"Ah—!!!" Zero let out a furious roar the moment he was engulfed by the sandstorm!
The dark magic on his body surged wildly, attempting to resist the cutting and crushing force of the gold sand!
Inside the sandstorm, golden light and black light collided fiercely, producing a harsh grinding sound!
"Fire Dragons Roar!!!" Natsu seized the opportunity, took a deep breath, and his chest swelled like a bellows!
A scorching crimson flame breath, like a breached dam of lava, roared with the intent to incinerate everything, slamming into the center of the golden sandstorm!
The high temperature instantly melted some of the gold sand into a glazed state, but even more terrifying was the molten storm formed by the mixture of flames and gold sand!
"Ice Make: Northern Prison!" Gray slammed his hands onto the ground!
An ice-blue magic circle bloomed intensely beneath the sandstorm!
Extreme cold instantly erupted!
Countless massive, blade-sharp ice crystal prisms burst from the earth, like the bars of a cage, piercing into the sandstorm from all directions, trapping Zero firmly within!
Ice prisms, gold sand, and flames intertwined, forming a hellish ice-fire purgatory!
"iron dragon's Roar!!!" Gajeel roared, his steel scales rubbing against each other!
He took a deep breath, his chest expanding, and a metallic storm composed of countless high-speed spinning sharp iron fragments, screaming with the intent to tear everything apart, slammed into the center of the ice-fire purgatory!
The iron fragments scraped against the ice prisms and gold sand, creating dazzling sparks and further enhancing the destructive power within!
"Yukino! Lucy!" Erza shouted amidst the sword storm!
"Understood! Canis Minor, Nicola! Full power!" Yukino's clear, cold voice rang out! Nicola, the Canis Minor Celestial Spirit beneath her, tilted its head and let out an earth-shattering roar, a brilliant silver energy beam coalescing in its mouth!
"Open! Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!" Lucy unhesitatingly threw out her golden key!
A massive magic circle opened, and the temperamental mermaid Aquarius appeared, holding a giant urn!
"Give me power, Aquarius! Star River Impact!"
Although Aquarius looked displeased, seeing the current situation, she snorted coldly and swung her giant urn!
The surging water flow did not directly attack but transformed into pure water elemental magic, injecting into the silver beam of light coalescing in Nicola's mouth!
"Star River Impact!" Lucy and Yukino cried out in unison!
Buzz—!!!
A brilliant golden pillar of light, over three meters in diameter, fused with Celestial Spirit power and water elemental magic, like a river of stars tearing through the cosmos, carrying the will to purify and penetrate, struck later but arrived first, slamming fiercely into the hellish center where ice, fire, gold, iron, and darkness intertwined!
Rumble rumble rumble—!!!!!!!!!!
An indescribably terrifying explosion occurred!
In the center of the ice-fire purgatory, it was as if a star had been detonated!
Blinding light instantly swallowed everything!
Blazing white, icy blue, fiery red, golden yellow, pitch black... various wild energies, like runaway wild horses, fiercely tore, collided, and annihilated each other!
The shockwave, like a world-ending tsunami, spread wildly in all directions from the epicenter of the explosion in a spherical shape!
Boom—!!!
The entire Nirvana core control room, with its dome, walls, and floor constructed of hard basalt, was instantly torn apart, pulverized, and vaporized like paper!
Rocks, runes, residual magic... everything tangible and intangible, in the face of this cataclysmic energy storm, was fragile and vulnerable!
The light of the explosion lasted for several seconds!
When the light finally slowly dissipated, and smoke rose like a mushroom cloud... in the center of the battlefield, a massive, bottomless pit, over three hundred meters in diameter, appeared!
The pit walls were smooth as a mirror, presenting a glazed texture, reflecting the light of the sky.
At the edge of the pit, the members of Fairy Tail lay on the ground, disheveled and gasping for breath.
Erza's Heavens Wheel Armor was covered in cracks; she knelt on one knee, supporting herself with her sword.
Ikaruga's mouth was bleeding, her long katana stuck in the ground, her face pale.
Cana was severely drained of magic, her cards dull and lifeless.
Max's gold sand lion head had long since dissipated; he knelt on one knee, his emerald eyes fixed on the center of the pit.
Natsu and Gray leaned on each other, their bodies charred, their auras weak.
Gajeel's steel scales were shattered in many places; he was breathing heavily.
Yukino and Lucy slumped on Nicola's back; Nicola also appeared exhausted.
Everyone's gaze was focused on the center of the pit.
There, a charred, broken, almost inhuman figure lay like a rag doll at the glazed bottom of the pit.
It was Zero!
The dark magic on his body had almost completely dissipated; his crimson eyes were dim and lifeless, covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
His body was like charred charcoal, his limbs twisted and deformed, and a massive penetrating wound in his chest had almost torn him in half!
His last faint breath was like a candle in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.
"Is... is it over?" Natsu gasped, his voice hoarse.
"Finally... we got rid of this monster..." Gray wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
Everyone's taut nerves finally relaxed a little.
However—
"Ho... ho ho ho... Hahahahahahaha—!!!"
At the bottom of the pit, Zero, who should have been dead, suddenly burst into a wild and distorted laugh!
The laughter was filled with endless malice and... a morbid sense of relief!
"Foolish... foolish Fairies!!!" Zero's voice was like a broken gong, yet it carried an excited, last-gasp energy, "Do you think... you can kill me like this?!"
His one remaining eye stared fixedly at the edge of the pit, at the black and white crystal ball—the core of Nirvana—floating at the edge of the explosion, miraculously not completely destroyed despite being covered in cracks and dimming in light.
"I truly... am going to die..." Zero's voice carried a hysterical pleasure, "But... before I die... I will give you a... 'gift' of eternity!!!"
"No! What is he going to do to the Nirvana crystal ball?!" Erza's face drastically changed!
"Stop him!" Max roared, struggling to stand!
But it was too late!
Zero used his last ounce of strength, suddenly raising his charred arm and pointing at the black and white crystal ball!
"By my body! By my soul! By my eternal resentment and curse as a sacrifice!!!"
"Sacrifice!!!"
Boom—!!!
Zero's broken body, along with his last trace of soul, instantly ignited!
It transformed into an extremely viscous, pure black pillar of light, like the abyss itself, and fiercely injected into the suspended black and white crystal ball!
Buzz—!!!
The black and white crystal ball vibrated violently!
The spiderweb-like cracks on its surface were instantly filled and repaired by the pure black energy!
Inside the sphere, the originally intertwined and balanced black and white energies were instantly dyed a pure, all-consuming pitch black, like clear water into which ink had been poured!
A dark magic even more terrifying, purer, more chaotic, and filled with endless distortion and malice than Zero in his prime, erupted with a roar from the completely blackened crystal ball, like an awakened world-destroying beast!
The entire world was instantly dyed a despairing pitch black!
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