"Oof!" Wendy tripped and tumbled onto the ground, her clumsy nature getting the better of her.
"Wendy! You really need to be more careful, or people will look down on you!" Carla began her usual scolding, though her heart was clearly filled with concern.
Chen Fan reached Wendy and helped her up. "Tell me what's happening. Slow down, take a breath."
"Brother Chen Fan, Nirvana... Nirvana is going to attack Cait Shelter! It's aiming right at my guild, and the magic is almost ready to fire!" Wendy cried, tears streaming down her face.
"Don't worry. As long as I'm here, Cait Shelter won't be harmed." Chen Fan patted the dust off her clothes and spoke with a gentle smile.
He stood up, and four distinct cyclones swirled behind his back, lifting him into the air as he flew directly into Nirvana's path.
Nirvana was already gathering elemental energy. A massive magic circle was forming, condensing an astronomical amount of magical essence. If that spell were allowed to detonate, the destructive power would be cataclysmic.
The spell finally reached completion. A gargantuan beam of purple-black magic was leveled at Cait Shelter, ready to fire at any second. Erza, Lucy, and the others could only watch, rendered helpless by the scale of the attack.
"Look!" Lucy pointed toward a tiny speck in the sky. Upon closer inspection, it was a person. It was Chen Fan.
"Chen Fan!" Happy cried.
"What is he doing? Is he planning to block that magic head-on?" Carla asked as she flew over with Wendy.
"Yes. If I had to guess, that's exactly what he's doing," Erza said, her expression finally relaxing into one of calm.
"That's impossible! A magic of that magnitude... he'll be killed!" Carla exclaimed.
"What! Brother Chen Fan is doing this for me? I don't want anything to happen to him! Please, tell him to come back!" Wendy pleaded, her voice shaking with grief as the tears fell faster.
"Don't worry," Erza said, reaching out to stroke Wendy's hair. "That guy is practically immortal. No one can defeat him."
Wendy looked around and realized that only she and Carla were panicking. Even Jura was sitting calmly on the ground.
"Why? Why aren't you worried about him?"
"Because we believe in him!" Lucy said, a confident smile spreading across her face.
Wendy turned to Happy, who simply let out his signature, "Aye!"
BOOM!
A massive pillar of black-and-white magic roared toward Cait Shelter, the sky split in half by the overwhelming light. The beam moved with incredible speed, reaching Chen Fan in a heartbeat. Wendy and Carla couldn't bear to watch and covered their eyes.
Chen Fan reached out his right hand toward the incoming torrent.
With the hum of his ability activating, the magic didn't swallow him. Instead, the entire beam hit an invisible wall and was reflected at a sharp ninety-degree angle, soaring harmlessly into the sky. Nirvana continued to pour out its power, but it was all being deflected. Wendy and Carla peeked through their fingers, staring in awe at the impossible sight.
"H-How... how is that possible?" Carla stammered.
"Nothing is impossible for him. Chen Fan is a complete mystery," Gray said, having woken up at some point. "We don't know exactly how strong he is, but we do know that a guild isn't strong because of just one person. It's when everyone is strong together. We've always tried to stand by his side, only to find that he's already moved even further ahead."
"Gray! You're okay!" Lucy cried.
Gray waved a hand dismissively. "I'll be fine. Thanks to Wendy's incredible healing. Thank you, Wendy."
"No, don't thank me. You were only hurt because you were trying to protect me!"
Thud! Another sound came from nearby. Everyone turned to see Natsu. Erza had found him unconscious earlier, but he was now finally awake.
"Natsu! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... I just feel useless. I got beaten again." Natsu's eyes were bloodshot with frustration.
"There's no shame in being defeated!" Chen Fan's voice rang out. The barrage from Nirvana had finally ceased. "No one is born invincible. You can only become truly strong by growing through your failures," Chen Fan lectured.
"But I've never seen you lose!" Happy piped up in a small voice.
"Uh... well!" Chen Fan said, his voice dripping with shamelessness. "While no one is born invincible, there are always a few geniuses, right? And I happen to be a genius!"
"Tch...!" The group groaned, but the atmosphere immediately lightened. In the original timeline, Natsu would have received a power boost from Jellal's Flame of Rebuke here. A Fire Dragon Slayer Mage grew by consuming flames and being tempered in battle, but that was a lesson for another time.
"Alright, let's finish this. Do you all want to try flying for a bit?" Chen Fan said suddenly, his tone shifting.
"Finish what?"
Chen Fan pointed down at their feet. They looked down but saw nothing out of the ordinary. However, as Chen Fan raised his leg, everyone suddenly realized what he was about to do.
"Wait a second!" they screamed in unison.
But before they could finish, Chen Fan stomped his foot down.
Using his ability to multiply the kinetic energy of the impact geometrically, the force was redirected downward. Nirvana, the massive walking fortress shaped like a giant spider, suddenly buckled.
"Aaaaah!" Everyone screamed as the sudden drop left them momentarily weightless in mid-air before they began to plummet.
CRASH!
The central body of Nirvana, the part resembling a spider's abdomen, slammed directly into the earth. The massive legs, which were supposed to support it, were rendered useless by the sheer force of Chen Fan's stomp.
Crack... crack! Inside Nirvana, the six magic crystals shattered simultaneously. With a final ping, they broke apart completely, their remnants falling to the ground.
"There. All settled," Chen Fan said easily.
He was the only one who had remained perfectly stable. Wendy had been caught by Carla and was hovering in the air, but everyone else was left in a tangled, dizzy heap on the ground.
"Settled my foot! You could have at least warned us!" Erza stomped over to Chen Fan and began pummeling him.
Chen Fan let out a series of strange groans. "Oh yeah... that's the spot! Feels good!" The look of pure bliss on his face made everyone around him wonder if he was some kind of masochist who enjoyed being bullied by Erza. An image of Erza in tight leather, wielding a whip and raining blows down on Chen Fan, flashed through their minds. They shuddered. The thought was too terrifying!
Thud! Suddenly, as Natsu and Gray tried to step forward, they slammed into a transparent wall.
Several glowing characters appeared on the ground. Jura stood up and reached out to touch the air, causing more text to manifest. "This is...!"
"A Jutsu-shiki!" everyone shouted in surprise.
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