On the other side, Natsu—his speed slowed—failed to dodge in time and took a punch to the face from Racer, sending him flying backward in an exaggerated arc.
"Na... tsu!"
Gray looked at Natsu and shouted worriedly, but his voice was slowed as well, making the whole thing sound ridiculously overdramatic.
Racer didn't care.
He immediately charged at Gray next, causing Gray's eyes to widen in shock.
In Gray's vision, Racer was unbelievably fast—he had sent Natsu flying in the blink of an eye.
Now Racer was rushing straight at him.
Gray instantly tried to form an ice shield to defend himself, but that "instant" was painfully slow.
Before he could even bring his hands together, Racer was already in front of him, his fist about to slam into Gray's face.
Clang! Bzz!
A blade slashed across, forcing Racer to pull back his arm at once.
He had no choice—there was no way he dared to take that sword strike head-on. He wasn't wearing armor.
"You actually broke free of my magic?!"
Seeing Erza standing in front of Gray with a sword in hand, heroic and imposing, Racer's face was full of shock.
He hadn't noticed what Freed had been doing; just now, all he had focused on was taking out Natsu and Gray first.
"Purification!"
Freed had already written the spell on Gray as well, restoring him to normal.
Then he immediately went to pull Natsu back.
"We Fairy Tail wizards have all kinds of abilities. What's so strange about someone being able to break your magic?"
Looking at Racer's utterly stunned expression, Erza charged forward without hesitation, the sword in her hand flashing with a cold gleam.
To Erza, these members of Oración Seis were not exactly familiar figures.
After all, there had been countless slaves in the Tower of Heaven, and it was impossible for her to know every single one of them.
She had her own circle back then.
She might have known they existed and had some vague impression of them, but she definitely didn't share the deep emotions that former companions might have had.
Of course, Erza's feelings toward them were still complicated. They had all once been victims themselves, only to be chosen and molded into perpetrators.
Who knew how much sin had already stained their hands?
Erza knew that none of it could be undone now. The only thing she could do was stop them—make sure they could never commit evil again.
That was the only thing left for her to do.
Bzzzz!!!
Just as Erza reached Racer and slashed at him, both her sword and armor suddenly changed shape.
Her blade twisted, and the armor on her body curled inward all at once, wrapping around her like ropes and binding her tightly in place.
"Ahhhh!!!"
The armor suddenly constricting around her caused Erza intense pain.
But in the very next moment, the feeling of being strangled by her own armor vanished—because Mirajane had already unleashed a storm of magic blasts at Midnight.
Hoteye dived underground and used Earth Tunnel to escape the range of the Demon Bullets.
Angel used Caelum, transformed into a shield, to block in front of herself.
Lucy had already "sent" Gemini back to the Spirit World, so the only spirits Angel could now use were Caelum and Aries.
As for Cobra, the "Poison Dragon," his giant purple snake Cubellios shielded him.
Cubellios took the Demon Bullets head-on with its scales, and after one round of Mirajane's bombardment, it was left covered in wounds.
The one dealing with it most easily was, without question, Midnight.
Mirajane's magic bullets automatically bounced away the moment they reached him, as if an invisible wall were protecting him.
But that defensive barrier only shielded his own body.
"What is this? Vector control? No... he's twisting space."
Marco narrowed his eyes and saw through Midnight's magic at once.
After all, he had used quite a few spatial abilities himself before.
Midnight's power allowed him to distort space.
He twisted the space around himself, preventing attacks from reaching him and causing them instead to slide away along the direction of the distortion.
Strictly speaking, they weren't being "bounced off." It was more that the space there had already been bent in that direction.
If you swung a sword at him, the blade would simply follow that distorted path.
"But he was also able to precisely twist Erza's armor. That means this magic seems to involve more than just space distortion... So it's distortion magic? A kind of twisting ability that carries some spatial properties?"
Marco noticed the key point.
Midnight's magic wasn't simply "distorting space." Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to twist Erza's armor just now.
He could distort specific objects—it wasn't limited to manipulating space alone.
And Midnight didn't look like the kind of guy who would go easy on a woman.
The way they looked at Erza wasn't friendly in the slightest, so there was no way he had shown mercy.
That meant Midnight's distortion magic most likely couldn't directly twist the human body.
Maybe it simply couldn't affect living things directly.
"Interesting. No wonder this guy's their trump card." Marco's eyes lit up.
Midnight's distortion magic was very powerful.
Of course, it would be even more terrifying if he could directly twist a human body—one thought, and an enemy's neck would snap.
"His magic can't distort the human body." Marco voiced his conclusion, giving Erza a reminder.
"Requip!"
Erza instantly changed outfits, drawing the Demon Blade Benizakura and switching into the Clear Heart Clothing.
If armor could bind her, then all she had to do was change into something that wouldn't.
And if Midnight couldn't distort the human body, then Clear Heart Clothing was the perfect choice.
Bzz!
Erza rushed up to Midnight and slashed with the demon blade.
Just as Marco had expected, the strike missed completely.
The blade slid past Midnight and came down into the ground, as if Erza had intended to swing there all along.
Midnight stood there with both hands in his pockets, looking utterly calm and composed.
But the way he looked at Marco had already turned extremely dangerous.
Bzz!
Midnight's figure disappeared from in front of Erza and reappeared not far from Marco.
By folding space, he had essentially achieved something like teleportation.
"Distort!"
Facing Marco, Midnight finally raised both hands.
He went all out at once, trying to twist the Aries Gold Cloth on Marco's body. Erza had already changed out of her armor, but Marco was still wearing his.
To Midnight, that felt like blatant disrespect.
"Hah... nice idea," Marco said, unable to stop himself from mocking him as he felt a faint pressure squeezing against the Aries Gold Cloth.
"But unfortunately, you're showing far too little respect for a Gold Cloth. There's no way something like this is enough to twist it."
Looking at Midnight's shocked expression, Marco continued calmly,
"You're seriously overestimating yourself."
Bzz!
Marco's figure vanished instantly as well, as if to say: 'it's not like you're the only one who can teleport.'
In the next instant, Marco appeared directly behind Midnight, one hand already slashing downward—his arm straight and sharp like a holy sword.