Chapter 267
"That worthless grandson of mine! What the hell does he think he’s doing?! How dare he use Fairy Law?!"
Makarov shot to his feet at the judges’ table so violently that his beard practically stood on end.
For a moment, he looked ready to transform into a giant and personally stop the match, but Erza quickly held him back.
"Master, Marshall will be fine."
"What do you mean he’ll be fine? Fairy Law is an indiscriminate Light Magic that selects everyone touched by its radiance! Even if Marshall uses Teleportation Magic, he won’t be able to escape once the light reaches him!"
"Marshall learned Fairy Law too, remember?" Erza replied calmly. "Look at his expression. Marshall never does anything he isn’t confident about."
Makarov turned toward the broadcast screen.
Marshall’s expression really was strange.
He didn’t look tense or worried in the slightest.
If anything, he looked as though he had just seen something incredibly funny and was struggling with everything he had not to burst out laughing.
Which, in fact, was exactly what was happening.
Fairy Law was an extraordinarily powerful Super Magic: wide-area damage, effectively ignoring conventional defenses, and capable of ending a battle in a single strike.
But it also possessed one absurdly useful property.
It didn’t hurt allies.
For Fairy Law to judge someone as a target, the caster had to sincerely regard that person as an enemy.
The spell’s judgment was tied directly to the caster’s own heart.
In that respect, it was almost like a perfected version of an Unforgivable Curse—without genuine hostile intent, the spell simply wouldn’t work properly against its supposed target.
From the perspective of magical design, Fairy Law was practically flawless.
So there was nothing strange about Laxus treating it as his ultimate move.
The problem was... he had chosen the wrong target.
Marshall could even hear Laxus’s thoughts.
[Marshall should be able to dodge this somehow, right? I should hold the output back a little too...]
Marshall almost broke character and laughed on the spot.
He had known since childhood that Laxus was a complete tsundere.
Unfortunately, Laxus wasn’t an older girl, otherwise Marshall might genuinely have considered trying to win him over.
Even so, Laxus had provided him with plenty of entertainment over the years.
One reason Marshall occasionally liked working as a waiter inside the guild was simply because observing people was fun.
Those who said one thing while thinking another were especially entertaining.
And now, in the middle of a public duel in front of tens of thousands of spectators, Laxus had somehow managed to provide him with yet another masterpiece.
Did he seriously not know that using Fairy Law on someone he considered one of his own would cause the ultimate move to whiff completely?
"Marshall! I’ll use this attack to show you the difference between us! Take this!!"
Apparently... he really didn’t know.
There were many ways to learn Magic.
Marshall belonged to the academic type who insisted on tracing every spell back to its underlying principles and understanding exactly why it worked.
Laxus was clearly from the opposite school.
He learned the form, reproduced it successfully, confirmed that it worked, and considered the matter finished.
Marshall almost felt bad for him.
’Should I pretend to get hit later just so Laxus doesn’t embarrass himself?’
If the guy discovered he had burned his ultimate move for absolutely nothing in front of this many people, it would be humiliating.
Marshall considered it for roughly half a second.
’Hell nah.’
It wasn’t his humiliation.
From Laxus’s perspective, Marshall seemed so stunned by Fairy Law that he had forgotten to defend himself.
In reality, Marshall genuinely was spacing out—only because he didn’t care about the attack at all.
Then Fairy Law bloomed across the arena.
Pure white radiance flooded the entire defensive barrier until nothing inside could be seen.
Even the spectators lost sight of both fighters as the arena became a featureless world of light.
After a long moment, the brilliance finally faded.
Laxus remained suspended in the air, breathing heavily after expending an enormous amount of Magic Power.
Marshall stood below him.
Motionless.
Completely unharmed.
For one brief second, Laxus assumed the spell had worked.
Then he actually sensed Marshall’s condition.
His face twisted in horror.
"Y-You... Why are you completely fine?!"
"..."
Marshall closed his eyes.
For a moment, directly facing Fairy Law had actually given him something.
An idea.
A faint flash of inspiration.
Sure enough, personally experiencing someone else’s completed spell was fundamentally different from simply studying the theory himself.
Marshall felt as though he was just about to grasp something important—
"HOW ARE YOU FINE?!"
Laxus’s shout shattered his concentration.
Marshall tried closing his eyes again and reaching for that fleeting sensation.
Gone.
His expression immediately soured.
He opened his eyes and gave Laxus an irritated look.
"Are you an idiot?"
Laxus froze.
"Fairy Law only works against people the caster considers enemies! Obviously I’m unharmed because, deep down, you never considered me your enemy in the first place."
Marshall’s smile became increasingly wicked.
"For someone who complains about me so much, you still think of me as a friend, huh, Laxus~?"
He placed a hand over his chest.
"Should I act touched now?"
Laxus’s eyes went wide.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
His face began turning red.
"How could my Magic fail?! You’re lying to me!"
Marshall checked Laxus’s remaining Magic Power.
Fairy Law had burned through roughly half of it in one shot.
At this point, Laxus’s remaining reserves were actually lower than Marshall’s.
Marshall stretched his neck.
"Well, time to end this farce."
He looked up at Laxus.
"Ready to lose?"
Laxus was clearly panicking now, his face flushed with anger.
"Arrogant little bastard! I don’t believe this! Again!"
Marshall, however, had lost interest in playing around.
That flash of inspiration from Fairy Law was still bothering him.
He wanted to get back to his laboratory while the sensation was still fresh and write down whatever fragments he could remember.
So... time to finish this quickly.
"Script Magic—[Seal]!"
Marshall pointed two fingers forward.
An enormous written character shot toward Laxus.
There was no chance Laxus would willingly touch such a suspicious spell.
He immediately shifted sideways and let it pass.
Then the giant character suddenly transformed behind him.
It became an enormous hand.
"What—?!"
The massive palm reversed direction and slammed downward from the sky, swatting Laxus out of the air and smashing him into the arena floor.
The hand then hardened into rock like an entire mountain, pinning Laxus beneath its palm.
Marshall moved the instant his opponent was restrained.
Teleportation.
He appeared directly beside Laxus.
"Domain Expansion."
The white sphere formed around them.
Marshall didn’t waste even a second explaining anything inside [Setsuna Shikan].
While Laxus was completely unable to move, Marshall immediately activated the Magic Power Zeroing technique he had learned from Aria, Phantom Lord’s Air Element, and forcibly expelled every remaining trace of Magic Power from Laxus’s body.
Then Marshall dismissed the Domain.
The entire process lasted less than ten seconds.
By the time the white sphere vanished, Laxus had been completely drained of Magic Power and had no strength left to resist.
To everyone watching from outside, the sequence looked absurdly simple.
Marshall summoned the same mysterious white sphere he had used yesterday.
A few seconds passed, then the sphere disappeared.
And Laxus simply collapsed onto the ground like all the strength had been removed from his body.
Marshall waved toward the judges’ table, then pointed at the motionless Laxus lying beside him.
The host immediately understood.
His excited voice thundered across the stadium.
"THE MATCH IS OVER!"
"Everyone, give your loudest applause to the champions of the first World’s Number One Magic Tournament—THE MARSHALL TEAM!!!"
The audience exploded.
"That’s it?!"
"Laxus is down! He can’t continue fighting, so it’s an automatic loss!"
"OOOOOOOOOOH!"
"WE HAVE A CHAMPION!!!"
Laxus lay on the ground twitching faintly, barely able to form complete words.
"That... just now... What was that...?"
He struggled to lift his head.
"Damn it... What did you... do to me...?"
Marshall grinned smugly.
"[Setsuna Shikan]."
He lightly poked the completely helpless Laxus with his staff.
"Remember the name, Laxus. You’re the first person ever to lose to this move."
Marshall sighed theatrically.
"How disappointing~ You couldn’t even make me work up a proper sweat."
Then he leaned over the fallen Laxus and delivered the most shameless victory taunt he could think of.
"Remember this Laxus!"
"The absolute strongest!"
"The loneliness born from overwhelming power!"
"And the one who taught you defeat—"
Marshall pointed dramatically at himself.
"IT WAS ME, MARSHALL!"