"Now that's more like it!"
Laxus grinned, revealing his pearly white teeth.
Facing the incoming skeletal missiles, he didn't dodge, but unleashed the lightning magic power compressed to its absolute limit in his mouth, accompanied by a heaven-shaking dragon's roar.
"LIGHTNING DRAGON ROAR!"
BOOM!
This was no longer the playful lightning strike from before, but true Dragon Slayer Magic.
A torrent of pure, golden, destructive lightning, over five meters in diameter, roared toward the incoming skeletal missiles like the breath of a mythical lightning dragon, carrying an overwhelming might that could annihilate all things.
It closed the distance in an instant and collided with them head-on.
Bang! RUMBLE...
The dark red energy of destruction and the golden lightning of the Dragon Slayer clashed violently in mid-air.
In that instant, it was as if the sun had exploded before their eyes.
An indescribable boom and a blinding light swallowed everything.
A terrifying storm of energy spread out madly in all directions in a spherical shape.
Wherever it passed, the ground was peeled back layer by layer and annihilated, trees in the distance were uprooted and torn to shreds, and even the spectating Erza, Gildarts, and others had to put up defenses and retreat repeatedly.
The explosion lasted for several seconds before slowly subsiding.
A massive, scorched crater over fifty meters in diameter appeared in the center of the battlefield.
The rocks at its edge had a vitrified appearance from being melted and then cooled, and the air was thick with a heavy, burnt stench and the residue of violent magic power.
"Cough, cough..."
Ace struggled to his feet.
Ignoring the dust covering him, he looked anxiously toward the center of the explosion, toward where Laxus had been.
He knew the power of SkullGreymon's "Ground Zero," and Laxus's "Lightning Dragon Roar" was even more terrifying.
With two supreme powers clashing, Laxus was so close to the epicenter; even if he wasn't dead, he should at least be seriously injured, right?
If he could be heavily wounded by this, then SkullGreymon might still have a chance...
However, as the lingering smoke and dust slowly dispersed, revealing the scene within, Ace's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpricks.
An icy chill shot up from the soles of his feet and instantly spread throughout his body, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cavern. His heart sank.
At the edge of the scorched crater, Laxus stood there, perfectly composed.
He didn't have a single scratch on him; even his hairstyle was not messy.
His golden pupils shone with a cold, disdainful light through the dissipating smoke.
He lightly patted his shoulder, brushing off dust that wasn't even there.
The corner of his mouth curled into a mocking, endlessly sarcastic arc as his gaze pierced through the smoke, landing on the even more battered SkullGreymon, which was suffering from the backlash of the explosion.
Then, he seemed to glance at the ashen-faced Ace.
"Is that all?"
Three calm words, yet they were more insulting and oppressive than any roar.
He had taken the full force of the aftershock from the clash between SkullGreymon's ultimate move, Ground Zero, and his own Roar of the Lightning Dragon, and he was... completely unharmed.
His breathing wasn't even slightly disordered.
It was as if that terrifying explosion, powerful enough to level a small mountain, was nothing more than a slightly strong breeze to him.
Despair instantly drowned Ace.
Before Laxus, SkullGreymon seemed so... powerless.
Was evolving into Machinedramon is the only way?
The answer seemed self-evident.
Laxus cracked his neck, letting out a soft pop.
He walked step by step toward the weakened SkullGreymon, the lightning around his body beginning to crackle and gather once more, even more violent and condensed than before.
Laxus slowly raised his right arm, pointing a single finger to the sky.
This simple action seemed to drain all sound and life from the surrounding hundreds of meters; even the wind stood still.
"Resound through the heavens, O roaring thunder—"
A low chant came from Laxus's lips.
Each word rolled across the sky like muffled thunder, carrying a strange magical resonance.
The thunderclouds in the sky, as if stirred by an invisible hand, began to spin wildly, forming a massive thundercloud vortex that covered the entire battlefield.
"Descend from the heavens and turn to dust—"
The chant suddenly rose in pitch, and a vast, ocean-like magic power mixed with a pure, terrifying lightning aura erupted from his body without reservation.
"RAGING BOLT!"
BOOM!
It wasn't a single bolt of lightning, but a brilliant golden sphere of lightning, over twenty meters in diameter and composed entirely of destructive thunder, that suddenly took shape in the center of the thundercloud vortex above Laxus's head.
On the surface of the sphere, countless thick lightning serpents danced wildly, as if even all tranquil brilliance was suppressed by this pure, destructive lightning.
Laxus swung his right hand down toward the battered SkullGreymon below.
"Fall!"
The sphere of destruction suspended in the sky, like a hammer of judgment thrown by a celestial god, descended with a power that could annihilate everything.
It moved slowly yet unstoppably, smashing down toward SkullGreymon.
Before the sphere even arrived, the terrifying pressure of the lightning descended first.
The ground around SkullGreymon caved in and cracked in a spiderweb pattern, while the air was ionized, creating dazzling electric sparks that crackled and popped.
SkullGreymon sensed the fatal threat.
It threw back its battered skull, and all its remaining dark red energy desperately surged out, forming a thin energy shield on its surface.
But it all seemed so futile.
WMMMMMM...
The brilliant golden lightning, as vast as an abyss and as deep as the sea, instantly swallowed SkullGreymon's massive body, along with its defiant roar.
Wherever the lightning touched, everything turned to the finest dust.
The ground was stripped away layer by layer, annihilated, leaving behind a bottomless, hemispherical crater with edges as smooth as a mirror.
The blinding lightning lasted for several seconds before slowly dimming and dissipating.
As SkullGreymon's bones came into contact with the lightning, plumes of white smoke rose from them.
It let out a pained and furious roar, its movements becoming noticeably sluggish, and the red light in its eyes flickered unsteadily.
SkullGreymon was slammed to the ground by this wild lightning, cracking the earth and causing the entire area to tremble.
Ace felt the violent, painful, and unwilling thoughts transmitted through their bond.
So, should he send out WereGarurumon and GrapLeomon to save the day now?
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