Chapter 255
"What just happened?!"
"What happened to her?!"
"WHOOOA! That armor is so damn cool! COOL!!!"
"Come on! I wanted to see a beautiful girl fighting, and now I can’t even see her face!"
The audience was completely stunned by Erza’s sudden transformation.
Her Crimson Armor had only been used a handful of times before, and this was the first time she had ever brought it out properly in front of the public.
Forget ordinary spectators—even the Mages in attendance couldn’t stop staring in amazement.
The fully enclosed armor covering Erza’s entire body simply looked far too advanced for the era, possessing a sleek, almost futuristic beauty that immediately captured everyone’s attention.
People craned their necks so far that some looked ready to climb into the arena just to inspect it from up close.
Once Erza was fully armored, she charged straight into Mira, and the resulting battle made Natsu and Gray’s earlier clash look tame by comparison.
Fire and ice had certainly created spectacular visuals, but their destructive power wasn’t even in the same category as two S-Class Mages cutting loose against each other.
The rocky wasteland shattered wherever the two collided.
Large sections of the ground cracked apart, collapsed, or were simply blasted away beneath the pressure of their Magic.
If a protective barrier hadn’t separated the battlefield from the spectators, people in the stands genuinely suspected Erza and Mira might demolish the entire stadium by accident.
Before long, hardly anyone bothered trying to follow the fight with their own eyes.
Instead, the spectators turned toward the giant projection screens overhead, because Erza and Mira were moving so quickly that ordinary vision could barely keep up.
Only the magical cameras’ slow-motion replays allowed the audience to clearly see what was happening.
Even slowed down, the exchange was almost overwhelming to watch.
But that only made the crowd more excited.
The sheer intensity of the battle completely ignited the stadium, and waves of cheers rose higher with every collision.
Erza and Mira fought for more than half an hour.
By then, both had consumed a considerable amount of stamina and Magic Power.
After another brutal head-on collision, the magical shockwave exploded outward and carved an enormous crater into the battlefield.
The two finally separated, standing on opposite sides of the devastated terrain and facing each other from a distance.
Mira breathed slightly harder than before.
There was a bloody cut along her arm, but she casually ran a hand over the wound and watched as it rapidly closed until her skin looked almost untouched.
"Ever since I completely mastered the demonic power inside me, I’ve been able to use my own life force to repair ordinary injuries," Mira said. "If we keep fighting like this, I can probably go all day. At that rate, we’ll never finish."
Erza’s armor had suffered visible damage as well, with cracks and broken sections scattered across its surface.
However, the upgraded Crimson Armor contained a built-in repair array.
As long as Erza continued feeding Magic Power into it, the damaged sections slowly restored themselves.
Erza possessed greater overall Magic Power than Mira, but she lacked the kind of enormous, decisive finishing move that could consume a huge portion of her reserves in exchange for ending the battle in one strike.
Their physical abilities were also remarkably close: Mira could reinforce herself through her demonic transformation, while Erza relied on the Crimson Armor.
If they continued trading blows like this, they genuinely might still be fighting by nightfall.
Mira raised a hand.
A violent torrent of Magic Power gathered above her palm, rapidly condensing into an oppressive jet-black sphere.
Dark lightning flickered continuously across its surface as the energy became denser and denser.
"This is my Condensed Demonic Energy Bomb, filled with everything I have left."
Mira stared directly at Erza.
"If you can take this attack, I’ll admit defeat."
Erza nodded, slowly sheathed her sword, and settled into the stance for a draw slash.
"Come."
Mira gave an irritated snort. "So you really did let Marshall win you over, Erza. Everything I said to you before was wasted, wasn’t it?"
"No." Erza’s answer remained calm. "I admit that what you said was right. But... Marshall is different."
"Hmph. Keep spoiling him, then. You’ll regret it someday!"
"I trust Marshall."
Mira’s eyebrow twitched.
"Damn it! Then take this, you idiot!"
The black sphere in her hand suddenly expanded, swelling into an enormous mass of energy more than ten meters across before hurtling toward Erza.
Even through the Crimson Armor, Erza could feel the danger radiating from it.
If an attack like that struck someone directly, it could genuinely kill them.
Yet Erza didn’t move.
During her battle against Ikaruga, Erza had learned more than simply how to launch Flying Slashes.
She had also begun touching upon something deeper—the fundamental principle behind cutting itself.
Everything possessed a weakness.
A flaw.
A precise "point" where its structure could be broken.
Erza had come to believe that if she could identify that point and place her blade there perfectly, then almost anything could be severed cleanly.
And now, staring at Mira’s enormous sphere of condensed demonic energy, Erza could almost see it.
The weak point.
Mira had expected Erza to launch some enormous attack of her own and meet the energy sphere head-on.
Instead, Erza remained perfectly still as the attack rushed closer.
Mira’s eyes widened.
’What is she doing?’
She wasn’t dodging or attacking.
Was she seriously just standing there?
Mira’s expression changed.
"Hey! What are you—"
Before she could finish, Erza moved.
Her hand flashed to the hilt.
Draw.
Slash!
The enormous black sphere split cleanly down the middle as though it were nothing more than an ordinary watermelon being cut by a kitchen knife.
Then both halves exploded.
A vast white shockwave erupted across the entire battlefield.
The blast swept over the rocky wasteland in an instant, engulfing even the other team members who had retreated toward the edges of the arena.
For several seconds, the entire battlefield disappeared beneath blinding white light.
The spectators collectively sucked in a breath.
Just how much did those two hate each other?!
They had actually used attacks like that in a tournament match!
Had they destroyed the entire arena?!
Only when the light finally faded and the projection screens recovered did everyone see the result.
Erza and Mira were still standing.
But they were standing on a solitary rocky platform rising awkwardly from the center of the battlefield.
Almost everything else was gone.
Outside the small area beneath their feet, the rocky surface had been reduced to broken rubble, and an entire layer of the battlefield itself appeared to have been shaved away by the explosion.
Mira folded her arms across her chest.
"You really are something, Erza."
Then she smiled.
"I surrender."
Erza dismissed her helmet, revealing her face again, and returned the smile.
"Do we really need to decide which one of us is superior? Sometimes, instead of fighting until one person wins and the other loses, we can simply choose a path where both sides benefit. Don’t you think?"
"Heh."
Mira’s smile became knowing.
"The problem is that some people’s idea of a ’win-win’ means he wins twice."
She gave Erza a pointed look.
"If you don’t keep him under control and just let him keep getting his way, then with how greedy a certain someone is, eventually we’ll be the ones who lose everything."
Erza answered without hesitation.
"I trust him."
By the time their little "post-battle review" ended, the spectators outside had completely erupted.
The host raised his voice and announced the result over the roaring stadium.
"Fourth match! Mirajane has surrendered—the winner is the Queen Team!"
"And with that, the Final Four of the first World’s Number One Magic Tournament have officially been decided! Give them your loudest applause!"
"Congratulations to the Thunder God Team, the Fire Dragon Team, the Marshall Team, and the Queen Team!"
"That concludes today’s matches! Come back tomorrow and look forward to even more spectacular battles!"
"OOOOOOOOHHHH!!!"
"That was amazing!"
"This is insane! These are Fairy Tail Mages?! When I grow up, I’m joining Fairy Tail too!"
Meanwhile, in a corner nobody was paying much attention to, eight miserable figures lay scattered around the ruined edges of the battlefield like salted fish left out to dry.
They were the unfortunate teammates who had been caught in the blast from Mira’s final attack.
Because their captains’ fight had become increasingly destructive, the other members of both teams had repeatedly moved their spectator line farther and farther back.
By the end, they had practically retreated all the way to the edges of their respective camps.
It still hadn’t been far enough.
The massive shockwave had flattened all eight of them, after which they had been half-buried under the storm of sand, dust, and shattered stone.
In other words, they had spent the entire match doing absolutely nothing except watching the fight and eating dirt.
Older Wendy was still visibly shaken.
"The Mages in your world are honestly terrifying. That kind of destructive power..." She looked around at the demolished battlefield.
"And you people carry that much Magic Power inside your bodies?"
Elfman remained flat on the ground and showed absolutely no intention of moving.
"I’ve realized something."
He stared blankly at the sky.
"Being on my sister’s team might’ve been a mistake. I’m still supposed to be a candidate for the S-Class trial, right? At least I managed to show something yesterday..."
Elfman sighed.
"Hopefully the Master still gives me a chance."
Little Wendy looked equally traumatized.
"S-Class battles are scary..."
After witnessing what Mira and Erza had just done, the thought of entering an S-Class promotion trial suddenly seemed much less appealing.
"Maybe I should just give up on the S-Class exam this year..."
Older Wendy weakly nodded beside her.
"I-I agree..."