The ground broke first.
Centered on Kabe, cracks spread like a mad spiderweb, racing outward in every direction and covering hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.
Then the earth itself began to tremble.
Tiny grains of sand and bits of stone slowly rose into the air, slipping free of gravity.
Even the sky was affected.
The surrounding clouds started drawing together above the two of them.
Seeing a brat produce such a terrifying phenomenon just by gathering "magic power," Jose was shocked, but what followed even more was raging jealousy.
He envied how Makarov always seemed blessed by fortune, always drawing one talented young mage after another into Fairy Tail.
He envied that Kabe, at such a young age, already possessed strength comparable to his own, with talent that far surpassed him.
And in the end, all of that turned into burning fury, the fury that made him even more determined to wipe Fairy Tail out completely.
"So you are all show and no substance, brat!"
He attacked in anger.
Dark magic gathered in his hands and condensed into a spiraling shockwave that blasted toward Kabe, who was still charging up.
Kabe's gaze sharpened.
Facing the incoming attack, he simply raised a hand and slapped it aside.
Jose's full powered attack was actually batted away with a single palm strike, sent veering around Kabe before exploding behind him.
Boom!
The violent tremor that followed made it clear enough just how strong Jose really was.
But precisely because of that, the fear in Jose's heart deepened all the more.
"N no, impossible."
"He knocked away my Dark Spiral with a single slap?"
He stumbled backward in horror, unwilling to believe what he had just seen.
Kabe's eyes were ice cold.
Looking at Jose, who was already half scared out of his mind, he spread his legs, lowered his body, and brought both hands together at his waist.
"Jose, I will count to three."
"If you kneel and surrender, I can spare your life."
Hearing him actually begin counting, Jose felt only humiliation burning through his chest.
This was just a junior from Makarov's guild, yet he dared tell him to kneel.
"What kind of joke is this?"
"I am Jose, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, master of Fiore's strongest guild!"
His face twisted viciously.
In desperation, he began burning away part of his own life force.
With both hands pushed forward, he carved a gigantic magic circle nearly five meters wide into the air in front of him.
"Die, brat!"
"Death Storm!"
Purple black magic surged through the circle and poured out in a wild flood.
The moment he used that spell, Jose visibly aged several years.
Silver strands appeared throughout his dark red hair.
This was Jose's strongest magic.
He was certain this attack would kill the arrogant little monster in front of him.
At the same time, Kabe finished his count.
He lifted his eyes to Jose, who still insisted on making a last desperate stand, and a cruel smile tugged at his lips.
"I lied."
"Even if you had surrendered, I was never going to let you go."
The next instant, blue light exploded in his hands as he thrust both palms forward.
A beam far narrower than Death Storm, but infinitely more terrifying, burst from his hands.
Under Jose's horrified stare, it crushed his magic, blew straight through the magic circle, and swallowed him whole.
"Aaaahhh!"
The miserable scream lasted less than a second before cutting off completely.
Kabe lowered his hands and looked at the vast trench stretching into the distance, at the place where Jose had vanished without leaving even the faintest trace behind.
Slowly, the blazing aura around his body faded away.
"Go to hell, you miserable piece of darkness."
After spitting to the side, Kabe once again extended his senses through the area.
Only after confirming that Jose's ki had truly disappeared, and that there would not be any ridiculous future nonsense like a mechanical Jose coming back for revenge, did he finally prepare to return.
He had only turned halfway when he paused and turned back again.
Looking at the forest, now carved open into what was basically a new river channel by the Kamehameha, he scratched his head a little belatedly and muttered to himself,
"Wait… I do not have to pay for this forest, right?"
The thought of those old Council geezers making sour faces at him made him shiver.
He quickly glanced around.
Once he was sure nobody had seen anything, he immediately took off at full speed.
...
By the time he returned to Phantom Lord's branch, the battle was basically over.
Only a small handful of people were still desperately resisting.
He entered through the hole Jose had been blasted out of earlier, landed on the platform, cleared his throat, and spoke.
"Stop struggling, you Phantom Lord trash."
"The war is over."
Everyone turned at the sound of his voice.
The moment Fairy Tail saw that it was Kabe returning, excitement exploded through their ranks.
"It is Kabe!"
"He beat Jose!"
"We won!"
As for Phantom Lord, even though they could not believe that their mighty master had fallen so quickly, seeing Kabe return alone, with Jose nowhere to be seen, finally crushed the last of their resistance.
One after another, they lowered their weapons, hung their heads, and knelt to surrender.
Looking at the excited, exhilarated faces of his comrades, Kabe smiled and raised his right hand high, forming Fairy Tail's familiar sign with his thumb and index finger as he declared:
"This war is ours."
"It belongs to every one of us."
"This is the victory of the entire Fairy Tail family!"
"OHHHHH!"
At that moment, every single Fairy Tail member raised the same sign with him and roared their answer to the sky.