Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Chapter 161

Makarov followed Jose away from Magnolia until they reached a deserted stretch of open land, far enough from the city that the two Wizard Saints could stop worrying about anyone else being caught in the aftermath of their fight.

Neither made the slightest attempt to restrain his magic.

Their magical pressure rolled outward in enormous waves, colliding between them and making the surrounding air tremble.

Jose’s power was formidable, fully deserving of his place among the Ten Wizard Saints, but in terms of sheer presence, Makarov was clearly the stronger of the two.

Then, in the next moment, someone appeared beside Jose.

Someone Makarov absolutely did not want to see.

"Ivan!"

The old man’s fury surged instantly.

"You ungrateful son! You actually helped another guild attack Fairy Tail! I won’t forgive you again!"

Magic erupted around Makarov.

"Prepare yourself!"

In truth, his rage toward Ivan burned even hotter than what he felt toward Jose.

Jose was an enemy and had never pretended otherwise, but Ivan was his own son—a former member of Fairy Tail who had turned around and betrayed the guild that had once been his home.

The humiliation of that betrayal weighed heavily on Makarov.

He could barely imagine how he was supposed to face the children of the guild after his own son had helped outsiders hurt them.

So he decided not to hold back.

Makarov raised one hand, an enormous amount of magic gathering around him as he prepared to unleash one of Fairy Tail’s Three Great Magics.

[Fairy Law.]

But as the spell began to build, Ivan’s mouth curled into a malicious smile.

"Old man, you’re still as stupid as ever."

Makarov’s eyes narrowed.

"I cast Illusion Magic over this entire area before you arrived. Nobody outside can see what’s happening here."

Ivan spread his hands.

"Do you know what that means?"

Makarov didn’t stop gathering power.

"I taught you from the time you were a child that all schemes and tricks are nothing but weeds without roots in the face of true strength."

Disappointment hardened his expression.

"You’ve truly failed me, Ivan."

"Hehehe... hahahahaha!"

Ivan threw his head back and laughed.

"No, old man! What it means is that even if you die here, nobody will ever know what happened!"

He stepped aside.

"Now take a look at who I brought with me."

The figure hidden behind him was finally revealed.

Makarov’s pupils contracted.

There stood Laxus, covered from head to toe in wounds, his clothes torn and his entire body looking as though he had already been brutally beaten.

"What?! Laxus?!"

Makarov’s composure shattered for an instant, and the motion of his hand faltered.

"That’s right!"

Ivan laughed triumphantly.

"I realized the Dragon Lacrima inside this brat is worth quite a bit, so I figured it was time to take it back. I’ve let him borrow it for long enough."

His grin became vicious.

"Old man, I told you that you’d regret refusing my request!"

A dagger appeared in his hand.

"Now repent!"

Ivan drove the blade straight toward Laxus’s chest.

Makarov’s heart overruled his reason.

"STOP!"

The moment he saw his grandson in danger, the spell he had been preparing was forgotten.

He rushed forward without hesitation, desperate to stop the dagger before it struck.

And at that exact moment, another figure appeared behind him.

A man stood there with strips of cloth wrapped around his eyes, tears streaming endlessly down his face.

One of Phantom Lord’s Element 4.

Aria of the Sky.

"How sorrowful..."

Makarov sensed him too late.

Aria spread his hands.

"Airspace: Zero!"

His mournful voice echoed through the empty battlefield.

"Return to zero—magic power!"

The spell struck Makarov from behind.

There was no explosion and no visible wound.

Instead, the air around his body twisted, forcing itself into the flow of magic circulating within him.

Then all of Makarov’s magic power was violently expelled from his body.

His eyes widened.

"What...?!"

The enormous reserves sustaining him erupted uselessly into the atmosphere, ripped away before he could regain control.

His strength vanished almost instantly, and his body staggered beneath the sudden loss.

Aria’s spell used the air itself to force magic power out of a Mage’s body, stripping away their ability to fight.

Against an ordinary Mage, losing all of their magic would leave them exhausted and weak.

For Makarov, the consequences were much more serious.

He was already an old man, and his enormous magic reserves did more than fuel his spells—they also supported an aging body that had long since passed its physical prime.

Having that foundation ripped away all at once placed tremendous strain on him.

Makarov collapsed to the ground.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Ivan’s laughter rang out immediately.

"Old man! This is exactly why I’ve always hated you!"

He pointed at Makarov, practically trembling with delight.

"You’re just too damn stupid! You fell for a trick this simple!"

"That’s hilarious!"

Ivan waved one hand.

The wounded Laxus behind him shimmered, his body twisting and shrinking until he transformed into a short man.

The grievously injured Laxus had never existed.

It had all been an illusion.

"My magic..."

Makarov struggled to prop himself up.

"Ivan... you bastard..."

Jose burst into laughter as well.

"HAHAHA! Makarov, I never imagined your weakness would be something this ridiculous!"

He could hardly believe how easily things had gone. Joining forces with Ivan had turned out to be one of the best decisions he had ever made!

"This time, I win!"

Darkness gathered in Jose’s hand.

He might have been gloating, but he wasn’t stupid enough to underestimate another Wizard Saint.

Even with Makarov stripped of his magic, Jose intended to injure him badly enough that there would be no chance of the old man recovering before the battle was over.

"DIE!"

A beam of black light shot toward Makarov.

Just before it struck, a pink figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

Marshall raised a hand.

With a sharp slap, he knocked the dark beam aside.

The attack veered away and exploded in the distance.

Jose’s expression changed.

Marshall stood protectively in front of Makarov, his face grim as he took in the scene.

The Master was lying helplessly on the ground.

A crying lunatic stood behind him.

And Ivan and Jose were laughing as though the war had already been won.

This was about as bad as things could possibly get.

Ivan recognized him immediately.

"You?! Marshall?"

His eyebrows rose as he looked the boy over.

"I didn’t expect you to improve this much over the years. Looks like I really underestimated you back then."

Then his smug expression returned.

"But Fairy Tail is already finished. With Makarov out of the picture, you’ve lost. If you’re smart, I suggest you surren—"

Ivan never finished the sentence as Marshall’s eyes lit up crimson.

Twin beams of searing light erupted from them.

Ivan barely had time to react before the Heat Vision punched straight through his body!

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

Marshall’s gaze shifted.

The beams moved with it.

The red light tore sideways through Ivan’s flank, continued across the battlefield, and sliced clean through the short man who had served as the basis for the fake Laxus illusion.

His head separated from his body before he even realized what had happened.

The beams kept sweeping toward Jose.

Jose’s face tightened as cold sweat broke across his forehead.

He threw up a mass of darkness in front of himself, catching the Heat Vision against a thick wall of shadow.

The instant the two spells collided, Jose’s expression changed again.

The drain on his defensive Magic was enormous!

’What the hell kind of Magic is this?!’

The destructive power was absurd.

Even his defenses were being consumed at an alarming rate merely to keep the beams from breaking through.

Marshall watched for only a moment.

Once it became clear that Heat Vision wasn’t going to punch through Jose immediately, he didn’t waste time escalating the fight.

Makarov came first.

Marshall grabbed the old man and teleported away without hesitation.

Strike once, then withdraw, no need for pointless attempt to prove himself.

"AAAAAAAGH!"

Ivan collapsed, clutching his mangled abdomen.

"My stomach!"

"Jose! Help me!"

"JOSE, SAVE ME!"

Jose clicked his tongue.

"Tch. Useless bastard."

A shadow demon emerged from his body and slipped into Ivan, using its power to stabilize his injuries and keep his condition from deteriorating further.

Jose then glanced toward the short man Marshall had struck.

He was already dead.

His expression darkened.

Aria had removed the cloth covering his eyes, and cold sweat now covered his face as well.

"M-Master..."

He stared at the empty place where Marshall had vanished.

"That just now..."

"Marshall of Fairy Tail."

Jose’s face remained grim.

"Before today, I’d only heard that he specialized in Spatial Magic and the creation of magical devices."

He gave a cold snort.

"Looks like everyone underestimated him."

His eyes narrowed.

"He’s already approaching Wizard Saint level, and the destructive power of his Magic is exceptional."

For a moment, Jose remained silent.

Then he dismissed the concern.

"Still, he’s too young."

"He isn’t my opponent yet."

More importantly, their main objective had already been achieved.

Makarov was effectively finished.

"Forget him. We got what we came for."

Jose turned away.

"Begin the next phase."

...

Jose returned to the river with Aria and immediately released a swarm of shadow demons into the ongoing battle.

The dark creatures poured into the battlefield, reinforcing Phantom Lord’s forces and slowing Fairy Tail’s advance.

Jose himself rose high above the river, spreading his arms as his voice boomed over both guilds.

"FAIRY TAIL!"

The fighting faltered.

"Your Guild Master, Makarov, has already been defeated!"

Jose laughed wildly.

"Surrender! You’ve already lost!"

The reaction was immediate.

"What?!"

"Master lost?! That’s impossible!"

Someone suddenly looked around.

"Marshall disappeared too!"

"He said he was going to help Master!"

"Damn it! Something’s wrong!"

"Fall back for now!"

The news hit Fairy Tail’s members hard enough to halt the momentum of their attack.

Only moments earlier they had been overwhelming Phantom Lord, but with Makarov’s condition unknown and Jose himself returning apparently unharmed, nobody wanted to charge blindly into whatever else the enemy had prepared.

Jose made no attempt to pursue them.

He wasn’t in a hurry.

Killing Makarov was only part of his plan.

He wanted to ruin Fairy Tail’s reputation, destroy its standing throughout Fiore, and ultimately swallow the guild whole.

So he let the uncertainty spread before raising his voice once more.

"Now you have only two choices!"

His gaze swept over the retreating Fairy Tail Mages.

"Tie up the daughter of the Heartfilia family and bring her to me."

A stunned silence answered him.

"Then surrender and dissolve Fairy Tail."

Jose’s grin widened.

"Otherwise—"

His dark magic surged.

"You die!"

Behind him, the mechanisms built into Phantom Lord’s mobile headquarters began shifting into position.

Huge magical components moved.

Power accumulated.

The fortress’s magical convergence cannon began preparing to fire.

"I’ll give you fifteen minutes to decide!"

Jose laughed.

"If I don’t have your answer by then, the magical convergence cannon will blow your precious guildhall to pieces!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

...

Marshall, meanwhile, had already teleported Makarov to Porlyusica’s treehouse.

"Granny Porlyusica!"

He appeared carrying the weakened Guild Master.

"Do you have any potions that restore magic power?"

"Quick! Master’s in bad shape!"

Porlyusica frowned the moment she saw Makarov.

One glance was enough for her to recognize the symptoms of severe magical depletion.

"What stupid thing did this rotten old fool do now?"

She hurried over and began examining him.

"Does he still think he’s seventeen or eighteen?!"

Her irritation deepened.

"How did he manage to drain all of his magic power?!"

"It’s not something I can explain in one or two sentences."

Marshall was about to hand Makarov over when he noticed another familiar figure inside the treehouse.

"Huh?"

He blinked.

"Mystogan?"

"What are you doing here?"

Mystogan turned toward him, but Marshall had no time to investigate.

"Actually, perfect."

He carefully transferred Makarov into their care.

"Master’s yours. Look after him."

"I’m going back to fight."

Before leaving, however, Marshall placed a hand against Makarov and activated the Life Magic he had only learned the night before.

He couldn’t restore Makarov’s enormous reserves of magic power, but he could at least replenish some of the old man’s vitality and stabilize his weakened body.

Warm life force flowed into Makarov.

Marshall watched until the immediate danger passed.

At least the old man’s life wasn’t in serious danger anymore.

His magic power was another matter.

Makarov normally possessed more than eight hundred thousand units of magic.

Restoring reserves of that magnitude wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a few minutes, even with the best medicine available.

Marshall clicked his tongue.

’Useless old man.’

Of all the moments to drop the ball, Makarov had chosen the middle of a guild war.

And in the end, Marshall was still the one who had to clean up the mess.

Fortunately...

The previous night’s research hadn’t been wasted.

Marshall had stayed awake until morning creating something new.

An Ultimate Weapon.

Without it, even he might have been running out of good options right now.

Originally, Marshall hadn’t expected to need the thing anytime soon.

He had even planned to save his Inspiration rather than pouring points into a weapon that might sit unused for months.

But after Makarov had screwed up this spectacularly, there was no longer any point being stingy.

He would simply have to make some emergency upgrades.

Marshall looked down at the unconscious Guild Master.

His eye twitched.

’Damn you, old man!’

’When you wake up, I’m ripping your beard out.’

Then he focused on his status panel.

"System."

His expression sharpened.

"Add points."