The smoke and dust took a long time to clear.
Unfortunately, the Wood Dragon God had only a few scorched marks across his face, with hot steam escaping from the corner of his mouth.
Otherwise, he appeared completely unharmed.
Calling Aldoron a walking continent was hardly an exaggeration.
His colossal body gave him an equally absurd amount of vitality.
In terms of sheer endurance alone, he might have surpassed Acnologia by a wide margin.
Trees suddenly erupted from the ground, shooting toward the sky so quickly that they pierced straight through the magic patrol cruisers.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
This time, the explosions came from the cruisers.
Raizel swung the Ouryuken and released a wave of sword energy.
Ultear, Kagura, Erza, and the others followed his lead, destroying as many of the trees as possible to reduce the Council's losses.
Raizel teleported onto the flagship.
"Retreat! You're no match for Aldoron. Leave this to us."
In a single exchange, Aldoron had destroyed nearly ten magic patrol cruisers with wooden spikes—and that was after Raizel, Ultear, and the others intervened.
Without their help, the entire fleet might have been shot down.
"Thank you!"
Rube Rud immediately ordered the fleet to withdraw and remain on standby at a safer distance.
...
Far away, in a region covered with active volcanoes, countless cracks filled with magma split the ground.
The surrounding heat was intense enough to kill an ordinary person, yet a man was calmly bathing in molten lava.
He bared his teeth in a grin.
"How could human weapons ever work against a dragon?"
...
A spatial passage opened beside Raizel.
Selene stepped through first and laughed softly.
"It seems Aldo-chan is angry."
The others followed one after another.
Selene had brought Irene, August, Kurnugi, Brandish, Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe, Gajeel, Gray, Juvia, and Cana.
"Another dragon? What a pain. I only wanted to eat an Aldoron parfait..." Brandish sighed.
"That size..."
Even August looked surprised.
Acnologia was not even half the size of Aldoron's palm.
"How did this guy get so huge?!"
Kurnugi, Gray, Gajeel, and Laxus all looked at Selene as though she had brought them here to die.
Brandish expressionlessly made an okay sign with her fingers.
"If you want me to enlarge someone to Aldoron's height, I can manage three minutes at most. He isn't remotely the same size as Acnologia."
Brandish had been able to keep Laxus enlarged for so long during the battle with Acnologia because Acnologia was not actually that tall.
When standing on all fours, he was only around eight meters high.
Aldoron's head, meanwhile, was easily more than fifty meters above the ground, and even that estimate was probably too low.
The Magic Power required to turn someone into a fifty-meter giant was easy to imagine.
Selene nodded to Brandish.
"Then remain on standby for now."
Natsu stared up at Aldoron with a thoughtful expression.
"I don't really get it, but he took all those Magic Convergent Cannons and destroyed that many ships... That's some ridiculous power."
"How are we supposed to fight something that big?"
His words suggested caution.
His actions did not.
Happy had already grabbed him and flown into the sky, dropping him onto the city built across Aldoron's back.
Raizel, Erza, and the others remained in the air but did not stop him. Letting Natsu test Aldoron's durability was not a bad idea.
"FIRE DRAGON KING'S DEMOLITION FIST!!!"
Using the force of his descent, Natsu drove his burning fist into Aldoron with everything he had.
A ring of fire erupted around him, hurling shattered stone and dust into the air.
Normally, that ring of flames would have looked enormous.
And it was enormous.
Compared to Aldoron, however, it was barely noticeable.
At best, it resembled a tiny acne scar.
Natsu noticed it too as he scratched his hair awkwardly.
"That didn't work at all..."
A sprouting plant suddenly emerged behind him.
More importantly, it spoke.
"One."
"?!"
Natsu spun around in shock.
The plant continued growing as it explained,
"The damage you inflicted upon Aldoron was one point. Aldoron possesses one hundred million points of vitality."
"If you use that attack another ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine times, you may be able to defeat him."
Natsu and Happy stared at it in horror.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
"And that was merely his back. This is the kind of being you have chosen to challenge."
Natsu and Happy only looked more alarmed.
"The sprout turned into a person..."
The plant that had spoken to Natsu had indeed grown into a humanoid figure.
"I am a part of the Wood Dragon God Aldoron. One of the God Seeds—Wolfen."
At the same time, tree people began sprouting in the cities on Aldoron's left and right hands and both shoulders.
This was Wolfen's ability. As long as Aldoron remained alive, he could continue producing an endless army of tree soldiers.
Selene's expression turned serious.
"To defeat Aldoron, someone must eliminate all five God Seeds, while others restrain Aldoron's main body."
She then shook her head.
"Unfortunately, I know nothing about the abilities of Aldoron's God Seeds. You will have to discover them yourselves."
The Dragon Gods generally avoided fighting one another. Until now, none of the Five Dragon Gods had ever fought a true battle against another.
Gray, Juvia, Cana, and Lucy headed toward the city on the right hand.
Wendy, Kagura, and Erza went to the left shoulder.
Laxus led the Thunder God Tribe toward the right shoulder.
Mira and Ultear headed for the left hand.
Gajeel remained on standby for the moment.
There was little point enlarging him before they had eliminated at least a few of the God Seeds.
Armies of tree people began appearing throughout all four cities.
Their voices were flat and mechanical, as though they were following a program.
"Beginning elimination of all organisms that failed to become part of the Wood Dragon God."
...
The right-hand city—
Gray stared at the tree soldiers marching toward them like an army.
"What the hell are these things? What kind of jobs have you people been taking?"
"Humanoid trees?!"
"There's no time to explain. Just—"
One tree soldier's arm suddenly stretched out and grabbed Cana by the face.
It was physically stronger than her, and its hand had already closed around her head.
Then, just as suddenly, it released her.
Lucy and the others stared in confusion.
"I saw the person you believe to be the strongest."
White smoke engulfed the tree soldier.
A moment later, someone emerged from within it, a tiny green sprout growing from the top of his head.
Gray's jaw dropped.
"GILDARTS?!!!"
Cold sweat ran down Cana's forehead.
"Why did it turn into Dad?!"
Worse, this tree-copy Gildarts could use his Magic.
It punched the stone street, and the pavement in front of Lucy and the others shattered into countless neat blocks the size of tofu cubes.
"You've got to be kidding me. It can even use Gildarts's Magic... This is going to be a problem."
Then Lucy thought of something far worse.
"Don't tell me all of these things can..."
If every one of them could transform into the strongest person in someone's heart...
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