Year X784 · Early Summer
Location: Tower of Heaven / Council Strike Zone
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The Sky Breaks First
The sea went still.
Clouds parted in a perfect circle above the tower, as if the sky itself had been carved open. Light gathered—too white, too pure, too vast to be natural.
Etherion.
Not a beam.
A judgment.
Across Fiore, mages paused mid-cast. Birds dropped from the air. Ley lines screamed.
In Magnolia, Makarov's spine went rigid.
"…They fired," he whispered.
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Ren — Beneath the Falling Sun
Ren looked up.
The Etherion beam descended like a falling star, wider than the tower itself, magic compressed so tightly it distorted the air around it.
> So this is the Council's answer.
His breathing didn't change.
☀️ Total Concentration — Constant
Great Sage spoke—not warning, not fear.
> Calculation complete. Interception probability: Absolute.
Ren stepped forward.
He didn't brace.
He advanced.
The blade rose—not glowing, not roaring.
Just clean.
"Sun Breathing," Ren said quietly.
The beam struck.
And stopped.
For a heartbeat, the world froze—light pressing down against steel, magic screaming as it met something it could not overwrite.
Then Ren swung.
One slash.
Horizontal.
Precise.
The Etherion beam split cleanly in half, the severed halves dispersing into harmless light as if embarrassed to exist.
The sky detonated with sound.
Every scrying crystal across Fiore shattered.
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Council Chamber — Collapse
Silence.
Then panic.
"What—what just happened?!"
"The beam—IT WAS CUT—"
"That's impossible!"
Jellal's calm cracked.
For the first time, his hand trembled.
"…A sword?" he whispered. "No. Etherion cannot be cut."
But the image burned into the chamber—Ren standing beneath the heavens, blade lowered, untouched.
Fear replaced certainty.
And Jellal felt it.
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Tower Core — Jellal's Rage
The tower shuddered violently, its core destabilizing now that Etherion had failed.
Jellal staggered back, eyes wide—not with pain.
With fury.
"He defied it," Jellal snarled. "That power was meant to erase nations!"
Erza didn't answer.
She had already changed.
Armor dissolved into moonlit steel—silver plates etched with crescent patterns, her blade thinner, longer, gleaming like night itself.
🌙 Moon Breathing — First Form: Silent Crescent
She vanished.
Jellal barely raised a barrier before it shattered, moonlight slicing through magic like mist.
"You built this tower to control fate," Erza said coldly, appearing behind him.
"But you never understood strength."
Jellal spun, casting wildly, desperation bleeding through his technique.
"I was chosen!" he shouted. "The Council needs monsters like me!"
🌙 Second Form: Waning Arc
Erza's blade curved through the air, severing spell, will, and arrogance in one flawless sweep.
Jellal collapsed to his knees, blood dripping onto the fractured runes.
He laughed bitterly.
"…So this is how it ends," he muttered. "Not by Etherion… but by you."
Erza stepped closer.
"No," she said. "It ends because you never mattered."
🌙 Third Form: Full Moon Severance
The strike was silent.
Decisive.
Final.
Jellal fell forward—unconscious, alive, and utterly defeated.
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Ren — After the Impossible
Ren exhaled.
For the first time since raising his blade.
The sky slowly stitched itself back together, the remnants of Etherion fading like a bad memory.
He looked toward the tower's core.
> She's finished.
Good.
The tower began to collapse in earnest now—no ritual holding it together, no god-weapon to threaten the world.
Ren turned.
One more slash—vertical this time.
The Tower of Heaven split down the center and began to fall into the sea.
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Across Fiore — Shockwaves
In Magnolia, Fairy Tail erupted.
"They CUT ETHERION?!"
"WITH A SWORD?!"
"That's illegal!"
"That's AWESOME!"
Makarov laughed—hard, relieved, furious.
"…Those idiots," he said fondly. "They just rewrote the balance of power."
Elsewhere, dark guilds went silent.
The Council convened in emergency session.
And the world learned a terrifying truth:
There were people now who did not fear gods—or weapons meant to kill them.
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Tower Ruins — Reunion
Erza emerged from the collapsing structure, armor shifting back to her usual crimson.
Ren met her at the shoreline.
"…You okay?" he asked.
She nodded once. "…You?"
He glanced at the sky. "…The Council's going to be upset."
A rare, sharp smile crossed her face.
"…Let them."
Behind them, the Tower of Heaven vanished beneath the waves.
Not as a legend.
But as proof.
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End of Chapter 96