Chapter 233
"Dark Palm!"
Brain thrust out a hand, sending a massive wave of Darkness Magic crashing forward.
"Crush Punch."
Gildarts answered with a single fist and shattered it head-on.
"Dark Rondo!"
"Crush Punch."
"Dark Capriccio!"
"Crush Punch."
"GRAAAAH! GILDARTS! DIE!"
Brain roared as his Magic Power erupted wildly.
Gildarts finally looked a little more serious.
"Serious Crush Palm.. i guess."
"NO—!!!"
And just like that, the battle ended.
𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
Three punches had shattered Brain’s dreams of domination, and one final palm strike crushed the arrogance right out of Zero.
The exchange sounded almost laughably simple when described afterward, but Gildarts’s destructive power was anything but.
The enormous floating section of land Marshall had created for their battlefield had been smashed apart under the force of the fight, with the surrounding terrain pulverized almost beyond recognition.
"Whew!"
Gildarts stretched with a satisfied grin.
"Now that was a good fight. All done. Time to clock out!"
Marshall flew over with little Tia and landed beside Brain’s fallen body.
Then he handed her a sword.
"Here."
He smiled.
"You can take the kill."
Ultear accepted the sword without the slightest hesitation, stepped forward, and drove it straight into Brain’s forehead.
Brain was dead.
"..."
Ultear stared down at him with a complicated expression.
This was the enemy who had once seemed utterly beyond her ability to resist.
And now... he had died so casually by her own hand.
The whole thing felt strangely unreal.
Gildarts leaped over from another floating piece of rubble and frowned.
"Marshall, you seriously just let her kill him?"
He glanced at little Tia.
"And this is... one of your Apostles, right?"
His expression became more serious.
"Was killing him really necessary?"
"He’s not completely dead."
Marshall casually lifted the sword.
"I locked his soul inside this. I’m going to use it for experiments~"
Gildarts stared at him.
"Hold on. That somehow sounds even more evil!"
He rubbed his forehead.
"Marshall, aren’t you going a little too far lately?"
"My research is meant to save someone!"
Marshall looked completely innocent.
"Remember your fellow patient? Simon, the guy who was staying in the room next to yours?"
"He still hasn’t woken up, so I need some ’dead’ souls for further experiments. I’m trying to save a life here."
Marshall spread his hands.
"How can something like that be evil?"
"..."
Gildarts fell silent.
When Marshall explained it that way... it almost sounded reasonable.
Whatever.
Brain had been a bastard anyway.
Dead was dead.
Erza and Laxus, who had been watching the fight from the sidelines, jumped over as well.
Erza looked at Gildarts with genuine admiration.
"Gildarts, I didn’t realize you were this strong."
She considered what she had just witnessed.
"I don’t think Master Makarov could defeat you anymore."
Laxus had also been forced to recognize the gap between himself and Gildarts.
After a moment, he suddenly spoke.
"Old man."
Gildarts looked over.
"Hm?"
"I could recommend you as the next guild master."
Laxus folded his arms.
"We’ll put you in charge, kick the old man off his seat, and have you take over. How does that sound?"
"?"
Gildarts recoiled immediately.
"Spare me the trouble!"
He waved his remaining hand frantically.
"I don’t want to be guild master! If the old man ever tries dumping that job on me, I’m running away."
Gildarts had absolutely no interest in responsibility.
All he wanted was the freedom to live however he pleased.
Managing an entire guild was about as incompatible with his personality as anything could possibly be.
"Natsu looks like he’s finished too."
Gildarts glanced downward.
"Want to head back?"
"Sure."
Marshall cast Reparo, drawing the shattered pieces of floating terrain back together until the landmass became whole again, then gradually lowered it toward the ground.
The moment they returned, Fairy Tail erupted into cheers.
"Complete victory! Oración Seis was nothing!"
"Hahahaha! Fairy Tail is invincible!"
"We won! Party tonight!"
Just then, Natsu and Gajeel came running toward them while arguing at the top of their lungs.
Natsu was holding a snake while Gajeel had Cobra slung over his shoulder.
"The last punch was mine!"
Natsu shouted.
"I won!"
"You caught a snake."
Gajeel sneered.
"I’ve got the actual guy. I won."
"Screw you! If you hadn’t kept getting in my way, I would’ve beaten him ages ago!"
"Heh."
Gajeel shifted Cobra on his shoulder.
"Look who I’m holding. Obviously, all the credit belongs to me."
Cobra’s face had been beaten black and blue.
He weakly raised his head.
"Let... Cubellios go..."
"What Cubey?"
Marshall glanced over.
"He means the snake, right?"
Then he paused.
"Hm?"
Marshall walked closer and tapped the snake’s head—the same snake Natsu had nearly strangled unconscious during the fight.
"This... looks like there are traces of Transformation Magic."
His expression became curious.
"This snake isn’t actually a snake."
Marshall examined it more carefully.
"It might be a person."
"What?!"
Natsu jumped.
"Seriously?!"
He immediately dropped the snake onto the ground.
Even Cobra raised his head in shock and stared at the dangerous pink-haired Mage whose thoughts he still couldn’t hear.
"What did you say?!"
"We’ll take it back and let the Master have a look."
Marshall crouched beside Cubellios.
"It looks like some kind of curse. The old man’s seen enough weird Magic over the years that he should be able to undo it fairly quick."
Marshall could probably break the curse himself after researching it for a day or two.
But letting Makarov handle it would likely be faster.
"I can’t believe we finished this quickly."
Gray turned toward Lyon.
"Hey, Lyon. Want to come back to our guild and join the victory party?"
"Huh?"
Lyon looked around at the enormous number of captured Dark Guild members.
"Probably not. We still have all these criminals to hand over to the Magic Council..."
Mira raised her magic terminal and cheerfully waved it.
"No need~"
Everyone looked toward her.
"Master already arranged everything. The Magic Council’s forces are waiting at our guild right now."
She smiled.
"Marshall can simply teleport everyone back together."
Lyon and Jura exchanged looks.
Neither of them had ever experienced such an absurdly easy large-scale operation before.
They felt as though they had barely done anything.
Fairy Tail had practically carried the entire mission for them.
"Then..."
Jura looked toward Marshall.
"We’ll trouble you again, Sir Marshall."
...
The rest was simple.
Everyone gathered together while Marshall redrew the large-scale teleportation array.
Before leaving, he even repaired Master Bob’s villa while he was there.
Once everything was ready, the entire group teleported directly to the front entrance of Fairy Tail.
Mystogan had already drawn the receiving array there in advance.
Because Magic Council forces had gathered at the guild, the street outside Fairy Tail was already surrounded by an enormous crowd.
Guild members, curious spectators, and reporters from countless newspapers packed the area several layers deep.
Fairy Tail generated major stories with almost absurd regularity.
There was no chance the reporters were going to miss something like this.
Then Magnolia’s residents and tourists noticed the enormous gathering and came over to see what was happening, causing the crowd to grow larger and larger.
So when the Oración Seis subjugation force finally teleported back...
they were greeted by a wave of cheers.
"It’s Oración Seis!"
"Fairy Tail defeated Oración Seis and all their subordinate Dark Guilds!"
"Seriously?! Wasn’t Oración Seis one of the strongest Dark Guilds in the entire country?"
"The Magic Council is literally here to take custody of the prisoners! How could it be fake?"
"Damn! Their leader looks like he’s dead!"
"One of the strongest Dark Guilds was wiped out just like that?! Fairy Tail really is incredible!"
"That’s what the strongest guild should be doing!"
"FAIRY TAIL!"
"FAIRY TAIL!!"
Hearing the crowd roaring their praises, the attention-loving Natsu immediately spread his arms and jumped forward to bask in the cheers.
"That’s right!"
He pointed proudly at himself.
"I’m the one who defeated Oración Seis! Remember my name—Natsu the Fire Dragon!"
"You bastard!"
Gajeel shoved forward.
"That was my victory!"
Makarov emerged from the guild hall with the handful of peaceful members who had stayed behind.
"All right, all right. You kids did well."
He waved toward the Council forces.
"Where are the Magic Council people? Come take custody of the prisoners!"
Makarov had been watching Lucy’s live broadcast throughout the operation, so he knew exactly what had happened.
He was extremely satisfied with the result.
In fact, he had already started thinking about how he was going to brag about this to his old friends the next time he saw them.
"Old man, I’ll leave the rest to you~"
Gildarts laughed.
"I’m going inside for a drink."
He turned toward the guild hall.
Unfortunately, the Magic Power maintaining his left prosthetic leg suddenly faltered.
His foot slipped.
Gildarts went straight down face-first.
Even worse, he instinctively lost control of his Crush Magic as he fell!
Cracks spread across the ground like a gigantic spiderweb.
The earth collapsed across a huge area... taking nearly half the guild hall with it.
"???" ×1086
"Uh... oops."
Gildarts awkwardly pushed himself up.
"Ahahaha... Guess I used a little too much strength earlier and lost control for a second."
He scratched his head.
"Sorry. Sorry."
"GILDARTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS——!!!"
Makarov’s furious roar drowned out even the surrounding crowd.
Marshall covered his face with one hand.
Great.
Now he was going to have to clean up the mess again.
At this point, it honestly felt as though Oración Seis had caused less damage than Gildarts had managed all by himself.