, black old-man shoes.
The scar at the corner of his mouth appeared.
Seeing Ren's transformation, the Fairy Tail members all gasped.
"No way..."
"He's using that form?"
They all knew that Ren had many transformation forms. But this form... this form was definitely the most memorable to them, because it was in this form that Ren had pinned all of them to the ground and rubbed them in the dirt.
This was the form that had terrified the entire guild into silence.
Ren, in this "Tyrant" form, might not be his flashiest... but he was definitely the most violent.
Lucy, who had recently seen Ren effortlessly defeat Natsu, leaving him no room to retaliate, whispered to Happy, "That... that Phantom Lord guy... he's finished."
"Mm-hmm."
[Akarin Note:
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