"Evan Belserion! Don't think that just because you're strong, just because you were selected by the Magic Council of Ishgar as one of the Ten Wizard Saints, you can act all high and mighty and look down on us!"
"Heh, I'll tell you the truth, we, the Phantom Lord, have a foolproof plan just for you! You won't be proud for long! In a bit, you'll be on your knees begging for mercy!"
"I advise you to behave and not lay a hand on me. And don't think just because you caught our squad, that Fairy Tail has already won."
Sol, now dripping with cold sweat, used the last of his courage to yell at Evan.
This same Sol, who had been so proud and confident when he first arrived, was now kneeling tightly before Evan, head bowed like a vassal. His posture was pathetic, yet his words still carried a defiant tone. He even tried to threaten Evan, warning him not to act rashly.
Sol's groveling was a desperate bid for survival, because in the face of a Wizard Saint like Evan, he had zero chance of winning. The moment he encountered Evan, his life was no longer his own, it belonged to Evan.
As for his tough talk, that was all he had left of his dignity as a Phantom Lord mage.
Of course, Sol's rambling wasn't because he was stupid, he was stalling for time.
He knew very well, if he could just keep Evan here, then the other teams might succeed. If they could kidnap Evan's mother and sister and force him to sign an unfair agreement to join Phantom Lord, Evan would become their pawn. And when that day came, he'd reclaim his pride tenfold.
"Besides the squad you led, Phantom Lord sent two other so-called 'elite teams' for this mission, correct?"
"They're stationed around Magnolia, ready to act if your squad fails. Am I wrong?"
Evan, sitting on a stone pillar with his legs crossed, smiled as he casually revealed everything Sol was thinking.
"How… how do you know that?!"
Sol's eyes went wide in panic. He couldn't understand how Evan knew how many teams Phantom Lord had dispatched.
"You don't need to worry about how I know."
"Just know that, like your team, the other squads are already completely wiped out."
Evan didn't bother answering. He simply waved to the sky with one hand.
"Buzz..."
A strange gravitational pulse emanated from Evan and shot toward the heavens. It broke through the clouds, piercing into the void of outer space.
"What is he doing...?"
Sol watched Evan's relaxed, almost carefree movements, completely bewildered.
"BOOM!"
Suddenly, a sharp roar cut through the air.
"Huh?"
Sol blinked and looked up toward the sky, where the sound had come from.
"Something's falling…"
"Wait, is that…?"
Sol bit his lip. A rumor about Evan surfaced in his mind.
After all, as a member of the Ten Wizard Saints of the Ishgar continent, Evan was bound to have some terrifying stories circulating about him.
"BOOOOM!!"
At that moment, the clouds above burst open, massive meteors burning in flames tore through the sky and crashed down toward the earth.
"M-Meteors… It's real! The rumors were true! Evan really does use true Celestial Magic to annihilate enemies! And he summoned those meteors so easily… He's a monster…"
Sol's face went pale as the firelight from the descending meteors lit up his terrified expression. He knew he was done for.
That day, Sol remembered Evan's infamous title,
"Starcrusher."
And he remembered once again… the feeling of being dominated by Evan's meteors.
BOOM!!
With an earth-shattering roar, two meteors crashed down, landing just outside of Magnolia.
Those exact locations? Where the two other elite teams of Phantom Lord had been stationed to capture Irene.
Evan hadn't lied, Phantom Lord's forces were now completely wiped out.
"You can try contacting those two teams now, if you'd like~"
Evan looked down at Sol and spoke gently.
"Gulp..."
Sol swallowed hard and pulled out his remote communication crystal.
Bzzbzzbzz…
The crystal pulsed with light, but no matter what Sol tried, he couldn't reach anyone.
And in that moment, Sol finally understood, aside from the half-team that had snuck into town, everyone else was gone.
"I…"
Sol trembled as he stared at the boy radiating overwhelming power. A terrifying thought struck him,
Even if they had captured Evan's mother and sister, could they really control him?
This boy wasn't human. He was a monster.
And how could humans control a monster?
"Seems like you've figured it out."
"Now, why don't you tell me exactly what your plan was?"
Evan still sat casually on his stone seat, staring down at the despair-filled Sol.
"W-We got intel that you, Mr. Evan, had a weakness here in Magnolia…"
"You have an 80-year-old mother and a younger sister… We planned to kidnap them and use them to threaten you…"
Sol shook as he confessed their entire plan.
"Huh?"
Evan blinked, clearly surprised. He'd assumed Phantom Lord was targeting the Fairy Tail guild, not him personally.
But they chose the one person they absolutely should not have provoked, his mother and sister.
Evan looked at Sol with an expression that grew stranger by the second.
"I don't know when you got the idea that if you couldn't defeat me, you could somehow defeat my mother and sister…"
Evan's voice was cold now. His usual smile had completely vanished.
"Uh…"
Sol was stunned. He honestly hadn't considered the possibility that they couldn't handle Evan's mother or sister either.
"It's a shame, Sol."
"You're too late. If I'd known your goal was Irene, I'd have taken you all out from the beginning."
"You see… I'm merciful. I might just cripple you. But Irene? If you mess with her, you're dead."
A flicker of regret crossed Evan's face. Then he raised a hand toward Sol.
"Also… who gave you the courage to go after my mother and sister?"
As Evan's eyes flashed with black lightning, his expression turned deadly.
"Ugh!"
Sol staggered back.
In that moment, Evan no longer looked like a boy, he looked like a colossal Azure Dragon, hundreds of meters long, roaring down upon him with jaws wide open.
A primal fear surged through Sol, something ancient and instinctive, as if facing the apex predator of the world. His mind cracked under the pressure.
Sol was utterly broken…
"Sever."
As he spoke, Evan instantly severed the magic energy and magical abilities from Sol's body.
"Reflect on your actions in prison."
With that, Evan activated a transportation spell, and Sol was instantly teleported away, sent directly to the magic prison BLACKVOX.
Congratulations to BLACKVOX on its newest inmate. And congratulations to Jose Porla on gaining a new cellmate.
"Buzz~"
But that wasn't the end.
Evan's magic radiated across the land, targeting the other Phantom Lord mages who had been obliterated by his meteors.
In just the span of a single breath, every Phantom Lord mage who had participated in this operation was also teleported to prison.
"If Phantom Lord dares to target people they shouldn't have, then they no longer have a reason to exist."
Evan's expression was icy. Even though Irene and Erza might not have cared much about the attempted assault, Evan was absolutely enraged.
Fairy Tail practically ruled Fiore now, how could anyone still have the nerve to provoke them?
If they dared to go after Evan's mother and sister today, wouldn't they dare go after Kana's father tomorrow?
Well… Evan actually wouldn't mind if some blind idiots did go mess with Kana's father…
But still, this was unacceptable.
More importantly, the reason Evan had made the decision to destroy them wasn't just because of the provocation, but because Phantom Lord had crossed a line.
They weren't behaving like a light guild anymore.
Kidnapping Irene and Erza to threaten him? That was the tactic of a dark guild.
So Evan decided to treat them as such.
That day, across the skies of the Kingdom of Fiore, deafening booms echoed far and wide.
The roars of destruction resounded across every corner of the land.
At a Phantom Lord branch guild…
"Brothers! Once headquarters succeeds, Phantom Lord will rise again as the number one guild in all of Fiore!"
The branch guild master stood atop the bar, raising a mug of beer and shouting drunkenly.
Though the branch hadn't taken full part in the operation against Fairy Tail, they had provided elite support and were fully aware of the plan. And they expected to benefit handsomely.
"Hahaha! Crush Fairy Tail and reclaim our throne!"
The gathered mages roared in agreement, already picturing Fairy Tail's downfall.
"Fwoooosh!!"
Just then, one particularly sharp-eared mage seemed to hear something strange. He tilted his head.
"Hey... did you guys hear that? I think I hear something whistling..."
Putting down his drink, his face red with alcohol, the mage nonetheless looked unusually sober. His gaze was calm as he scanned the room.
"Huh? What are you talking about? I don't hear anything."
The others dismissed him with confused looks.
"Fwoooosh! WHOOOSH!!"
The whistling grew louder, and the sharp-eared mage's expression turned grim.
"Something's coming… Something's about to fall!"
He stood up abruptly and looked toward the ceiling.
"Coming? What's coming?"
The others still thought he was imagining things, maybe he was just too drunk.
"BOOM!"
In the next instant, the roof of the branch guild shattered with a deafening crash.
A massive flaming meteor appeared in front of them.
"A meteor?!"
As they finally recognized the incoming object, panic set in.
But by then, it was already too late.
"BOOOOM!!"
With an earth-shaking roar, the meteor smashed into the guild, completely obliterating it.
The Phantom Lord branch was annihilated on the spot.
"What happened?!"
"An attack?!"
"Was that a meteor?! Did a meteor destroy Phantom Lord's branch?!"
Outside the guild, townspeople looked on in shock, stunned by the destruction.
But the scene wasn't isolated.
Across the Kingdom of Fiore, the same tragedy played out. One by one, Phantom Lord branches were reduced to rubble by blazing meteors streaking across the skies.
In just a few short minutes, every Phantom Lord guild, including headquarters, was completely wiped out.
This was Evan's method of dealing with dark guilds.
In the past, Evan had beaten up Jose countless times, but always with some restraint.
This time, he was truly angry.
And just like that, the century-old feud between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord ended, with Phantom Lord's total destruction.
Meanwhile, in Magnolia, inside the magic shop known as The Crimson Lady…
The remaining Phantom Lord mages, those sneaking in via the side paths, were now all collapsed on the floor.
Three maids, Ian, Eden, and Ilia, had bound every last one of them with ropes and tossed them into the shop to await judgment from their great mistress, Irene.
Yes. These "elites," who thought they could abduct Evan's mother, didn't even get to meet Irene before being completely crushed.
"Damn it! Are these three maids monsters?!"
"I've never even heard of them!"
"There's something seriously wrong with our intel! Nowhere did it say Evan's mother had monsters like this protecting her!"
The defeated Phantom Lord mages shouted in fury.
"Ara~"
"I didn't expect we'd get so many guests at our little magic shop. How interesting~"
A graceful crimson silhouette descended the stairs with a melodious voice. Irene walked down slowly toward the bound intruders.
"Lady Irene!"
Ian, Eden, and Ilia immediately bowed to her with reverence.
"Irene? As in… Irene Belserion? Isn't that Evan's 80-year-old mother?!"
The Phantom Lord mages were stunned upon hearing the name, blurting it out in disbelief.
"Uh…"
The three maids froze, their faces flashing with visible terror, something they hadn't shown even while taking down the intruders.
Now, they looked genuinely frightened, as if something horrifying was about to happen in that tiny room.
"Eighty-year-old… mother?"
"Heh..."
"I'm curious, where exactly did you all hear that from? Why don't you explain it to me nicely?"
The stunning crimson figure, Irene, asked with a faux-sweet smile, while rage burned in her heart.
"Uhh…"
Sensing the suffocating tension in the air, the Phantom Lord mages knew they had said something terribly wrong.
Not a single one dared to speak.
"If you could live in another world... which one would you choose? Heaven or hell? Pick one~"
Irene's voice was gentle. But her words carried a chilling finality.
The fate of these mages was sealed, they no longer had a place in Earth Land.