"Both of you come at me? I'm being thoroughly underestimated, am I..." Minerva's expression immediately turned cold.
Having lost to Fairy Tail's unknown blonde newcomer in the Sea Battle two days ago, the Sabertooth princess had already been deeply humiliated.
And now, Erza's declaration, when she wasn't even at full strength, had pushed Minerva's anger to its limit.
Since when had Sabertooth become so lacking in dignity?!
"Are all Fairy Tail people this arrogant?" Kagura also felt a hint of displeasure, tightening her grip on her Grudge Sword.
As their gazes crossed, the magic storm swirling around the three abruptly stopped.
The ground ceased trembling. The debris suspended in midair clattered back to the ground.
Without unnecessary words, Kagura, already in her drawing stance, moved first. Her body flickered like a phantom, appearing beside Erza in an instant.
"Unfearing Heaven: Slash Form!"
Right from the start, she used the powerful technique that had cleanly sliced through Lyon's Ice Dragon in the tag battle round.
The blade traced a line that was nearly impossible to react to, swift and fierce.
BOOM!
Like a raging current blocked by a boulder, the slash split in two, racing across the ground at sharp angles and striking two distant buildings.
The structures made of brick, stone, and steel collapsed in an instant!
"This is?!" Kagura's pupils contracted.
A half-silver shield had blocked her unsheathed Unfearing Heaven.
As a potential rival, she had studied Erza's Requip Magic extensively before the match. She recognized the heavy shield from Adamantine Armor, which had once blocked the Magic Condensation Cannon.
But... what were those golden runes flowing across its surface?
Erza's expression also shifted slightly. This power really is strong.
The Exodia Armor, etched with magical circuits from the Dark Magician's world, not only enhanced all her physical attributes—strength, speed, defense—but also had the effect of strengthening her other armor and weapons.
The way it worked was by transferring its runes to other equipment, allowing multiple armors to synchronize and maximize the advantage of Requip Magic.
Judging by the destructive force of that strike, without the Exodia Armor's enhancement, the Adamantine Shield might have shattered on contact!
With that thought, Erza took a deep breath. Her dark golden boots cracked the ground as she poured all her strength into her dark golden left arm holding the shield.
BAM!
The powerful force exploded outward. Kagura held on for only a moment before she was sent flying by the shockwave.
Erza reached into the air and produced the serrated greatsword from Purgatory Armor. Its surface was also covered in dark golden runes.
A wild aura erupted like a hurricane. Just as Erza bent her knees, ready to leap forward and press her advantage, she suddenly stopped.
A distorted spatial ring had silently formed around her, trapping her within. A feeling of weightlessness followed.
"Don't forget about me—"
Minerva walked forward, her high-slit cheongsam swaying. Before she could finish her boast, a destructive slash wreathed in tearing winds came straight at her.
The ground crumbled like foam under that destructive force. Unable to process how Erza had escaped the spatial binding, Minerva hastily erected an energy barrier before her.
BOOM!!
Though it was a slash, its destructive power rivaled a cannon. The shockwave exploded in all directions!
"I already experienced Spatial Magic two days ago."
Erza landed steadily and sheathed her sword calmly. "But you probably don't know that the Exodia Armor has another name: Sealer Armor."
For armor modeled after the "Sealed Dark Master," the Exodia Armor's runes, and even its materials, possessed magic-sealing effects.
The reason she hadn't displayed this in earlier battles was partly because there hadn't been many opportunities, and partly because—
With Erza's magic power, it was difficult to fully utilize the complete performance of this armor, which incorporated concepts from the Dark Magician's world.
But now it was different—she had unlocked her Second Origin!
"In other words, you sealed my magic?"
Minerva walked out from the smoke, her face full of disbelief. "That's impossible!"
The magic she used was the Lost Magic, Eighteen Demon Gods!
What she didn't know was that this was rather insignificant before the Dark Master.
VWOOM!
A deep purple magic circle bloomed. A multi-gravity field instantly enveloped the entire battlefield.
Kagura charged back in. She leaped high, gripping her Unfearing Heaven with both hands, the end of the sheath aimed at Erza, who was pinned in place by the gravity field.
"Unfearing Heaven: Steel Form!"
Amplified by Gravity Magic, this already fierce and overwhelming strike was terrifyingly powerful.
The shockwave spread in all directions from Kagura's landing point, deep cracks spiderwebbing across the entire plaza!
Erza flipped out from the dust storm. At the critical moment when Steel Form struck, she had used the recoil from a horizontal slash to forcibly break free of the gravity field.
Before she could catch her breath, another surge of magic power came from a different direction.
"Ne... Vir... Bion..."
Minerva's hands moved, assuming the opening stance of an Ultra-Magic.
Chaotic rings of spatial energy gathered and compressed in her palms, shaking the ground violently. Erza's expression turned serious as she recognized this magic, whose power rivaled Lucy's Urano Metria.
The next second, the serrated greatsword in her hand transformed into the Evil-Crushing Spear from Giant Armor. It streaked through the air like a broken bamboo, aimed straight at Minerva.
Minerva seemed to have anticipated this. She changed her hand gesture and curled her fingers.
With the surrounding space distorting, she vanished from her spot, replaced by Kagura in the distance.
That was the ability to exchange any object or person within her spatial domain: Absolute Territory!
The sudden change of scenery and the Evil-Crushing Spear growing larger in her pupils made Kagura's nerves tighten instantly. Out of pure combat instinct, she raised her Unfearing Heaven horizontally before her.
BAM!!
The Evil-Crushing Spear slammed into her deployed magic circle. The terrifying force, enhanced by the Exodia Armor, numbed Kagura's arms. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of her mouth.
"Whether it's Erza or Kagura, I'll gladly take both your points!" Minerva's lips curled upward.
In that fleeting moment, having exchanged to a safe area, she had already completed her Ultra-Magic incantation.
The magic circle spun. The phantom of the Eighteen Demon Gods manifested, towering like a giant against the backdrop of surrounding buildings.
In terms of size and scale alone, it was even larger than the one she had used against Lucy two days ago!
***
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