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The ear-splitting shriek of tearing metal and the deep, percussive boom of the impact reverberated across all of Magnolia.
The floating fortress struck the airship like a meteorite — yet somehow, the airship only tilted. Its hull remained completely intact.
The high-strength materials of the hull could withstand the impact. The people inside were another matter.
Inside the command center, a group of subordinates lay sprawled across the floor, dazed and disoriented. In the violently shaking room, only two people were still on their feet.
Bluenote looked at the cheerful middle-aged man standing across from him, his eyes alight with anticipation. "I've heard of you. 'Crush' Gildarts. Fairy Tail's strongest mage."
"Mm, not anymore," Gildarts yawned, scratching the back of his head with mild disinterest. "I had too much to drink last night and I'm still feeling it. Can we make this quick? I'd like to go home and sleep."
Sleep?
Bluenote's expression darkened. Since he'd become a mage, no one had ever made him feel this insignificant.
He was a battle-hungry man — but unlike Azuma, who simply loved the fight for its own sake, Bluenote was cold and arrogant, dismissing the weak as beneath notice. Bloodthirst was the more accurate word for what drove him.
"Sleep all you want. I'll make sure you never wake up."
Magic exploded outward. The crushing pressure from above dropped like a physical weight, making it impossible to breathe. Several subordinates on the floor, unable to bear it, had their chests cave in. They did not get up.
Gravity Magic. In Bluenote's hands, this magic — which allowed him to manipulate gravity freely — could unleash devastation on a cataclysmic scale.
To his surprise, Gildarts was completely unaffected. He stood as if gravity itself had forgotten about him.
Powerful magic radiated from Gildarts in quiet waves. The ground beneath his feet cracked under the gravitational pressure, but he didn't move so much as an inch. He didn't even look at his opponent.
"Gravity Magic. Interesting."
He raised his right hand almost casually. An invisible force spread outward, and the gravity field shattered like glass.
This was Crush — a powerful destruction magic capable of breaking apart anything it came into contact with, whether matter, energy, or spells.
The gravity suppression had done nothing, and Gildarts' indifference stung in a way that Bluenote, who had never once struggled against an opponent, was entirely unprepared for. He cast aside his disdain, pushed his magic higher, and attacked with real intent to kill.
A black sphere the size of a basketball condensed in his palm, radiating terrifying suction. Equipment in the command center, the bodies on the floor, and even the light around it were all warped and drawn toward the orb.
"A black hole formed by gravitational collapse can devour everything. Die, Gildarts."
"Gravity Ball!"
Gildarts didn't dodge. He walked straight toward it. At the moment of contact, he closed his open hand into a fist and said two words.
"Crush."
A magical force erupted from him that sent a chill straight down Bluenote's spine — raw, indomitable, and absolute. It struck the Gravity Ball and shattered it to pieces.
Bluenote stared. For the first time in his life, he felt something that might have been unease. He stopped holding anything back.
Pouring everything he had into it, he condensed a second Gravity Ball — far larger than the first, large enough to cover half the command center. The immense gravitational pull tore at everything in its vicinity like a hurricane. The adjacent rooms were reduced to rubble in an instant.
Gildarts watched the expanding sphere and his expression finally shifted. He hadn't expected Bluenote to be willing to destroy his own guild's main base without a second thought.
"I promised Noah I'd try not to damage this ship too much. You're making that difficult."
He rolled up his sleeves with a slight sigh. If it had come to this, it was better to end things quickly. As the saying goes — when something's too troublesome, just don't do it the hard way.
Braving the immense pull, he walked toward Bluenote one step at a time. Each step cracked and sank the floor beneath him. The tearing force of gravity didn't slow him at all.
To Bluenote's disbelief, Gildarts passed through the Black Hole completely unharmed.
He looked at his opponent, whose composure had long since broken, and drew back his right fist. Powerful Crush magic gathered around it without fanfare. His magic wasn't just strong — it was precise and complete, which was why he rarely bothered naming his techniques.
But a mage ought to have at least one cool move.
He punched clean through Bluenote's hastily raised defense and drove his fist squarely into his stomach.
"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Empyrean!"
Magic and force surged upward together. Bluenote's eyes rolled back. He coughed up blood, and his body — like a kite with its string cut — was sent flying upward through the roof of the airship and out into the open sky.
Gildarts dusted off his cape and looked up at the gaping hole above him. "Your magic is strong. But I'm still a bit stronger. Sorry about that."
He paused.
"...What was that gravity guy's name again?"
In the heart of the airship.
Deep within the energy room — a forbidden zone even to most crew — a giant, rhythmically beating heart sat suspended in a glass tank.
Standing before it, an old man and a young man watched a magical display screen together. It showed, in vivid detail, the moment Gildarts had sent Bluenote flying with a single punch.
"Your subordinate lost rather badly."
Noah had a glass of juice in one hand, a straw between his lips. He was leaning back in a lounge chair he had evidently brought from the guild at some point, looking for all the world like he was on a pleasant vacation — in the middle of Grimoire Heart's headquarters.
The man sitting across from him was Hades, Guild Master of Grimoire Heart. An imposing figure in armor, white-haired, with an eye patch. He said nothing.
His expression didn't change, even now. This ambitious Guild Master seemed entirely unmoved by the total defeat of Bluenote and the rest of his forces. He only said, with something like genuine reflection in his voice, "It seems Makarov has managed Fairy Tail very well."
Noah nodded. "He has. It meant everything to him — his most respected teacher entrusted the guild to his care."
A flicker of something old crossed Hades' eyes. "Over these forty years, it must have been difficult for him to build the guild to what it is now."
Noah's tone was dry. "You think your own student was struggling, and yet you still marched an army here to cause trouble. That makes you a rather poor teacher."
He looked at the old man directly.
"Wouldn't you agree — Hades? Or should I be calling you Precht? The Second Guild Master of Fairy Tail."