HerculesKabuterimon.
Mega Level, Insectoid, Vaccine type Digimon.
It hovered above the Council building, looking down coldly.
Its eyes reflected the ant-like humans below and the expressions of fear, despair, and disbelief on their faces.
Then, it moved.
The golden pincer, wreathed in violent lightning, slowly rose and aimed at the Council building below—specifically, at the floor where Ace was, along with the mages trying to attack him.
Time seemed to slow at this moment.
Everyone could clearly see the trajectory of the giant pincer as it pressed down—slow, yet carrying an irresistible, terrifying might like a collapsing mountain.
The yellow lightning dancing on the pincer's surface surged, transforming into countless thunder serpents that tore through the air!
"No—!"
"Run—!"
"Deploy the joint shield! All magic power! All of it—!"
At least fifty of the Council's elite mages reacted with their most primal instinct.
They gave up attacking, gave up fleeing, and frantically poured all their magic power into a joint shield!
A composite magic shield over thirty meters in diameter and five layers thick instantly deployed above the Hall of Judgment.
This was the Council guard's ultimate defensive magic—the "Nine-Layered Dome," theoretically capable of withstanding a full-power blow from one of the Ten Wizard Saints.
The giant pincer fell.
"BOOM—!!!!!!!!"
It was a sound that could not be described with words.
A sound of pure, violent, crushing force.
The five-layered joint shield, said to be able to withstand an attack from a Wizard Saint, at the instant the golden pincer touched it—
The first layer, shattered.
The second layer, crumbled.
The third layer, cracked.
The fourth layer, dispersed.
The fifth layer... didn't even last a tenth of a second.
Then, the pincer landed squarely on the main structure of the Council building.
It pressed..... like a human finger crushing a cookie.
With the point of impact as the center, the structures of the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors of the Council building were instantly turned to dust.
The shockwave didn't spread outward but pierced downward—from the eighth floor all the way down to the first, then continued downward, blasting into the foundation!
The entire royal capital of Crocus felt the tremor of this blow.
When the dust and lightning slightly dissipated, what appeared before everyone was a crater over a hundred meters in diameter and bottomlessly deep.
The edge of the crater was as smooth as a mirror, a glassy substance formed by instantaneous high temperature and pressure causing it to melt and then solidify.
The once-magnificent Council building now had a huge chunk "scooped" out of its middle, and the remaining parts teetered precariously, cracks spreading like spiderwebs.
At the bottom of the pit, one could vaguely see groundwater gushing out.
And the fifty-plus mages who had gathered around the Hall of Judgment... were gone.
Not dead.
They were "gone."
Under that single blow from HerculesKabuterimon, they didn't even leave corpses behind.
They were directly blasted into their most basic particles, disappearing along with the building debris into that abyssal crater.
Silence.
Those still alive were all frozen in place, having even forgotten to breathe.
Councilor Yuri collapsed to the ground, his mouth agape but unable to make a sound.
He was only half a meter from Ace, but that last attack had skillfully bypassed Ace's position—HerculesKabuterimon's control was terrifyingly precise.
Ace slowly withdrew his fist.
His punch, in the end, had not landed on Yuri.
It wasn't out of mercy, but because it was no longer necessary.
He looked up at HerculesKabuterimon.
HerculesKabuterimon's six compound eyes turned simultaneously, focusing on Ace.
There was no frenzy in its gaze, only cold, absolute obedience.
It slowly retracted its giant pincer, and the lightning around its body subsided slightly, but it still danced in the gaps of its carapace, emitting a low, intimidating zzzt sound.
"M-monster..."
"W-what in the world is this..."
"What... what have we provoked..."
The murmurs of the survivors were exceptionally clear in the dead silence.
Ultear stood behind a pillar that hadn't completely collapsed, her face pale.
She had anticipated that Ace would resist his arrest, that he would cause a scene at the Council, and had even imagined he might summon one or two powerful summon.
But she had not anticipated this.
To directly summon a Monsters, destroy half the Council building in one blow, and obliterate more than fifty elite mages in a single strike.
This had gone beyond the scope of "resistance."
This was the apocalypse for the entire Magic Council.
She looked at Ace, the young man standing amidst the ruins, his black trench coat unstained by a single speck of dust.
His expression was still calm, as if that world-destroying blow had nothing to do with him.
But Ultear could feel it—Ace had changed.
Compared to three days ago, his aura was deeper, more dangerous.
That calmness was not indifference, but the tranquility of a predator in complete control.
Just then, another burst of violent yellow lightning erupted from HerculesKabuterimon.
"BOOM—!!!"
The thunderclap arrived half a second later, shaking the remaining structures and causing dust to rain down.
The light from the lightning bolt cast a deathly white pallor over the entire royal capital of Crocus.
In its glow, the ruined Council building, the debris in the streets, the fleeing crowds, and the golden thunder beast in the sky were all coated in an apocalyptic hue.
The members of the Magic Council, who had always been high and mighty, holding the power of life and death over the kingdom's magic world, were now huddled in corners, some trembling, some crying, some staring blankly.
They regretted it.
They truly regretted it.
Why did they have to provoke this monster? Why did they have to touch Fairy Tail?
Why... did they listen to the instigation of certain people and come to arrest Ace?
But now, it was all too late.
"ACE—!!!"
An old but powerful roar came from the distance.
A golden light streaked across the sky and landed with a crash on the edge of the ruins.
The old man's hair and beard were standing on end, his small frame erupting with a mountain-like pressure.
He glanced at the hundred-meter-wide abyssal crater, then at HerculesKabuterimon hovering in the sky, and finally, his gaze fell on Ace.
"Stop!" Makarov's voice trembled with rage. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Ace turned to face the Master.
"They just said," Ace pointed at the collapsed Fula, "that Fairy Tail is a cancer, a bunch of thugs, a pack of mad dogs."
He paused, his voice soft, yet it reached everyone's ears.
"So I was thinking, since they've already said it—"
He looked up at the ruined Council building, at the fearful eyes of the survivors.
"Why not just destroy the Magic Council completely? It's a menace anyway."
"You—!" Makarov's eyes instantly turned red.
It wasn't just anger, but heartache, shock, and a kind of fury as if his most sacred principle had been violated.
"Does it matter what they say?!"
The old man's voice suddenly rose, a terrifying pressure of magic power erupting from him.
It wasn't an attack, merely a natural release due to his loss of control, but it already made the surviving mages around them struggle to breathe.
The weaker ones even collapsed directly to the ground.
The wrath of a Wizard Saint, even just the aftershock, was enough to make an ordinary mage's soul tremble.
"The Council is the cornerstone of the continent! It maintains order—!"
"Order?" Ace interrupted him and laughed, a cold laugh. "Did they care about order when they surrounded our guild? Did they care about order when they tried to arrest me without any evidence? When they slandered the guild as a cancer—"
"ENOUGH!"
Another old but dignified voice cut in.
Yajima emerged from the other side of the ruins.
This elder of the Council, Makarov's old friend, had a face full of exhaustion.
He quickly walked to Makarov's side and pressed down firmly on his old friend's shoulder.
"Makky! Calm down!" Yajima hissed. "Look around you!"
Makarov shuddered, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings—the mages groaning in pain under his pressure, the clerks cowering in corners trembling with fear, the guards who had lost all will to fight, their eyes filled with nothing but despair.
Most of these people were just following orders.
Most of these people had no grudge against the guild.
'These people... were innocent.' Makarov's pressure slowly receded.
The old man closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, only heavy exhaustion remained.
He looked at Ace, for a long time.
Then, he took a step forward.
Under everyone's gaze, Makarov walked up to Ace.
The old man looked up at this child he had recruit, at this guild member who had now become so powerful that even he felt a sense of dread.
"Ace," Makarov's voice was very soft, audible only to the two of them.
"I know you're angry. I know the guild has been wronged. I know... the Council went too far this time."
He paused, a flash of pain in his eyes.
"But this is not the way. If this continues, more innocent people will die. And... Fairy Tail cannot truly become a guild that is 'an enemy of the kingdom'."
Ace watched the Master quietly, without speaking.
Makarov reached out a hand, not to attack, not to stop, but to—grasp Ace's wrist.
The hand was old, covered in wrinkles, but it was warm and strong.
"Come back with me first," Makarov said, his voice firm. "Afterward, I will personally come to the Council and have them give us an explanation. An explanation that will satisfy the guild."
He looked into Ace's eyes.
"I guarantee it, on my name as the Guild Master of Fairy Tail."
In the ruins, only the sound of the wind remained.
HerculesKabuterimon hovered in mid-air, its lightning slowly receding, but it still watched over the entire scene with a cold gaze.
Ace looked at Makarov, at the unquestionable determination in the old man's eyes, at the responsibility he had to bear as Guild Master, at that... protective heart for every member of his family.
After a long moment.
Ace slowly relaxed his other hand, which had been held in a loose fist.
HerculesKabuterimon in the sky let out a low roar, its massive body beginning to descend slowly, finally hovering in the air behind Ace.
"Alright," Ace said, his voice returning to its usual calm. "I'll go back with you."
Makarov let out a sigh of relief, the hand gripping Ace's wrist trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the lingering dread of what could have happened.
If Ace had refused, if HerculesKabuterimon had attacked again... he didn't know what would have transpired.
Yajima walked over and nodded at Makarov, his eyes filled with gratitude and gravity.
Then he looked at Ace and bowed deeply.
"Ace, for what happened today... the Council will give you and Fairy Tail, an explanation."
Ace didn't respond, merely looking at Makarov.
"Let's go, Master."
Makarov nodded, released his hand, and turned to walk toward the edge of the ruins.
Ace followed behind him.
HerculesKabuterimon descended slowly, eventually turning into a golden light that returned to Ace's body.
Sakuyamon followed silently, tapping her Vajra Staff on the ground.
A faint purification barrier swept out like a gentle breeze, silently cleansing the lingering aura of death and violent magic power.
The three of them left the ruins of the Council, leaving behind a scene of utter devastation and people who, having survived the calamity, were still immersed in fear.
In the distance, the roars of the Digimon army gradually ceased.
The Cockatrimons, Meramons, and Ogremons began to retreat as if on command, disappearing into the city's shadows.
Ultear stood on a high point in the ruins, watching Ace's departing back with a complex look in her eyes.
"Fairy Tail... Ace..."
She muttered to herself, then turned and also vanished into the shadows of the ruins.
By now, Makarov and Ace had left the Council area.
The old man didn't look back, only spoke in a low voice, "We'll have a meeting when we get back."
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