"Be careful, Wendy."
Carla landed beside her and transformed at the same time.
The small pink-and-white Exceed disappeared within a flash of magic, replaced by a girl with pale pink-and-white hair dressed in a neat academy-style outfit, looking every bit like an aloof younger schoolgirl.
"Carla's fighting too?" Happy asked worriedly after she tossed him somewhere safe.
"Of course. I'm stronger than you now."
Carla confidently swept her hair back.
Happy immediately sank into another small bout of depression.
"Ooh~ What a cute little lady!"
Kain Hikaru's face twisted into that same disgusting leer again.
If Ankh or Erza had been here to see him looking at Wendy like that, they probably would have torn him apart on the spot.
She was still a child, for crying out loud.
Wendy and Carla stood back-to-back, and after so many years living and fighting together, they didn't need to exchange another word before understanding exactly what the other intended.
"Enchantment—Divine Knight!"
Pink light wrapped around both of them as power surged continuously from deep within their bodies, raising Wendy and Carla's physical and magical abilities to an entirely different level.
This was an advanced Enchantment spell.
Although it still fell short of High Enchantment, the enhancement it provided already far surpassed anything Wendy had been capable of in the past and was powerful enough to overturn the balance of an entire fight.
Divine Knight had a simple purpose: raise every major attribute of the target at once.
"Let's go, Carla!"
Both girls exploded into motion.
They split apart like twin gusts of wind and charged their respective opponents.
Gapri looked dismissively at Carla as she flew toward him.
"You're just a ca—ugh!"
Before he could finish, Carla's speed suddenly jumped.
Her body became a streak of white light, and she closed the distance in an instant before driving one foot squarely into his face.
"White Moon Flying Kick!"
Gapri was blasted off his iron sphere.
He twisted awkwardly through the air, but recovered quickly enough that the sphere reshaped itself into a floating board and swept underneath him before he could hit the ground.
Landing on it, Gapri wiped the dirt from his face and glared at Carla before activating his magic.
His figure vanished.
He accelerated beyond what the naked eye could follow, attacks flashing through the air around Carla from every direction, yet not a single strike touched her.
She remained in the middle of that storm without so much as a strand of hair being clipped.
This was another result of Carla's relentless training.
She had always possessed a limited ability to glimpse the future, but in the past it had activated unpredictably and beyond her conscious control.
After months of focused practice, she could now deliberately trigger those glimpses during combat.
Each prediction lasted only an instant, but an instant was more than enough to turn her into an exceptional evasion specialist.
With something almost resembling precognition guiding her movements, Carla didn't waste time trying to remain inside Gapri's attack range.
She calmly rose higher into the air, and when Gapri realized he still couldn't land a hit, irritation immediately got the better of him and he chased after her.
Meanwhile, Wendy had already entered a brutal close-range battle with Kain.
Kain's earlier lecherous fantasies had disappeared the moment he realized Wendy had no intention of going easy on him.
After loudly declaring that she had "broken his heart," he had somehow convinced himself that revenge was now justified, leaving Wendy completely baffled by his logic.
Dragon Force surged through her body.
Pink hair fluttered behind her while white feather-like growths appeared around her wrists and ankles, and Wendy drove a punch straight into Kain's stomach.
The blow produced almost no reaction.
Kain grinned and pulled out one of his curse dolls.
"This is the strongest curse-killing magic there is! Once I stick my own hair into the doll and change its material into steel, a little thing like you could never hurt this body!"
Then, as though that wasn't creepy enough, he suddenly became bashful.
"Though if you give me some of your hair as an apology, I might consider taking you back."
Wendy's expression remained perfectly calm.
She was no longer the little girl who could be thrown off balance by a few ridiculous comments from an enemy.
She didn't answer him at all.
Instead, Wendy studied Kain's smug posture, drew back her fist, and struck again.
This time, the Sky Dragon Lacrima hanging around her neck erupted with the Magic Power of the heavens.
The instant that power entered Wendy's arm, her small fist sank straight into Kain's supposedly impenetrable body.
His expression changed.
Pain spread across his face almost comically slowly before his enormous body was suddenly launched backward like a cannon shell.
"Sky Dragon King's—Impact Fist!"
A violent tornado erupted through the point of impact, drilling through Kain's reinforced defense with tremendous piercing force and pushing Wendy's ability to break through hardened targets to an entirely new level.
Wendy herself had changed just as dramatically.
With Sky Dragon King Mode fully activated, her appearance was no longer that of the small, cute girl everyone was used to seeing.
Her body became taller and more mature, long pale legs carrying explosive power while a beautiful mantle of feather-like energy wrapped around her form.
The white wings at her back became fuller and more complete, and her pink slit pupils gleamed with a distinctly predatory light.
The little girl had suddenly turned into a striking, long-legged young woman.
The only thing that stubbornly refused to evolve along with the rest of her body was her chest.
Some tragedies, apparently, not even Dragon King power could overcome.
After blasting Kain away, Wendy took several breaths and gradually stabilized the power surging through her.
She was still young, and her progress remained about one stage behind Natsu and Gajeel.
Natsu and the others could already enter their Dragon King forms through their own strength whenever they wanted.
Wendy still needed the Sky Dragon Lacrima to help her activate hers, and she could only maintain it for a limited period.
Even so, she was already somewhat ahead of where Natsu and the others had been six months ago.
And considering her age, that level of strength was absurd.
At this rate, Wendy might genuinely have greater natural talent than even Laxus or Jellal had possessed at the same age.
"Damn it…"
A murderous pressure spread from beneath the fallen trees where Kain had crashed.
"So this… is what heartbreak feels like…"
He shoved the debris off himself and rose, his expression twisting into something far uglier.
Then his already enormous body began swelling even further.
Muscles bulged unnaturally, skin distorted, and within moments Kain had transformed into a gigantic demon whose body towered like a small giant.
He threw back his head and roared before charging straight at Wendy.
Wendy, now far lighter and faster in Sky Dragon King Mode, slipped easily past his descending fist.
At the same time, one thought passed quietly through her mind.
'Almost there…'
Two streaks of light suddenly flashed behind Kain's enormous head.
Carla came tearing through the air with Gapri pursuing directly behind her at maximum speed.
At the last possible moment, Carla dove toward Kain's oversized head, folded her body sharply, and then shot upward.
Gapri's eyes widened.
He had been so focused on accelerating that he had no time left to stop.
BANG—!
What happened when a motorcycle traveling at full speed slammed into a car?
Simple.
Neither side had a good day.
Gapri hit Kain headfirst and was sent spinning toward the ground with blood spraying from his forehead, while Kain himself staggered heavily from the impact.
Wendy's eyes immediately lit up.
A powerful magic circle spread beneath her feet.
"Enchantment—Devil Slayer Attribute!"
She drew upon the magical quality she had previously sensed from Gray and layered it onto her own power.
Then Wendy brought both hands into position.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—"
Wind screamed around her.
"Shatterlight: Sky Drill!"
Under the combined amplification of Sky Dragon King Mode and the newly enchanted Devil Slayer attribute, Wendy's Dragon Slayer Secret Art erupted with astonishing force.
A spiraling column of wind blasted forward like a drill capable of boring through the heavens themselves and struck Kain squarely in the face.
His gigantic demonic body was lifted several meters completely off the ground before being hurled backward with spectacular force.
BOOM—!
Kain crashed down in a daze and struggled to push himself upright.
Nearby, Gapri slowly regained consciousness as well.
Still bleeding from the head, he angrily prepared to activate his own demonification and settle the score with the two girls who had just humiliated him.
Then both men looked up.
Wendy and Carla were standing together.
Smiling.
And in Carla's hands was a curse doll.
A strand of hair had already been inserted into it.
Kain's hair.
Gapri, who had just finished transforming into his demonic form, stared blankly at the doll and clearly had no idea what was happening.
Kain understood immediately.
His face collapsed into pure despair.
Then, completely against his own will, the giant demon slowly raised one fist.
Gapri looked up.
Kain looked down at him with the expression of a man watching his own execution.
The fist came crashing down.
At that moment, both of them had exactly the same thought.
'This is bullshit.'