Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
----------
Happy's heart-wrenching cries echoed between the sea and the land.
"Happy?!"
Gildarts, reeking of alcohol, suddenly sobered up. All his drunkenness and laziness were instantly replaced by sharpness, as if a sleeping lion had abruptly awakened.
He was still the same scruffy, middle-aged man in a worn-out robe, but the intensity of his aura was completely different from his drunken appearance moments before.
"What did you do to Natsu?!"
Gildarts' sharp gaze instantly locked onto Dimaria, his voice filled with an undeniable, icy rage.
Being questioned so aggressively by a seemingly unkempt, drunken old man, Dimaria, as one of the Empire's Spriggan 12, the Warrior Queen, her eyes turned cold.
But what made her instantly wary was the heavy, suffocating Magic Power that erupted from this middle-aged man named Gildarts when he heard Happy's cry for help, a power that seemed to make space itself wail.
This drunkard's Magic Power is absolutely not inferior to God Serena's!
Hadn't it been said that Ishgar had no mages stronger than God Serena? Then where did this drunken old man come from?!
Dimaria looked down at the soldiers. "Move! Take him down!"
The elite Imperial soldiers surrounding Gildarts, though shaken by the sudden burst of Gildarts' Magic Power, obeyed the ironclad military order and immediately launched spells at Gildarts from all directions.
Facing these elite soldiers, who were mages, Gildarts didn't even bother to look at them, merely taking one step forward.
Centered on where Gildarts landed, that heavy, materialized Magic Power spread out like an invisible giant wave!
There were no dazzling light effects, only a terrifying, ear-splitting sound that made one's teeth ache.
The ground cracked and crushed without warning, turning into countless tiny stones and dust; the calm seawater was torn apart by an invisible force, exploding into towering water columns; even the air itself showed countless cracks like smashed glass, emitting sharp, explosive sounds.
The soldiers attacking Gildarts, whether their weapons, their armor, or their concentrated magic, instantly shattered and disintegrated like fragile biscuits the moment they came into contact with that magic that seemed to Crush everything.
Before they could even scream, the soldiers were sent flying backward at an extremely fast speed, crashing far away in all directions, completely losing their combat effectiveness.
This scene was clearly witnessed by Brandish, who had followed Dimaria, and her always somewhat lazy and indifferent eyes instantly widened.
"It's that magic!"
When Brandish was studying with August, she had heard August say that the most aggressive magic in this world wasn't just Slayer Magic.
In terms of destructive power, there was one magic that was even above Slayer Magic. That was the super-advanced destruction magic—Crush.
This magic was extremely lethal; if the user wasn't careful, it could shatter the enemy's flesh and blood, making it a truly terrifying magic.
However, seeing that the knocked-back soldiers were still breathing, Brandish understood that Gildarts had held back.
Listening to her friend's explanation, Dimaria's eyes became serious, but she couldn't help but curve her lips into an excited smile.
"Crush, huh... interesting."
Dimaria tossed Happy to Brandish beside her, and her figure suddenly vanished from the ship's bow.
Her speed was so fast that only a blurry afterimage remained. The next moment, she appeared like a ghost in the air directly in front of Gildarts, holding a longsword that glowed with a cold, icy light.
With a shriek that tore through the air, the longsword chopped down heavily.
Facing this attack, Gildarts didn't dodge; he simply raised his fist, imbued with the power of Crush, and punched upward.
However, Dimaria's figure abruptly disappeared.
The next second, Gildarts felt a stinging pain in his chest. Looking down, he saw a wound made by a sharp blade, and blood slowly flowed from the not-too-deep wound.
Dimaria appeared ten paces away from Gildarts, sword on her shoulder, and taunted, "It seems Crush is nothing special. I thought you, old drunkard, were more impressive."
Despite her taunts, Dimaria's hand gripping the sword hilt trembled slightly. She knew very well that if they went head-to-head, she absolutely couldn't withstand two uses of Crush.
But as long as it couldn't hit her, what good was even the most powerful magic?
"I, who can control time, am invincible!"
Dimaria once again used her time magic, Âge Seal, to pause time. In this brief, suspended space, only she could move.
With a triumphant smile on her lips, Dimaria unhurriedly raised her sword and thrust it toward Gildarts' heart. The previous sword strike on Gildarts was merely a tease.
This time, she would take this drunkard's life!
However, when the longsword was less than a millimeter from Gildarts' chest, something unexpected happened. Visible spatial cracks appeared out of thin air around the blade, frantically spreading upward along the sword.
Caught off guard, the Crush magic caused excruciating pain in Dimaria's right wrist. Her tiger's mouth instantly split open, and blood stained the shattered sword hilt.
That momentary contact allowed Dimaria to clearly feel the brutal force of the opponent's magic, a power of absolute destruction that made her feel a great sense of foreboding.
The suspended time resumed its flow.
Dimaria, whose magic was forcibly broken, grunted, dragging her now numb right hand, and quickly backflipped, landing back on the ship's bow. Her expression as she looked at Gildarts again had become extremely grim.
"You drunkard actually trained Crush to the point where you can cover your body with it like clothes!"
"Madman! Aren't you afraid of hurting yourself?"
The chilling cracking sounds around Gildarts gradually subsided, but the heavy Magic Power showed no signs of weakening.
He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over Happy, who was held in Brandish's arms, finally settling on the pale-faced Dimaria.
"You're very impressive, little girl. If you were a few years older, dealing with you wouldn't be so easy."
"But for now, please return my companion to me."
"Otherwise, I will have no choice but to bully the younger."
Dimaria gritted her teeth. Her greatest reliance, Âge Seal, had been broken. Although she still had the trump card of God Soul: Chronos, her body couldn't withstand such terrifying consumption right now.
But fortunately, she wasn't alone.
Dimaria turned to Brandish. "Brandish, quickly team up with me to take down that drunkard, or we'll both fall into his hands."
"Forget it. The fact that you retreated with your body intact already shows that the old drunkard held back against you."
Brandish paused, then continued, "Moreover, his magic is superior to mine, so Command T won't work on him."
With that, to Dimaria's astonished gaze, Brandish released Happy and spoke to Gildarts, "Let's stop here. I will release your companion."