"Boom!"
In the sky, Irene and Evan were confronting each other, Haki and magic power coiling around them.
That terrifying power seemed to tear apart heaven and earth, break free from the restraints of this world, and surpass the constraints of space.
At Irene and Evan's level, tearing space apart was no longer anything difficult. Even their own magic was advancing toward the extreme of magic, the abyss of the path of magic, the legendary magic "One."
"Evan, Mom won't hold back~"
"Of course, if you beg for mercy now, Mom can also admit defeat~"
A delicate laugh appeared on Irene's peerlessly beautiful face. Her already charming cheeks looked even more bewitching because of the dragon scales grown in her human-beast form. The flame clouds symbolizing the awakening of her ability coiled around Irene like ribbons, setting off a bit of immortal aura. Paired with that alluring figure, Irene at this moment seemed like a combination of a celestial maiden and a witch, both immortal and demonic, making it impossible to grasp her nature.
"If you could really admit defeat from your heart, that would be good..."
"No one knows a mother better than her son. I understand your temper and nature very clearly."
The kanabo in Evan's hand flashed wildly with black lightning, and the aura on his body surged majestically.
In order to offer Irene the greatest respect, Evan decided to use all his strength.
At this moment, Evan was releasing his power without regard for consumption. Even though his Level 14 magic reserves were not enough for his Level 15 Dragon Slayer Magic to burn, even though at this moment, besides magic power, Evan had even begun burning his physical stamina...
"What an unadorable child..."
"Why can't you rely on me as your mother a little more, like before?"
Irene looked at Evan, whose power was violent and rapidly increasing, and a trace of displeasure flashed through her eyes.
As Evan and Erza grew older and became stronger, while Irene felt happy about Evan and Erza's increase in strength, she discovered that the time Evan and Erza relied on her was becoming less and less. Whether it was Evan or Erza, both of them were becoming increasingly independent. This gave Irene a sense of crisis. In Irene's heart, she hoped Evan and Erza would forever rely on her as their mother. That way, their family could live happily together for a lifetime like before...
"Because under the wings of my great mother, the children have now grown up!"
"Starting today, it is time for you to rely on Erza and me..."
"And today, I will prove to you that the child's strength has already surpassed the mother's..."
The corners of Evan's mouth rose. This time, he did not call Irene by her name, but called her Mother.
"Sigh..."
After hearing this, Irene helplessly sighed.
"Actually, Evan, I naturally saw all your efforts over these years..."
"Even if I admitted defeat to the current you, there would be nothing wrong with it..."
"But... who told your mother to be rather willful?"
"A queen will not admit defeat, even to her most outstanding child!"
"Evan, if you want to defeat me, then attack me with all your strength! Let me properly see just how much you have grown over these years?"
Irene first sighed helplessly, then suddenly revealed a fierce face, like a crazy beauty, and shouted toward Evan.
"That is exactly what I intend!"
After hearing Irene's words, the corners of Evan's mouth rose. The kanabo in his hand flashed with black lightning and pointed at Irene Belserion.
"Come..."
Irene used the exact same opening stance as Evan. The long sword in her hand pointed at Evan, and endless black flashes continuously jumped on Irene's precious sword.
"Boom..."
The two confronted each other. Then, with a flash, both of them moved! In less than the blink of an eye, the two who had originally been a hundred meters apart instantly closed in and swung their weapons toward each other.
"Zzzzt..."
The instant those two weapons shining with black lightning touched, the entire world fell silent!
Immediately afterward, the sky began to collapse, and the earth began to roar...
All the clouds across the entire continent began to mourn and split apart! A huge opening tore through them!
Looking down from the sky, it was as though the entire planet of Elentear had split open with a huge wound.
As Irene and Evan, the strongest mother and son, collided, as the Belserion family began its civil war, this sky! Split open!
"Evan..."
Irene's beautiful scarlet long hair danced in the wind. Her violet eyes flashed with crimson lightning, and the lips painted with bright red lipstick curved upward as she screamed the name of the young man before her who had blocked her attack, her most outstanding child, Evan.
"Irene!!"
Evan was likewise mad. At this moment, Evan was like a black hole, constantly absorbing Elentear's magic power for his own use. His short brownish-red hair stood on end, with bolt after bolt of lightning flashing across it, fully displaying a villainous posture.
And the kanabo firmly gripped in Evan's hand had long since been overwhelmed and let out waves of wailing, as though it might shatter at any moment. This made Evan feel slightly displeased.
"Boom!!!"
Just as the sky and earth were divided into scarlet and reddish-brown, and two terrifying magic powers shone in the sky, competing and beginning a fierce contest.
On the ground...
In Magnolia Town, which had been moved to the world of Elentear, inside the Fairy Tail Guild.
"This is too exaggerated..."
A group of Fairy Tail Guild S-Class Mages looked at Neinhart, who stood with his arms crossed before his chest, never making a move from beginning to end, merely summoning a group of dead people and winning the battle. They felt deeply shocked.
"Sorry! Laxus, I failed..."
"Sister Erza, I am still too weak!"
Kagura and Freed, who had been bound by Mard Geer's Thorn Curse summoned by Neinhart and hung in midair using an extremely artistic binding method, looked at Erza and Laxus in the stands and apologized.
"Sister, we did our best..."
Lisanna had a crying expression. She had just completed her Cat Soul Take Over, and before she had time to make a move, she was defeated by Mard Geer summoned by Neinhart!
At this moment, Lisanna's slightly youthful but already well-developed figure, which surpassed others of her age, was tightly bound by green vines formed from thorns, outlined to the extreme before everyone...
"It's fine, Lisanna, your future is limitless..."
"What did I say? Lisanna, Cana, Kagura, and Seilah are all S-Class!"
Gildarts wiped the crimson flowing from his nostrils. He looked at Lisanna and raised the corners of his mouth. Among the candidates participating in this year's S-Class Mage Promotion Trial, the ones he was most optimistic about were Lisanna, Cana, Kagura, and Seilah.
"Uncle, is this S-Class you're talking about the same S-Class we're talking about?"
Laxus stood beside Gildarts, the corner of his eye twitching.
"But this is truly astonishing. He actually defeated everyone else in such a short instant! A candidate of this level would be able to shine brilliantly no matter which year he was placed in..."
Erza looked at Neinhart with some shock in her eyes. She had not expected that this... "hound" taken in by her mother Irene would actually possess such terrifying strength. In terms of magic power alone, he was even above her.
"Haha, Princess Erza, please do not be surprised. Although before Queen Irene and Lord Evan, I am as weak as a dog~ dealing with these fellows is more than enough~"
Neinhart lightly stroked his long hair. First, he respectfully bowed to Erza, then looked at the S-Class Mages inside the Fairy Tail Guild with a smile and spoke with incomparable arrogance.
Yes, it seemed that to Neinhart, being a dog of the Belserion family was not anything bad.
"This guy..."
After hearing this, the corners of the eyes of the S-Class Mages of the Fairy Tail Guild twitched slightly.
Listening to Neinhart's arrogant words, combined with Neinhart's own positioning as the hound of the Belserion family, they could not understand whether Neinhart was an arrogant and conceited person or an incomparably humble person...
Was he someone who loved face, or was he simply thick-skinned...
Or perhaps both? Purely depending on who he was facing?
"Alright, these fellows have all been resolved by me with incomparable ease~"
"Then who should I fight next? You, you, or you? Or perhaps all of you can come together~"
"I have never cared whether you have more people or fewer people, because no matter how many people you can call, you absolutely cannot call more people than I can summon~"
Just as the S-Class Mages of Fairy Tail did not know how to respond after hearing Neinhart's words, Neinhart once again stroked his purple long hair. Then he stretched out his finger and randomly pointed at the S-Class Mages of the Fairy Tail Guild.
"This bastard..."
The S-Class Mages of the Fairy Tail Guild who were chosen by Neinhart's finger all became furious. They felt that Neinhart was somewhat too arrogant. One must know that in Fairy Tail, there was a huge watershed between S-Class and those below S-Class.
To put it bluntly, all current active S-Class Mages of the Fairy Tail Guild possessed formidable strength capable of defeating the bottom-ranked Ten Wizard Saints...
"Let me test you!"
Golden lightning wrapped around Laxus's body. To be honest, he had indeed been angered by Neinhart's words.
"You?! Your strength is indeed not bad, but it is not enough!"
Neinhart froze slightly when he looked at Laxus. Laxus's strength was indeed not bad. Even in the Alvarez Empire, he would be an existence at the level of a Spriggan 12 deputy, but there was still a huge gap between him and powerhouses at their Spriggan level.
"I'll do it! How about letting me, a Ten Wizard Saint, test you?!"
As Ur spoke, biting cold air erupted from her body. At this moment, Ur had without doubt stepped into the domain of the human limit and was advancing toward the non-human level. According to Evan's system's evaluation, that was roughly between Level Eight and Level Nine.
"You and that blond boy have roughly the same strength. With your strength, you indeed cannot be called small fry! But you are still not enough to make me take action..."
After glancing at Ur, Neinhart lost interest. Ur and Laxus's strength was indeed very powerful, but they were still far away from the level of Spriggan 12 like them.
"Huh? What the hell did you say?"
At the instant Neinhart's words fell, Ur and Laxus were like two lit powder kegs and exploded instantly! The two glared at Neinhart and roared.
"Mm?!"
Seeing the violent Ur and Laxus, Neinhart frowned and subconsciously took half a step back.
He did not know whether it was his illusion, but as Ur and Laxus entered a violent state, their magic power directly rose by quite a bit, as though they had improved half a level on the spot! Before Neinhart came to the Fairy Tail Guild, he had never seen such a situation, so he inexplicably felt a little guilty...
Since when was magic power so easy to improve?
Neinhart frowned tightly. However, he did not know that on-the-spot leveling was normal in Fairy Tail. If pushed too far, they would directly cheat on the spot, instantly break through, and even cross seven or eight levels to cut people down was not impossible. If one dared to hurt their companions, even gods would be killed for you to see...
"Haha, I'll do it!"
"Let me see just how much ability this newcomer of ours has."
Just as Neinhart took half a step back, Gildarts, who had been sitting at the bar counter drinking, suddenly stood up. Wearing a tattered cloak, he walked toward Neinhart.
"This guy is not right!"
Neinhart looked at Gildarts, who was emitting waves of pressure, and his pupils shrank. He could clearly sense the vast magic power within Gildarts. Without a doubt, with Gildarts's strength, even if placed in the Alvarez Empire, he would be enough to rank among the Spriggan 12, and he would even be among the top-ranked powerhouses in the Spriggan 12.
"Guild Master Makarov, how about leaving this guy's assessment to me?"
After walking before Neinhart, Gildarts still did not forget to ask Makarov behind him for instructions.
"Of course..."
Makarov scratched his cheek. Honestly speaking, even if Neinhart were directly granted Fairy Tail's S-Class Mage certification right now, it would not be impossible. However, Neinhart's expression just now was truly so irritating that it made people displeased. If Neinhart was not beaten up, it would be difficult to dispel the hatred in his heart. Thus, Makarov decided to use public power for private revenge and agreed to let Gildarts personally assess Neinhart.
"Thank you! Guild Master." After receiving Makarov's approval, Gildarts softly thanked him before turning around and looking at Neinhart. At this moment, Neinhart seemed to have seen something unbelievable and stood frozen in place, silent. This made Gildarts raise his brows. Then Gildarts seemed to think of something, so he looked at the stunned Neinhart and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Afraid? If you're afraid, you can choose to admit defeat. Losing to me is not shameful."
"You fellow..."
At this moment, Neinhart did indeed feel somewhat shocked. His eyes looking at Gildarts carried a bit of a strange color.
Neinhart had never expected that there would actually be someone in this world even more arrogant and more conceited than him...
"Admit defeat? Why should I admit defeat? Let me show you my strength..."
Neinhart snorted coldly. His eyes carried deep dissatisfaction toward Gildarts as he controlled the Tartaros powerhouses he had summoned, causing them to swarm toward Gildarts.
"Haha..."
"Honestly speaking, if all of you were still alive, you would indeed count as strong people with decent strength!"
"But unfortunately, the dead you cannot arouse any interest! Disappear!"
Gildarts looked at the Tartaros demons attacking him and raised his right hand.
"Crush!"
"Boom!!"
As Gildarts's words fell, endless white light swallowed all the demons. Terrifying crushing power continuously struck this group of demons. In just the blink of an eye...
All the demons summoned by Neinhart, along with half of the Fairy Tail Guild in front of Gildarts, disappeared into the air...
"What? He eliminated the demons created by His Majesty Zeref with only one strike? What kind of joke is this..."
Neinhart crouched on the ground while holding his head. When the shaking disappeared and he stood up, looking at the surrounding ruins, his eyelids jumped. He could feel the connection between him and the demons he summoned being severed. This made Neinhart feel a burst of fear and trembling.
Although the demons of Tartaros were not especially powerful and were failures that His Majesty Zeref did not value, at least Mard Geer supported their reputation. Now that they had all been eliminated by Gildarts with one strike, Neinhart briefly lost his senses.
"What is there to be shocked about? Those guys did not have the strength they had when they were alive, right?"
Compared to the dazed Neinhart, Gildarts was much calmer. He looked at the panicked Neinhart and calmly asked.
"Uncle Gildarts is still that exaggerated..."
At the same time, the S-Class Mages inside the guild looked at the half of the guild that had vanished without a trace and felt their hearts pound. Gildarts's basic attack had the power of super magic. Any casual attack from him was at the level of a trump-card ultimate move from a Ten Wizard Saint-level powerhouse.
"Uncle, you can even instantly kill that Mard Geer? What kind of monster are you?"
Mirajane touched her plump conscience and felt a burst of numbness. Among everyone present, no one understood better than her just how strong Mard Geer was! One must know that even now, she had not fully controlled Mard Geer's terrifying power!!
"The guild disappeared again..."
Makarov looked at the vanished guild before him and felt a burst of heartache. He had already begun regretting agreeing to let Gildarts serve as examiner.
"It's fine, Guild Master. Everything is with me!"
Just as Makarov's heart ached, kind Ultear gently crouched down and patted Makarov's shoulder.
"Wuwuwu..."
"Ultear, among so many people, you are still the best!"
Makarov looked at Ultear beside him and shed tears of happiness. Starting today, Fairy Tail's two great consciences, Evan and August, had already been removed from Makarov's heart. From now on, Fairy Tail had only one conscience, and that was Ultear, who controlled the Arc of Time.
On the other side, Gildarts was confronting Neinhart.
"Why? You fellow, you fellow, do you really not have anything you fear?"
Neinhart's eyes looking at Gildarts were filled with incomprehension. He had perceived all of Gildarts's memories, yet he could not detect anyone Gildarts feared who could be summoned by him.
"Of course I have things I fear! To be honest, I fear Irene and Selene..."
After hearing Neinhart's words, Gildarts frowned. He made a thoughtful expression, pondered for a while, then looked at Neinhart and spoke.
"This..."
After hearing Gildarts's words, Neinhart's body trembled. The things Gildarts feared, he also feared.
And the most important problem was that Neinhart's magic could not manifest people who were still alive in this world.
In other words, he could not summon a single one of the people Gildarts feared!
"Bastard! You forced me to do this!"
"Originally, I did not intend to summon her."
Neinhart looked at Gildarts with a trace of resentment in his eyes, his expression helpless.
"Oh? Interesting. I'd like to see who you plan to summon to deal with me!"
"I have roughly guessed your magic. You should only be able to summon dead people, right?"
"If you could summon the living, I think you would have summoned Selene and Irene long ago!"
"If you could summon them, no matter how many of me came, I probably couldn't win~"
Gildarts had long since figured out Neinhart's magic. At this moment, standing before Neinhart, he directly exposed this matter.
"Just as you said, my magic can only summon the dead!"
"Because often, only dead people are the ones who leave the deepest impression on people!"
As Neinhart spoke, a beautiful young married woman with long brown hair and a white dress suddenly appeared before him. The young married woman's face was pale, seeming a little sickly and delicate, but her eyes were incomparably gentle.
"Gildarts, have you finally come to see me?"
That incomparably beautiful young married woman removed the lady's sun hat from her head, revealing a face eight parts similar to Cana's. She looked at the furious Gildarts before her with incomparably gentle eyes carrying hidden ripples of water and softly asked.
"Cornelia..."
Gildarts looked at the beautiful woman before him. The instant his pupils suddenly shrank, veins bulged on his forehead, and endless fury rose in his heart.
The fact that the woman could be summoned by Neinhart's magic, which could only summon the dead, had already made Gildarts understand everything!
Although Gildarts had gone to search for the woman before him several times, and the final answer he received each time was that the woman had died of illness, he had never believed it. After all, without personally seeing it, there was always a trace of hope in his heart!
But now that hope was gone. And he could not forgive someone playing with this woman's soul, because this was his wife!
Just as Gildarts was furious, Cana, who had originally been knocked unconscious, stood up from the ground. She looked at the woman before her and subconsciously shouted, "Mother?!"