Chapter 293

Chapter 293: Chapter 293

Hades was completely dumbfounded when Natsu’s punch sent him flying.

What the hell had just happened?

Wasn’t this flaming brat supposed to be a relatively inexperienced Mage?

Where had that sudden, overwhelming surge of Magic Power come from?

Hades had spent more than a century pursuing the deepest mysteries of Magic, devoting practically his entire life to uncovering the ultimate power he believed lay at the end of that path.

If increasing one’s Magic Power were really as simple as what he’d just witnessed, wouldn’t everything he had pursued over the years become one enormous joke?

"You little bastard! You’ve thoroughly enraged me now!"

With a furious roar, Hades tore away his eyepatch.

His Magic Power surged to an entirely new level, releasing such overwhelming pressure that Gray and several others could barely move.

Even standing in its presence felt like being crushed beneath an invisible weight.

"Then allow me to show you the true abyss of Magic! Behold the ultimate sorcery I’ve spent my life pursuing—Demon Transformation!"

Hades clenched his fists as his body began undergoing a visible transformation.

The process bore a certain resemblance to Mira’s Take Over Magic, except that Hades appeared to be actively reshaping himself into something demonic rather than receiving an existing demon’s power.

He raised one hand, pointed toward Natsu, and fired a terrifying black ray from his fingertip.

BOOM!

Before the attack could reach Natsu, Marshall piloted his Gundam directly into its path, taking the blast with the machine’s magic-resistant armor.

Hades’s expression twitched. "You!"

"Hehehe! Natsu, get over here!" Marshall called through the Gundam’s speaker. "Stay behind me. I’ll handle the defense, and you can concentrate on attacking!"

"Got it!"

Natsu immediately scrambled onto the Gundam’s back, using its shoulder for support before leaning around the side of its head.

"Lightning Fire Dragon’s... ROAR!"

An enormous beam of intertwined lightning and flames erupted from his mouth.

The power behind this Roar was utterly terrifying, exceeding even the destructive force of a Jupiter Cannon.

The gigantic torrent of lightning and fire swallowed Hades before he could properly evade it, blasting him backward and leaving him thoroughly disoriented.

Hades tumbled helplessly across the ocean’s surface before finally regaining control of his body.

With no stable foothold beneath him, he had little choice but to fly back toward his opponents and attempt to force the battle into close quarters.

Unfortunately, Gildarts was waiting for exactly that.

The moment Hades approached, Gildarts intercepted him with another devastating attack, forcing him away from the Gundam and causing even more destruction to the already shattered airship.

"Hahaha! Now that’s what I call a hot-blooded combination attack!" Marshall declared enthusiastically.

He immediately piloted the Gundam into the air, effectively turning Natsu into a mobile artillery turret mounted on its back.

The arrangement was shamelessly effective.

Hades’s ranged magical attacks were almost completely useless against the Gundam’s armor, allowing Marshall to maintain his position while Natsu continuously bombarded the Second Master with his increasingly ridiculous Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.

To deal with the troublesome machine, Hades had to close the distance and use physical attacks.

But whenever he tried, Gildarts intercepted him, preventing him from reaching the Gundam.

Makarov and the younger Fairy Tail members further complicated matters by attacking whenever Hades exposed an opening.

For the first time in the battle, Hades genuinely began to understand what it meant to be overwhelmed by superior numbers.

He possessed the strength to defeat almost any one of these people individually, but they refused to give him a fair opportunity to demonstrate it.

What kind of shameless little bastards fought like this?!

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THESE TRICKS WILL BE ENOUGH TO DEFEAT ME?!"

Hades finally lost his patience.

"FOOLS!"

An ocean of Magic Power erupted from his body, creating an enormous vortex of air in the sky.

The sheer concentration of magical energy surrounding him became visible, forming a blazing aura that wrapped around his body like the transformation of a Super Saiyan.

A violent shockwave swept across the battlefield.

Apart from the Gundam carrying Natsu, Gildarts, and Makarov, everyone else was blown backward by the overwhelming pressure.

Marshall immediately recognized that Hades was preparing something dangerous.

"Careful! Looks like the old bastard’s about to use his ultimate attack! Everybody, get behind me!"

He maneuvered the Gundam between Hades and the other Fairy Tail members, making it clear that he intended to absorb whatever attack came next.

After all, what did he have to lose?

If the machine was destroyed, he could always build another one.

The Gundam might have taken an enormous amount of effort to design, but Marshall wasn’t about to mourn a pile of metal when his friends’ lives were at stake.

"Hah... hah..."

Hades drew several heavy breaths as his Magic Power continued gathering.

"Prepare yourselves, you miserable little brats!"

He had originally intended to unleash an enormous magical blast and wipe out the entire group in one attack.

Unfortunately, the moment he looked toward his targets, he saw that infuriating blue-and-white machine standing in front of everyone again.

Hades’s eye twitched violently.

That damned armor!

It was practically cheating!

Just looking at the thing irritated him!

Rather than waste another powerful spell on something that could simply ignore it, Hades changed his approach.

He gathered the accumulated power around his body and prepared to launch himself forward like a living cannonball, intending to smash directly through the machine with overwhelming physical force.

But just as he was about to move, something went terribly wrong.

Hades’s body suddenly convulsed.

The enormous Magic Power surrounding him began dissipating uncontrollably, leaking away like air escaping from a punctured balloon.

His expression changed instantly.

’No!’

’My Heart!’

...

From the very beginning of the battle aboard Grimoire Heart’s airship, Lucy and Older Wendy had quietly separated from the main group to search for the organization’s true Demon’s Heart.

Their infiltration had initially gone remarkably smoothly.

With everyone occupied by the fighting outside, nobody noticed them slipping through the airship’s corridors.

They managed to approach the chamber containing the Heart without attracting any attention.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to reach their destination, the entire airship exploded.

Gildarts’s battle with Hades had destroyed the magical formations keeping the vessel airborne, sending the massive structure plummeting toward the sea.

Lucy and Wendy naturally went down with it.

Things became even worse after the crash.

The airship broke apart into numerous sections, scattering wreckage across the ocean and leaving the two of them with absolutely no idea where the Heart had ended up.

They had been so close to completing their mission, only to lose track of the target at the worst possible moment.

Fortunately, help arrived from an unexpected direction.

Juvia suddenly appeared beside them.

She had originally been moving through the water rescuing people who had fallen into the sea during the crash.

While searching for survivors, she happened to discover Lucy and Older Wendy wandering around the wreckage like two thoroughly lost idiots.

After hearing their explanation, Juvia immediately extended her magical perception throughout the surrounding seawater.

Unlike the other two, Juvia had an enormous advantage when operating underwater.

The ocean itself could serve as an extension of her senses, allowing her to search an area far more efficiently than someone relying on ordinary sight.

Within moments, she located the Heart.

It had sunk beneath the surface along with part of the airship.

Juvia wasted no time guiding Lucy and Wendy to its position, and after a short series of coordinated attacks, the three of them successfully destroyed the magical organ.

And that was how Hades had suddenly found himself losing control of his Magic Power.

...

Marshall noticed the change in Hades’s expression almost immediately.

Having already received Ultear’s intelligence about the external Heart, he understood what had happened as soon as he saw the old man’s Magic Power begin collapsing.

"His Heart’s been destroyed!"

The Gundam’s electronic voice rang across the battlefield.

"NOW’S OUR CHANCE! DON’T GIVE HIM TIME TO RECOVER! EVERYBODY, ATTACK!"

The exhausted Fairy Tail members immediately rallied.

After struggling against Hades’s seemingly inexhaustible power for so long, they finally had a chance to finish the battle.

Everyone squeezed out whatever Magic Power remained in their bodies and hurled their strongest available spells toward the Second Master.

"You bastards!"

Hades desperately tried to regain control.

The situation was far worse than anyone on Fairy Tail’s side realized.

The destruction of his external Heart hadn’t merely deprived him of an additional supply of Magic Power.

Without the Heart maintaining his magical system, the power already within his body was beginning to leak away uncontrollably.

At this rate, he would lose the ability to resist within ten minutes.

He had to defeat these brats before that happened, or everything would be over.

Unfortunately for Hades, Marshall had no intention of giving him the opportunity.

"All right! Natsu, I choose you! GO!"

With the enthusiasm of a Pokémon Trainer sending his strongest partner into battle, Marshall swung the Gundam’s arm backward and launched Natsu directly toward Hades.

Natsu cooperated perfectly.

He concentrated his entire remaining strength, and his body became a blazing mass of light as he shot forward like a flaming projectile, breaking directly into Hades’s close-combat range.

The difference between them had changed dramatically.

Natsu was young, physically powerful, and currently overflowing with an extraordinary amount of magically amplified energy.

Hades, meanwhile, was struggling to control a body whose Magic Power was rapidly draining away.

When Natsu reached him, he immediately unleashed a furious barrage of punches.

Hades tried to defend himself, but he was forced backward again and again as the younger Mage hammered away with almost inexhaustible enthusiasm.

Then the rest of Fairy Tail’s attacks arrived.

At this point, everyone seemed to have collectively abandoned any concern about precise targeting.

Whether their spells struck Hades or caught Natsu in the resulting explosions apparently wasn’t a particularly important consideration anymore.

The important thing was that Hades was finally losing.

So they kept attacking.

Enormous bursts of light and deafening explosions erupted above the ocean, sending shockwaves racing across the waves.

The sea itself seemed to be roaring along with the Mages, as though the entire surrounding area had been dragged into their final offensive.

Natsu, who had always been especially good at pressing an advantage, showed absolutely no intention of stopping.

Every technique he could still use was thrown into the assault, each one delivered with enough force to push Hades farther toward defeat.

Finally, Natsu gathered his lightning and flames into one devastating finishing attack.

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—Modified: Crimson Lotus, Exploding Lightning Blade!"

The combined force of his Dragon Slayer Magic crashed into Hades with overwhelming power.

Already weakened by the destruction of his Heart and battered by Fairy Tail’s relentless bombardment, the Second Master could no longer withstand the attack.

In the end, the legendary Precht Gaebolg, who had spent over a century pursuing the ultimate secrets of Magic, was beaten down beneath a storm of wild, merciless punches.

Hades was defeated.

For a brief moment, the surviving Fairy Tail members seemed almost unable to believe it.

"Did... did we win?"

Then someone finally shouted.

"WE WON!"

"FAIRY TAIL! LONG LIVE FAIRY TAIL!"

The cheers spread across the battlefield as everyone celebrated their victory over Grimoire Heart’s terrifying Master.

Gildarts grinned broadly.

"Man, it’s been a while since I fought alongside the others like that. You kids did pretty damn well!"

Makarov was smiling too.

"Hahaha! That’s Fairy Tail for you!"

Marshall, meanwhile, piloted the Gundam toward the fallen Hades, grabbed the battered old man, and carried him back toward the group.

The Second Master was covered in bruises and had been beaten nearly beyond recognition, but he was still alive.

Marshall couldn’t help admiring the old man’s physical condition.

For someone who had already lived for over a hundred years, Precht was astonishingly muscular and absurdly difficult to put down.

Even after taking that many attacks, his body had somehow endured.

The old bastard really was built differently.

"Master, I’ve brought the Second Master back. What should we do with him now?"

Makarov looked at his unconscious predecessor before glancing around at the devastated ocean, the wrecked airship, and the exhausted members of his guild.

He scratched his head.

"Let’s return to Tenrou Island first. Everyone’s tired, and there’s no need to make a decision right this moment. We can discuss what to do with him once we’re back."

"All right!"

Marshall agreed immediately, although his attention soon returned to the scattered remains of Grimoire Heart’s airship.

"Give me a second to record the coordinates, though. This airship is actually pretty valuable."

He examined the wreckage with growing interest.

"If I repair and modify it a little, Fairy Tail could have its own flying headquarters, just like Blue Pegasus has its own airship!"

Makarov glanced toward the Gundam.

"Hm? Marshall, can’t you just restore it now?"

"Not with this machine. Using Time Magic through a remotely controlled Gundam is still too demanding. I’d need to bring my actual body here to do something on that scale."

Makarov frowned.

"Then where is your actual body?"

He folded his arms.

"You brat, we’ve been fighting for ages, and you still haven’t shown your face. Why are you hiding away somewhere and acting so mysterious?"

"Ehehe..."

Marshall laughed awkwardly through the machine’s speaker.

"Well, about that... I’ll tell you guys another time."

He had no intention of explaining the Curse of Ankhseram just yet.

Considering how little progress he’d made toward controlling it, Marshall suspected he would have to interact with other people through this mechanical body for quite some time.

Perhaps he should build a smaller version next.

A Gundam was excellent for making a dramatic entrance and fighting powerful enemies, but carrying around a three-meter-tall robot whenever he wanted to talk to someone would become inconvenient very quickly.

With the battle finally over, Erza and the others began dividing up the remaining work.

The surviving Grimoire Heart members had to be captured, restrained, and counted. Their wounded allies needed attention, and the prisoners already taken on Tenrou Island had to be secured properly.

After everyone finished dealing with the immediate aftermath, Fairy Tail gathered its members and returned to the island.

But when they arrived, they discovered that Tenrou Island had acquired a rather unexpected group of visitors.

"People from the Magic Council?!"

Several Fairy Tail members stared in confusion.

"What are they doing here?"

Then Mest stepped forward.

His expression was completely serious.

"I’m sorry, everyone."

He looked around at the members of Fairy Tail.

"Actually, I’m an operative of the Magic Council."

A strange silence settled over the group.

Mest continued as though he were delivering a perfectly reasonable announcement.

"Fairy Tail has defeated the Dark Guild Grimoire Heart, and the Magic Council will not forget your contribution. However, the remaining criminals must now be handed over to us."

He gestured toward the Council personnel behind him.

"Please cooperate. We’ll take custody of the prisoners and ensure they’re dealt with appropriately."

For a moment, nobody responded.

Marshall stared at Mest.

Erza stared at Mest.

Makarov stared at Mest.

All three of them now wore exactly the same expression.

"..."