Chapter 354: Mard Geer
Back at the Sun Village, the isolated settlement of the giants, Natsu Dragneel vividly remembered the sensation of relying on the embers of Ren's bestowed power. At the time, his own Fire Dragon Slayer Magic hadn't been enough to melt the magical ice freezing the village, forcing him to tap into the spark of golden fire Ren had shared with him.
The moment that borrowed flame had ignited within his core, Natsu had felt his own magical reserves spike to unprecedented heights. His physical strength and raw destructive output had surged, feeling several times more potent than his usual peaks. It was an intoxicating, overwhelming high.
Yet, despite that massive boost, Natsu hadn't dared to fully unleash Ren's flames in active combat against their enemies back then. The golden fire was far too overbearing—a raging, temperamental inferno of condensed solar energy that aggressively fought against his control. It threatened to consume him just as easily as it would his opponents.
But just moments ago, under the crushing, life-or-death pressure of battling the demons of Tartaros, his survival instincts had triggered an evolution. His mastery and resistance to the fiery element had forcibly deepened, allowing him to just barely draw upon and unleash the true, unadulterated essence of Ren's Sun Flames.
The resulting devastation had been nothing short of terrifying, vaporizing his enemy in an instant.
Natsu wiped a smudge of soot from his bruised cheek, letting out a shaky breath. It seems I'll need to swallow my pride and beg Ren for a bit more of that fire later, he thought, staring at his palms. Just in case. That kind of heat is on a whole different level entirely.
Deep within the Underworld Island — Mard Geer's Throne Room
Deep within the shadowy, gothic heart of Tartaros, Mard Geer sat languidly upon his ornate throne. He rested his chin on one pale hand, his dark, calculating eyes tracking the chaotic skirmishes playing out across the glowing, holographic Magic Circle screens hovering in the cold air before him.
The projections painted a rapidly deteriorating picture for the dark guild. On one shimmering screen, Ren was methodically dismantling Jackal and Tempester, displaying a monstrous, overwhelming strength that completely defied mortal limitations. On another screen, Natsu was delivering a devastating final blow to the heavily mutated Franmalth.
In the blink of an eye, three of Tartaros's elite Nine Demon Gates had been completely swept from the board.
Mard Geer's expression remained an absolute mask of serene indifference, though a dangerous, icy coldness flickered in the depths of his eyes.
"Quite capable," the Underworld King murmured to the empty, cavernous room, his voice smooth and devoid of panic. "Fairy Tail... for mere humans, you truly are an excellent anomaly. I will give you that."
He slowly rose from his throne, gracefully dusting off an invisible speck of dirt from his high-collared, aristocratic coat.
"But stepping foot into my domain was your greatest mistake," Mard Geer stated coldly, his magical power surging with a terrifying gravity that cracked the stone floor beneath his boots. "Allow me to permanently lay you to rest in the true Underworld."
He raised his hands, his fingers curling as dark, suffocating Curse power erupted from his form.
"Alegria!"
Rumble!!
A violent, catastrophic earthquake tore through the entirety of the floating Underworld Island. The very ground beneath the invading mages' feet groaned in agony, splitting open with a sickening, fleshy tear.
"What's happening?! The ground is..." Lucy Heartfilia cried out, stumbling as the stone corridor beneath her boots suddenly turned soft and spongy.
"What happened?!" Gray Fullbuster shouted, desperately trying to freeze the shifting floor to stabilize his footing.
Before their horrified eyes, the architecture of Tartaros began to mutate. The dark stone pillars and walls came alive, twisting and writhing as if waking from a centuries-long slumber. Viscous, fleshy pink matter erupted from the widening fissures in the ground like a living, carnivorous slime.
The grotesque substance lunged outward with alarming speed, clinging to the Fairy Tail mages, wrapping tightly around their ankles and waists, and forcefully dragging them down into the pulsating earth.
From a higher vantage point, Silver Fullbuster watched the chaotic assimilation with a grim, tight-lipped expression. "Has Mard Geer finally made his move?" he muttered, recognizing the catastrophic Curse immediately. "By using Alegria to forcibly assimilate them into the island's flesh... Fairy Tail is finished."
Blind panic erupted across the battlefield.
"What is this?!"
"What on earth is this thing?! Get it off me!"
"My body... the ground is swallowing me whole!"
From the safety of his throne room, Underworld King Mard Geer watched the mass panic with a cruel, mocking sneer. "Humans are truly a foolish, ignorant race," his voice echoed ominously through the island's magical intercoms, reaching every struggling mage. "To actually attempt a brazen sneak attack on Tartaros. Little did you insects know that the Underworld Island itself is a massive, living prison—a flesh prison forged within the belly of the colossal beast, Plutogrim."
But just as the pink slime reached the mages' chests, preparing to entomb them forever...
`[System Notification: Skill Activated — Full Body Take Over: Escanor!]`
High above the chaotic assimilation, the murky, oppressive clouds of the Underworld were violently pierced by a blinding pillar of golden light. The temperature of the entire island skyrocketed in a fraction of a second, vaporizing the moisture in the air.
Swish! Swish!!
Two impossibly massive slashes of concentrated, hyper-condensed solar energy swept across the entirety of the Underworld Island. The sheer kinetic force behind the golden arcs defied all logic, glowing with the furious intensity of a miniature sun.
Crack!!
A deafening, apocalyptic rupture echoed across the heavens. The gargantuan, living body of Plutogrim was sliced cleanly into four massive, uneven pieces.
"What?!!"
Mard Geer's eyes widened a fraction, his flawless composure finally cracking as the shockwave shattered the windows of his throne room.
Everyone—human and demon alike—was paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of the attack. The catastrophic damage instantly severed the neural pathways of the beast. The massive Underworld Island immediately lost its life force and its magical levitation. The squelching pink matter that had been relentlessly dragging the Fairy Tail members into the floor instantly liquefied and vanished, releasing its captives.
But relief was tragically short-lived.
Deprived of its anti-gravity magic, the four colossal fragments of the island immediately began to plummet from the sky, hurtling toward the barren earth thousands of feet below.
"Waaaah!"
"We're going to crash into the ground! We're dead!"
Screams of pure, unfiltered terror filled the air as the wind roared past their ears. The ground was rushing up to meet them at a lethal, terminal velocity.
Fighting against the intense G-force, Cana Alberona gritted her teeth. She planted her feet on the tilting debris and swiftly drew a thick deck of magical cards from her satchel, hurling them into the rushing wind.
"Everyone, don't resist! Get inside the cards!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Swish! Flash!
With desperate, pinpoint accuracy, Cana's magic flared to life. Almost every single free-falling member of Fairy Tail was engulfed in a bright flash of light, forcefully pulled into the localized pocket dimensions of her floating cards.
Boom!!
The four gargantuan fragments of the Underworld Island violently slammed into the earth, throwing up a colossal mushroom cloud of dust, shattered stone, and debris. The impact triggered a localized earthquake, sending shockwaves rippling across the wastelands of Fiore.
A few moments later, in the center of the settling dust crater...
"Release!"
Having miraculously landed safely on a softer patch of upturned earth, Cana slammed her hands together, dispelling the magic. With a collective burst of light, the cards emptied their contents, and the members of Fairy Tail tumbled out onto the solid ground, coughing and groaning, but entirely uninjured.
Makarov Dreyar brushed the thick dust from his coat, looking at Cana with wide-eyed surprise. "What incredible spatial magic! Cana, my child, when did you learn to do this?"
Cana smirked, wiping a streak of nervous sweat from her forehead. "A few months ago, Master. A handsome, dark-skinned guy taught it to me."
It had happened shortly after their triumphant, albeit exhausting, return from their seven-year slumber on Tenrou Island. Knowing they had completely fallen behind the rest of the world, everyone had scattered to train and hone their magic. During her solo travels, Cana had crossed paths with a wandering, dark-skinned mage wielding a unique brand of Card Magic.
Upon learning she was a proud member of Fairy Tail and already skilled with basic cards, he had patiently taken the time to teach her this advanced preservation spell. When she had asked him why he was being so generous to a stranger, the man had merely smiled a nostalgic smile and said that Fairy Tail had done him a massive favor in the past.
She hadn't expected the technique to save her entire family from a gruesome free-fall death today.
"Honestly, wouldn't it have been better for all of you to just die quietly?"
A chilling, drippingly arrogant voice suddenly pierced through the settling dust, sending a collective, icy shiver down the spines of the Fairy Tail mages.
The wind blew away the remaining debris, revealing a lone figure standing perfectly unharmed amidst the apocalyptic wreckage. It was a young man dressed in a dark, high-collared coat, with long, elegant black hair and flowing bangs.
In his left hand, he casually held a heavy, ancient tome wrapped in chains.
"Face has already been activated," the man continued, his tone practically oozing with patronizing pity. "Soon, all magic will vanish, and you will face an eternity of endless agony. Compared to that drawn-out despair, wouldn't a painless death from the fall have been much more comfortable?"
Makarov stepped forward, instinctively throwing his arms out to shield his heavily injured children. He glared at the newcomer with a deadly serious expression. Every single battle-honed instinct in the Guild Master's body was blaring in alarm; he felt an overwhelmingly terrifying threat emanating from this single man.
"Who are you?" Makarov demanded, his voice low and rumbling with warning.
The man let out a soft, mocking chuckle. "Mere humans have no right to know my name."
"You bastard!"
Enraged by the dismissive arrogance, Makarov's body rapidly grew to towering proportions. Utilizing his Giant Magic, he brought down a colossal, magic-infused fist squarely toward the dark-haired man.
Whoosh!!
Mard Geer didn't even flinch. Without moving a single muscle, he called forth a horrific eruption of gigantic, cursed thorny vines that violently burst from the earth. The razor-sharp briars instantly wrapped tightly around Makarov's colossal torso and arms, halting his massive punch dead in its tracks.
"What?!" Makarov gasped, feeling the cursed thorns biting deep into his flesh, instantly draining his stamina.
The members of the Fairy Tail Guild watched in sheer horror. Their Master, one of the legendary Ten Wizard Saints, had been effortlessly restrained by a single counterattack.
"Die," Mard Geer Tartaros stated coldly. He pointed a single, elegant finger directly at Makarov's chest.
A massive, spear-like thorn shot out from the ground with blinding, lethal speed, aiming straight to pierce Makarov's heart.
Just then—
Boom!
A massive, ornate battle axe plummeted from the heavens like a golden meteor. It struck the lethal thorn with devastating kinetic force, shattering the cursed construct into millions of harmless splinters and cratering the earth.
Before the dust could even settle, a towering, immensely muscular figure landed heavily between Mard Geer and the restrained Makarov.
It was Ren, currently utilizing his Full Body Take Over: Escanor, radiating an intense, suffocating wave of heat that warped the very air around him.
"Ren!!"
Seeing his broad, imposing back, the exhausted members of Fairy Tail couldn't help but let out a massive sigh of relief. The temperature in the area was sweltering, yet to them, it felt like the warmest, most reassuring blanket.
Ren didn't look back, his piercing blue eyes locked squarely onto the Underworld King. "Everyone! Listen up. I won't be able to control my power very well in the upcoming fight. To avoid getting caught in the crossfire and burned to ash, you'd better stay as far away from here as possible."
His voice boomed with an unnatural, heavy authority, thick with an innate, overpowering pride.
Hearing the absolute certainty in Ren's warning, Makarov's body quickly shrank back to its normal, diminutive size as the shattered thorns fell away. "Ren, be careful. This man is beyond dangerous!" Makarov turned to the guild, his voice leaving no room for argument. "Everyone, retreat immediately!"
Makarov didn't hesitate to lead the Fairy Tail members away. He knew the situation perfectly; most of them had sustained heavy injuries in their previous skirmishes. Staying now wouldn't offer any tactical advantage—it would only turn them into a vulnerability that Ren would have to protect. Leaving him a clear battlefield was their only viable option.
Mard Geer Tartaros watched the humans scatter, a soft, mocking chuckle escaping his lips. "Running, scurrying like frightened rats. Retreating anywhere is completely useless. As long as you remain on this continent, Face will eliminate all magic in the atmosphere. Eventually, every last one of you will die powerlessly."
He turned his dark, bottomless gaze back to the towering man wielding the golden axe.
"Ren, is it?" Mard Geer tilted his head, feigning mild interest. "You're quite impressive. In all these centuries, I've never seen a human as physically powerful as you. Since magic is about to vanish and all humans are destined to perish, I will offer you a rare mercy."
Mard Geer opened his arms slightly, looking like a dark messiah. "I can transform you into a demon of my books. I will grant you eternal life and true demonic power—if you swear your absolute loyalty to Tartaros."
Silence hung in the scorching air for a brief moment.
Then, Ren let out a breathy laugh.
"Power? From someone like you?"
Ren's voice was utterly saturated with profound, undeniable disdain. He looked down his nose at Mard Geer, his towering physique casting a long, imposing shadow over the demon.
"Do you even comprehend what true power is?" Ren sneered, resting the heavy, ornate head of his divine axe against his broad shoulder. "For a pathetic insect of your level to stand before me and declare you'll 'grant me power'... it's truly laughable. Hahahaha!"
Ren's booming laughter shook the very air. He looked at Mard Geer Tartaros with eyes filled with absolute, unadulterated arrogance.
It was a look Mard Geer was intimately, deeply familiar with. It was the exact same look he gave to vermin. He was accustomed to looking down on humans that way—viewing them as nothing more than dirt beneath his boots.
Never in his immortal life had he expected a human to look at him like that. The sheer disrespect, the utter disregard for his supreme authority as the Underworld King... it made Mard Geer feel an unfamiliar, boiling sensation of extreme discomfort deep within his chest.
The serene, aloof expression on Mard Geer's face darkened into a terrifying, murderous scowl.
"Human, you are far too arrogant," Mard Geer hissed, his voice trembling with suppressed rage. "For a mere, short-lived human, receiving power from me is a divine blessing."
"Oh? Is that so?" Ren looked down at him, his blue eyes blazing with a solar fire that threatened to ignite the atmosphere. "I don't want such a worthless 'blessing'. And I certainly have no need to be granted power by such a miserable weakling."
Mard Geer Tartaros's eyes narrowed into dangerous, lethal slits. The dark Curse power swirling around his body erupted into a violent, black maelstrom.
"In that case," the Underworld King growled, taking a slow step forward. "I will personally show you the vast, insurmountable gap between a human... and a Demon."
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