"As expected, without reaching the Seventh Sense, forcing these abilities out still isn't strong enough. It's not that easy to instantly kill monsters like this."
Looking at the effect of Sekishiki Meikai Ha, Marco sighed.
If he had to compare, his physical attacks might actually be stronger than these special techniques driven purely by Cosmo right now.
After all, he still could not bring out the full power of those techniques, while the improvements to his body were very real.
Marco could absolutely beat Aldoron to death with his fists if he wanted to.
But, it would be annoying and time-consuming.
If he went all out with a punch, punching straight through Aldoron's body would not be difficult.
The problem was that Aldoron was simply too large. A hole punched through him might not mean much at all.
Being big had its benefits.
If Aldoron were normal-sized, Marco could have smashed him into powder with one punch.
"Again. Sekishiki Meikai Ha!"
Marco did not give up. He struck Aldoron's soul again!
This time, he finally shook the massive soul loose.
The already unstable soul was tangled tightly in Accumulated Corpse Qi, and when Marco poured in even more power, it began to leave Aldoron's body.
With that, the recovery of Aldoron's huge body came to a complete stop.
"What... what is happening?"
Elefseria and Mercphobia watched from the side, both of them was deeply shocked.
Neither of their abilities touched the soul, so they could not understand what Marco was doing.
All they saw was Marco releasing strange waves of energy into Aldoron again and again, and then Aldoron's regeneration stopped.
Even the life force in his body began to vanish.
"Is he... dead?"
Elefseria hesitated, finding it hard to believe that such a troublesome dragon had been dealt with this simply.
"Looks like it."
Mercphobia was equally stunned.
The two former enemies were standing side by side now, reduced to spectators and gradually growing used to being shocked together.
Marco was just too outrageous!
Everything he did made him look almost omnipotent.
Boom!
Under the continued assault of Sekishiki Meikai Ha, Aldoron's soul was finally blasted completely out of his body.
In a way, Aldoron's death was almost pathetic.
His body could not move at all, so he could only let Marco work on him from the side until his soul was forcefully ripped out.
And once the soul left the body, it was completely at the mercy of Sekishiki Meikai Ha.
Aldoron had no power left to resist. He had become helpless prey on the chopping block!
"Who are you?! I have no grudge with you..."
Now that his soul had been forced out, Aldoron could finally "speak."
This was the first time he had made any sound since the fight began.
Of course, only Marco could hear him, and only Marco could see his soul.
"I'm human. Are you sure there's no grudge between us?"
Marco smiled.
That one sentence left Aldoron with nothing to say.
This dragon had eaten so many humans and treated people as food for years.
Now he wanted to talk about having no grudge? Now he wanted peace?
Too late!
A true evil dragon like Aldoron was the kind of monster anyone would be justified in putting down.
There was no reason to spare him.
Boom!
Marco struck with Sekishiki Meikai Ha again.
This time, against a soul fully exposed outside the body, the technique finally showed its terrifying control and destructive power over the soul.
The Accumulated Corpse Qi crushed Aldoron's soul as easily as stepping on an ant.
Exactly the same way Aldoron had once treated humans.
Aldoron's soul disappeared completely.
His abandoned body froze in place, slowly becoming part of the land itself.
The magic inside the Wood Dragon God's body began to spread out quickly, returning to nature.
From now on, this place would truly become an area rich in magic, and plenty of magical beasts would probably gather here.
Crack.
Marco waved a hand, and a crystal core flew out from Aldoron's body, landing in his palm.
This was the power of the Wood Dragon God in its most basic form: a Wood Dragon Lacrima.
As long as it was implanted into a human body, that person would gain Wood Dragon Slayer Magic.
In truth, dragons were full of treasures.
Every part of them could be used for something. Because of that, Aldoron's body could not simply be left here and ignored.
Elefseria had mentioned before that there was a Dragon Eater guild on Guiltina.
They gained power by eating dragon flesh and blood—through true "dragon eating."
Marco glanced at the mission panel.
Sure enough, Aldoron's name had been checked off as well.
Three of the Five Dragon Gods had now been handled. Only the Gold Dragon God and the Moon Dragon God remained!
"Is... is it over?"
Seeing Marco stop attacking, Elefseria, Mercphobia, and Gray came over to him.
Elefseria asked the question, though even if he had not understood the process, he could tell Aldoron was truly dead.
"Yeah. I destroyed his soul."
Marco smiled and nodded, not bothering to hide it.
"His soul... So it really was his soul..."
Elefseria sighed.
Although he could not manipulate souls himself, his mind was sharp enough that he had already guessed the possibility earlier.
"To do it that easily..."
Mercphobia still found it unbelievable.
He had actually seen dragons who specialized in attacking the soul before, but the power of those Spirit Dragons was nowhere near Marco's.
Otherwise, that Spirit Dragon would never have been killed in the first place.
There had once been many dragons on the northern continent of Guiltina.
Most of them had been killed over time, and the Dragon Eater guild had naturally played a major role in that.
The Spirit Dragon had been one of the dragons they killed, which showed that his power could not even begin to compare with Marco's.
"Of course. I can come and go from the Underworld whenever I want. When it comes to handling souls, there probably isn't anyone in this world better at it than me."
Marco smiled, quite confident about that.
After all, he had already made a trip to the Underworld.
Those souls had been completely at his mercy, and there had not been any ruler or manager there.
In this field, there truly might not be anyone in the world more skilled than him!
"Then... what about the Black Dragon?"
Gray immediately thought of Acnologia.
After all, Fairy Tail's main focus lately had been that world-ending black dragon. As long as Acnologia was still alive, none of them could truly relax.
Even if they were technically the ones hunting him now, peace of mind would only come once he was dead for good.
"It might not work the same way," Marco said, shaking his head. "The Black Dragon is much stronger, and he won't just stand there like Aldoron and let me hit him."
He could not guarantee that Sekishiki Meikai Ha would work on Acnologia as cleanly as it had worked on Aldoron.
Acnologia was obviously a level above the Wood Dragon God, and he was much faster and more flexible.
More importantly, Acnologia would almost certainly learn from his last mistake.
After what happened before, there was no way he would stupidly clash head-on with Marco's attack again.
That lesson had probably been carved straight into his bones.
"So that's how it is..."
Gray nodded, only half-understanding it.
Either way, there was not much for him to worry about. At his current level, he could not help much with Acnologia anyway.
After answering Gray, Marco turned to Elefseria and Mercphobia.
"What should we do with Aldoron's body? Any ideas?"
Elefseria looked toward Mercphobia, clearly hoping the Water Dragon God might have an answer, but Mercphobia only stared at the enormous corpse with a troubled expression.
"Aldoron's body is simply too large," Mercphobia said. "I don't know how to handle something this size. Most normal methods won't work on him, and there is still a huge amount of magic left inside that body."
His first thought was to leave it where it was.
If some magical beast managed to feed on Aldoron's remains, then that would simply be its fortune.
Many magical beasts with traces of dragon blood might have come from similar situations.
Pure-blooded dragons were already extremely rare, and there were no visible dragons left on Ishgar, yet many magical beasts still carried dragon traits in their bloodlines.
Some even formed entire dragon-like species.
It was hard to say exactly how those beasts had gained dragon blood.
Perhaps some of them had once fed on a fallen dragon during the age when dragons were dying across the land, then passed those traits down through their descendants.
That was entirely possible.
For example, if a pack of wolves lived near the place where Aldoron died, they would not even need to be magical wolves.
Ordinary wolves that fed on Aldoron's body day after day would inevitably be changed by it.
They would gain some of Aldoron's traits and slowly become something like Wood Dragon Wolves.
Natural selection would then remove the wolves that failed to adapt, and the new species would survive and spread.