Chapter 292

Chapter 292: Chapter 292

When Hades was sent flying by that first punch, he was genuinely stunned.

What had just happened?

Where was his Magic?

What happened to the barrier he had raised?

Neither had produced the slightest effect.

For a fleeting moment, Hades even wondered whether someone had secretly placed him under some kind of mental interference spell and distorted his perception of the battle.

Then he looked up and saw the blue-and-white machine standing where it had struck him.

Instead of following up while he was vulnerable, the strange suit of armor had actually stopped to pose.

Not merely a combat stance, either.

It was striking a series of ridiculous, deliberately flashy poses toward the rest of Fairy Tail as though demanding an audience’s admiration.

A synthetic electronic voice rang out from the machine.

"Guys, how cool was that punch?! With me here, you can all relax and just keep pouring on the damage from behind me!"

Several heads snapped toward it.

"Marshall?"

Gildarts stared at the machine, then immediately realized something was wrong.

"You brat, so you really didn’t miss the fight! What the hell is that armor? Wait... you’re not actually inside it?"

"Remote control, bro." Marshall’s electronically altered voice sounded unbearably pleased with itself.

"Forget the technical details and answer the important question. Is my mecha cool or not?"

"So cool!!!"

Several voices answered at once.

Natsu and the other boys were practically sparkling.

Apparently, there really were very few boys in the world capable of resisting the appeal of a giant robot.

Marshall felt that all the extra time he had wasted polishing the machine before deployment had suddenly become completely worthwhile.

Laxus’s eye twitched.

He had originally intended to remind everyone that they were still in the middle of a battle against one of the strongest Mages alive, but after staring at the machine for another few seconds, even he had to admit that the thing looked absurdly good.

’Damn brat... Why does he always come up with things that make people stop and stare?’

Laxus felt vaguely irritated by the conclusion forming in his mind.

’Do I seriously have to admit that he’s an unmatch genius?’

Hades had already recovered from his initial shock.

"That armor..."

His eyes narrowed as he studied the machine.

"It nullified my Magic."

Once he eliminated the impossible explanations, the remaining conclusion was obvious.

Hades slowly stood up.

"I never expected this generation of Fairy Tail to develop magical technology of this level. Makarov, it seems I truly have underestimated what your guild has become."

Marshall laughed through the Gundam’s speaker.

"Hahaha! It’s nothing that impressive. I mostly borrowed the idea from technology developed in another world."

His mood was excellent.

As far as Marshall was concerned, the fight had already entered the winning phase.

Hades relied overwhelmingly on Magic, his new machine could ignore ordinary magical attacks, and Fairy Tail had already defeated most of Grimoire Heart’s forces.

Under circumstances like these, how could Marshall possibly resist getting a little arrogant?

Then Hades calmly removed his coat.

Beneath it was an upper body covered in thick, hardened muscle.

Everyone stared.

There was absolutely nothing about that physique suggesting the man was already over a hundred years old.

"...?"

Marshall suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Magic immunity is certainly troublesome," Hades said, rolling one shoulder, "but before becoming a Mage, I also learned a little hand-to-hand combat. I have never stopped training my body over the years."

He stepped forward.

"Let me see whether your machine can withstand that."

The instant Hades’s foot touched the deck, he vanished from Marshall’s visual feed.

"What the—?!"

He reappeared directly in front of the Gundam.

Then came one brutally muscular punch.

’Holy shit! This old man can fight like this too?!’

The machine had one major weakness that Marshall had never managed to eliminate: its reactions weren’t especially responsive.

Information Magic allowed him to synchronize its senses and operate it remotely, but remote control still introduced a measurable delay.

Marshall had only just begun raising one arm when Hades’s fist struck the armor.

The Gundam was launched backward.

Metal screamed as it hit the deck, and several sections of the frame immediately displayed signs of structural damage.

Hades lowered his fist.

"Your armor may resist Magic, but I doubt it can ignore physical force as well. Mere steel cannot compare to a body tempered through more than a century of training."

"..."

Now it was Marshall’s turn to stare blankly.

He had been observing Hades for quite some time and believed he had already gathered a reasonably complete picture of the old man’s abilities.

Hades was unquestionably ridiculous. He could use an enormous variety of spells almost effortlessly, and most of them appeared to have reached roughly LV4-level mastery by Marshall’s standards.

His total Magic Power was absurdly high, and thanks to the external Heart supplying him, those reserves appeared practically inexhaustible.

He was already the strongest enemy Marshall had encountered so far.

But Marshall had assumed that overwhelming magical ability was Hades’s main specialty.

If that had been the case, Marshall was confident the anti-magic Gundam could turn the matchup heavily in Fairy Tail’s favor.

Who could have guessed the old bastard was also a terrifying close-combat fighter?

Suddenly, Marshall understood why Makarov and Gildarts had spent so long fighting together and still ended up on the defensive.

Precht Gaebolg was looking suspiciously overtuned.

Marshall had another bizarre thought.

’Don’t tell me Fairy Tail’s obsession with beating people up started with the Second Master.’

This was becoming troublesome.

Were they really going to have to place all their hopes on Lucy and the others successfully destroying the Heart?

"Marshall?!"

Fairy Tail’s Mages were equally shocked.

"Even Marshall’s machine couldn’t stop him?"

Seeing Marshall suffer such an immediate setback was unusual enough by itself.

Discovering that their own Second Master was this absurdly powerful made it even more unsettling.

Makarov’s expression changed several times in quick succession.

Precht’s punch had caught him off guard too.

The anti-magic armor was supposed to be their secret weapon, yet Hades had simply ignored its greatest advantage and punched it out of the sky.

Makarov genuinely couldn’t remember the Second Master being this physically monstrous in the past.

’This is bad.’

’The intel was fake!’

Gildarts clicked his tongue.

"So the brat’s toy isn’t enough either? Fine. Guess it’s my turn."

His Magic Power surged.

"All Crush!"

This time, Hades’s expression changed.

Gildarts released one of his strongest attacks, and Hades responded by driving his own fist forward.

Two overwhelming masses of Magic Power collided head-on, producing a shockwave so violent that the clouds above them were torn apart along a straight line.

The airship beneath their feet suffered even more badly.

The entire structure groaned.

Then the magical airship split.

"WHAAAAAT?!"

"We’re crashing!"

The magical formations sustaining the vessel were destroyed, and Grimoire Heart’s headquarters began dropping toward the sea.

Hades’s expression darkened.

"Was the airship your true target?"

Gildarts grinned.

"Who knows?"

He immediately attacked again.

"Come on!"

Gildarts increased his magical output dramatically.

Every strike was now designed to maximize destructive power, and the battle between him and Hades quickly became so violent that nobody else could find a safe opening to interfere.

Even when the crippled airship finally smashed down onto the ocean, the impact failed to separate them.

Marshall observed the wreckage carefully.

Apparently Hades had installed additional protection around his external Heart. Destroying the airship itself hadn’t been enough to damage it.

Still, that wasn’t necessarily a bad outcome.

The crash had thrown the entire interior into chaos, creating exactly the kind of confusion Lucy’s infiltration team needed.

Now everything depended on whether they could locate the Heart and destroy it before Hades realized what was happening.

Natsu, meanwhile, had been watching Gildarts fight with increasing restlessness.

Then something seemed to occur to him.

He suddenly turned toward the others.

"Everyone! Give me your Magic Power! I’ve got an idea!"

Gray stared at him.

"Huh? That fight is way above our level. Give it a rest, Natsu."

"No, this is different!"

Natsu’s expression was unusually serious.

"Trust me. I feel like I can do it."

Ever since the mysterious man who claimed to be his brother had placed that strange energy inside him, Natsu’s entire body had felt restless.

Something inside him wanted to erupt.

He couldn’t explain it properly, but he could feel that he was close to some kind of breakthrough.

He only lacked enough energy to push himself over the edge.

Marshall immediately understood that Natsu wasn’t joking.

"Trust him."

Everyone looked toward the Gundam.

"My machine can’t contribute much here because its Magic Power comes from stored magic crystals, so you’ll have to borrow power from the others."

Marshall quickly began constructing a spell.

"I’ll set up the Link Magic and connect everyone directly to Natsu."

Laxus glanced at Natsu for a moment before finally extending a hand.

"If Marshall thinks this is worth trying, then fine."

Lightning crackled around his fingers.

"Take mine."

Others followed.

"You can have mine too."

"Same here."

"Fine. Let’s see what kind of stunt you’re trying to pull this time."

Marshall completed the Link Magic, connecting Fairy Tail’s Mages to Natsu and establishing a pathway through which their Magic Power could flow into him.

The effect was immediate.

Natsu’s presence began rising so quickly that everyone could actually feel the atmosphere changing around him.

Lightning appeared first.

Golden electrical arcs mixed with his flames as he entered Lightning Fire Dragon Mode.

Then something else happened.

Scales began emerging across Natsu’s face and arms.

His body was starting to undergo dragonification.

"OHHHHHHHHHH!"

Natsu threw his head back and roared.

"THE POWER’S POURING IN!!!"

Even Hades and Gildarts broke their exchange long enough to look toward him.

Natsu’s magical presence had become genuinely terrifying.

The Magic Power supplied by everyone else wasn’t simply adding together inside him.

Somehow, after entering Natsu’s body, it was producing an effect far greater than the sum of its parts.

One plus one wasn’t becoming two.

It was becoming ten.

Or more.

Natsu’s Magic Power began rising at an absurd pace.

One hundred thousand.

Then five hundred thousand.

Then one million.

And it was still increasing exponentially.

Even Marshall, watching remotely from his laboratory, went completely still.

’What the hell?’

’Did Natsu just activate some kind of cheat?’

Natsu’s flames and lightning roared around him while dragon scales spread farther across his body.

A wild grin appeared on his face.

"This is my new form!"

He clenched one fist.

"Come on!"

"DRAGON FORCE!"

Natsu vanished.

He accelerated like a bolt of lightning, crossed the distance to Hades almost instantly, and drove a fist into the Second Master before the old man could properly reposition himself.

For the third time that day—Precht Gaebolg was sent flying!

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