The several magical exchanges in midair might have looked slow, but they actually happened in an incredibly short span of time.
From Lucy's perspective, all she could see was the holy sword and ice prism annihilating each other, followed by the crimson line and dark purple line colliding violently twice, then both crashing down to the ground.
The only things she could clearly make out were the village billowing thick smoke and the utterly devastated forest!
A gentle breeze swept through the trees, dispersing the heavy dust clouds over the two areas and revealing Chase and Silver standing amid the ruins.
Chase raised his hand and crushed the ice clinging to his chest. He wiped the ice shavings over his head, pulling his disheveled hair back into a clean, neat slick-back style.
At this moment, he felt like an adventurer trapped in a frozen wasteland. The blood flowing through his veins had slowed to a sluggish crawl, and he constantly needed to surge his magic power to dispel the discomfort.
This was a property attack that came with Ice Devil Slayer Magic. In the original story, when Silver fought Gray, there was no such effect on display. Whether that meant Silver had been holding back or Gray was naturally resistant to ice magic, Chase couldn't say.
Chase's eyes narrowed as he looked gravely at Silver in the distance.
Regardless of the reason, after personally brawling with this guy, he had fully experienced just how terrifying Ice Devil Slayer Magic was. It was on an entirely different level from Gray's Ice-Make!
Silver wore much the same expression, gazing at the crimson dragon scales covering Chase's body with a newfound caution deep in his pupils.
Though his powerful combat instincts had allowed him to summon an ice shield in time when the Thunder Force came down, blocking part of the damage, his body had still taken unavoidable injuries. His sleeveless undershirt was in tatters.
Tiny arcs of lightning crackled across the surface of his exposed muscles. This was the main reason Silver's brow was tightly furrowed: these currents, having seeped into his very bones, were steadily sapping his magic power!
"Superb physical conditioning, rich combat experience, and your Card Magic and God Slayer Magic are linked flawlessly." Silver clenched his fist, praising without stinginess. "To possess such combat prowess at your age is truly astonishing!"
In his original plan, after releasing his full magic power, the battle should have ended quickly—not dragged into a stalemate like this!
"Save the empty talk, Ice Block Old Man."
Having mostly dispelled the chill within him, Chase extended his arm and beckoned to Silver with a grin. "You wanted the cards I'm holding, didn't you? Hurry up, or I'll warm them up for you."
"Empty talk? How troublesome. I rarely praise people from the heart like this."
Silver scratched his head in mild exasperation, then complained, "And 'Ice Block Old Man'—that's way too ugly!"
The moment he finished speaking, his expression abruptly shifted. Galer forces erupted around him as his magic power rapidly surged, growing so dense it was practically tangible!
He spread his arms and opened his mouth slightly. The terrifying magic power, as if drawn by some force, poured wildly into his oral cavity, swelling his already muscular chest.
"Wait... that stance?!" Lucy's eyes went wide. She silently took two steps back.
The familiar posture reminded her instinctively of Natsu when he used Dragon Slayer Magic.
After witnessing the utterly exaggerated battle just now, even someone as dense as Lucy could clearly tell: something big was coming!
The ground tremor caused by the violent outpour of magic power transmitted directly to Chase's feet. The sense of danger crashed over him.
Recognizing the attack, Chase showed no fear. After glaring at the several ice statues in another direction, he took a heavy step forward, crushing the ground beneath him, and manifested the full-bodied phantom of Slifer the Sky Dragon behind him.
WHIRRR! WHIRRR! WHIRRR!
The two ever-expanding magic powers clashed equally, creating furious air currents that collided across the distance.
The moment those air currents reached their limit and violently exploded, Silver—who had seized the initiative—opened his mouth wide and completed his magic first.
"Ahahaha! Sorry, young man, but I'm faster!"
"Ice Devil's — Surge!! "
A massive, terrifying purple frozen energy erupted like a volcanic explosion, tearing open the ground along its entire path, shattering space itself, and barreling straight toward Chase, who had been a split second too slow!
The frozen breath arrived in an instant, completely filling Chase's field of vision and sealing off every possible escape route!
In this situation, even if Chase wanted to forcibly interrupt his magic release, he was already too late!
"CHASE!!"
At Lucy's terrified, worried scream, the purple frozen energy howled past, engulfing the area where Chase stood along with the forest behind him.
BOOM!!
After the massive explosion, a small mushroom cloud slowly rose from the far end of the vast forest, filled with endless fire and smoke.
Looking up, the scorched, ice-covered trench was completely empty—had Chase been blasted to smithereens?!
No!
Though badly shaken, Lucy suddenly spotted a not-yet-disappeared Trap Card magic circle where Chase had originally been standing!
And in that same instant, raging crimson magic power erupted from another direction.
There, the ice statues of Dark Magician Girl and Curse of Dragon came into view. But Guardian of the Fortress, who should have been with them, was nowhere to be seen.
The card capable of swapping positions was the Trap Card: Swap!
"So the one who got blasted to smithereens... was actually Guardian of the Fortress?"
Having pieced together what happened, Lucy let out a huge sigh of relief. At the same time, she silently observed three seconds of mourning for Guardian of the Fortress.
Couldn't be more than that. Any longer, and Guardian of the Fortress—back in card space—would jump out and spank her.
Back on the battlefield, Chase—having successfully bought time with Swap—did not hesitate for a moment. He manipulated the phantom of Slifer the Sky Dragon behind him, slowly opening its lower jaw, which had been gathering furious energy.
"God Slayer Secret Art: Superconducting Wave!! "
Offense and defense had now swapped. It was Silver's turn—his face twisted with stunned disbelief—to face an attack capable of crushing everything.
BOOM!!
The divine-infused breath crashed straight down. The energy contained within it exploded, blasting the village—what little remained of its outline—into oblivion!
The terrifying, heart-stopping commotion continued for nearly a minute before gradually subsiding.
When the thick smoke had finally cleared, within the scorched, cratered wasteland, Silver stood with his arms crossed in a blocking stance, breathing heavily.
Compared to his spirited state at the start, he now seemed depleted. His battered, wounded body was covered in horrifying cracks.
"I have to admit... to be able to unleash a breath attack of that magnitude..."
Silver struggled to lift his eyelids and looked at Chase, who was walking slowly toward him.
"Stop pretending. That's not even your real body." Chase saw right through his disguise.
Hearing this, the heavily injured "Silver" first showed a surprised expression, then smiled calmly as his entire form dissolved into ice shards.
As the frost scattered, the real Silver emerged from another direction.
Though he didn't look as battered as the decoy, the wound on his forehead and the blood streaming from his arms still made it clear that his condition had been significantly weakened by the God Slayer Secret Art.
"Since you knew it was fake, why did you still fire off that magic?" Silver asked as he adjusted his breathing rhythm.
Chase thought for a moment, then grinned matter-of-factly. "When you're in a fight, you can't lose momentum."
At the moment he had unleashed the Superconducting Wave, he had already suspected something was off, but he hadn't been a hundred percent sure.
Hesitating and overthinking wasn't his style. His thought at the time had been: Screw it. Just blast him and figure it out later.
That confidence came from his buff-type Spell Cards. And besides, he still hadn't used Nutrient Z.
Even if he couldn't seriously wound Silver, he could still wear him down like this. Either way, it was a win-win!
A flicker of something unusual appeared in Silver's deep-set eyes. He seemed not to have expected such a straightforward answer.
After standing there in stunned silence for a few seconds, he let out a laugh: "Ahahaha! To be honest, I really like that personality!"
"A man like you, stuck in a legal guild with all its restrictions... what a waste."
"How about teaming up with me to destroy demons?"
Through this battle, Silver had fully acknowledged Chase's potential and strength. He had a vague intuition that if anyone could actually defeat the strongest demon, E.N.D., it might just be this guy. And so, he took the initiative to extend an invitation to form a team.
"I'm not interested in that sort of thing."
Chase naturally understood Silver's intent. He spread his hands. "But when it comes to enemies of my guild and my comrades, even without teaming up with you, I'll destroy them all the same."
This ambiguous answer made Silver rest his chin on one hand, deep in thought. "Your guild, huh..."
Seeing that he couldn't recruit Chase for now, he let out a soft sigh and turned his head to look at Lucy standing in the distance.
"Hey! Little girl over there, you'd better back off even farther. Even I have a hard time controlling this next spell, you know~"
His casual tone had not a trace of tension. But Chase caught the incredibly violent magic fluctuation radiating from Silver!
If he wasn't mistaken, this was probably the final blow.
That said... how arrogant. Saying that right in front of me.
Chase's gaze flickerd. Outwardly, he remained motionless, standing in place without budging. But secretly, he had already begun the incantation for the Trap Card—Mirror Force—ready to show the young Silver just how insidious a card player could be.
At the same time, Kuriboh—capable of blocking fatal attacks—was in position. If even Mirror Force, stacked with multiple buffs, couldn't withstand it, then he would have to consider yo-yoing out of there with Lucy!
"Even I'll get caught in the blast from this distance?! Just how powerful is this magic?!"
Thoroughly frightened by the warning, Lucy scrambled to her feet and fled as fast as she could, scurrying to a safer area far away and ducking down.
Seeing this, Silver withdrew his gaze, crossed both arms above his head, and released his entire magical power—holding nothing back.
"Take this, Chase! Absolute Zero · Silver World— "
"Ice-Make: Rose Garden! "
Just as the tension reached its peak, a sudden barrage of frozen roses interrupted Silver's casting, forcing him to retreat to avoid them.
Long hair streaming behind her, a voluptuous figure leaped down from the Magic Boat in the sky and landed beside Chase.
***
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