Lucy frowned as she looked at Wahl, who was currently fighting Makarov.
"He can accurately grasp our weaknesses?"
Wahl's Magic was Weakness, and he could use machinery to materialize soldiers specifically designed to target an enemy's weak points.
A person's strengths and flaws—Wahl possessed the ability to see through all of them.
Even his puppet body had the same ability.
However, when Wahl's main body was not present, the Weakness Soldiers also had an obvious flaw.
Without Wahl controlling them in real time, the weaknesses they had initially captured would remain unchanged.
"In other words, we just need to switch opponents!"
"They really are weak once we switch targets!"
Lucy lashed out with her whip, wrapped it around a Weakness Soldier's leg, and pulled hard.
She tore the soldier's leg straight off.
Lucy had been using Taurus Star Dress earlier and had encountered an extremely fast Weakness Soldier, so she switched opponents with Lisanna.
After that, the fight instantly became much easier.
...
Kardia Cathedral—
Wahl revealed his true form as a machine race, but Makarov, who had already been informed beforehand, was not surprised.
Wahl had also analyzed Makarov's weakness.
He was old, and his legs were slow.
In addition, because Makarov treasured his guild members too much, he always wanted to shield them behind him.
Using that weakness, Wahl gradually led the battlefield between himself and Makarov to this place.
However...what Wahl did not know was that this little old man, Makarov, was doing it on purpose!
Once they arrived at Kardia Cathedral, what awaited Wahl was Jupiter, operated by Alzack, and Uranus, operated by Bisca.
Wahl, who had enlarged his body and was wrestling with giant Makarov, froze when the Makarov in front of him suddenly shrank.
Two Magic Convergent Cannon shots struck him at the same time!
The cooperation between Makarov, Alzack, and Bisca was perfectly coordinated.
Makarov used his giant body to block Wahl's vision.
There was no notice and no hand signal. Just as Jupiter and Uranus were about to arrive, Makarov shrank himself.
Wahl's mechanical body was blasted apart by the two Magic Convergent Cannons, leaving only scattered mechanical parts behind.
...
Hargeon coastal waters—
For some reason, Wahl, who was fighting Laxus, suddenly burst into wild laughter.
"Elegant. You must be elegant, understand, Wahl?"
Neinhart, sitting on the mast of the flagship, commented.
Below him, Jellal was fighting against the Mages Neinhart had materialized from the corpses of history.
"This has become far more interesting than I expected. As I thought, puppets really won't do."
'Wahl's puppet was destroyed?'
Neinhart snorted.
'Looks like the surprise attack failed too. Wait, why did I say "too"...?'
"Getting distracted during a fight is not a good habit."
Jellal used Meteor to accelerate, attempting to begin close combat with Neinhart.
"What?!"
Neinhart clearly had not expected Jellal to reach his side even while surrounded.
Jellal looked expressionlessly at Neinhart as he fell from the mast.
"Have you heard this saying before? No matter how many small fry there are, small fry are still small fry!"
...
"Damn it. Why is this guy so troublesome?"
Wahl and Laxus were currently engaged in aerial combat.
Although it was called aerial combat, at the moment, it was basically Wahl getting beaten one-sidedly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
What greeted Wahl was one heavy punch after another from Laxus, who had transformed into lightning and closed in on him.
However, Wahl himself was immune to lightning, and his body was made of machinery.
In truth, Laxus and Wahl were not a good matchup.
Laxus shook out his hand.
"This guy's pretty tough..."
"Analyzing..."
Even during battle, Wahl had been analyzing Laxus's weakness.
As a machine race, Wahl could not help complaining.
"Weaknesses... motion sickness, poor sense of direction... none?!! Is this guy even human? His only weakness is barely being bad with directions???"
Wahl knew Laxus was a Dragon Slayer Mage, and motion sickness was a shared weakness among them.
In other words, Laxus's only valid weakness was his poor sense of direction!
"Lightning Fire Dragon Mode!"
Laxus accelerated upward and appeared above Wahl.
A Lightning Dragon's Jaw slammed Wahl into the ground, smashing out a massive crater.
Lying in the crater, Wahl's eyes flashed red.
"Personality setting: cold. Form change: power type."
Wahl's originally thin body began to transform.
His new form was covered in orange exoskeleton metal armor, equipped with palm lightning and jet wings.
Clearly, this was a form more suited to close combat.
"Assault Wahl, sortie!"
The jet device behind Wahl released flames and accelerated him into the sky.
"Flame Shockwave!"
"Homing Missiles!"
"Anti-Material Laser!"
"Railgun!"
Assault Wahl freely displayed his full arsenal, but only the homing missiles struck Laxus.
Laxus showed him what it meant for a real man to tank an explosion head-on. He forcibly endured the homing missiles and still punched Wahl anyway.
Laxus turned into lightning to avoid the laser cannon, while Wahl's railgun even replenished some of his Magic Power.
After being sent flying several hundred meters by Laxus's Lightning Fire Dragon's Demolition Fist, Wahl crouched on one knee and stared tightly at him.
"To think Ishgar still has someone of your level..."
Laxus gave a soft laugh.
"You're wrong about that. Ishgar has plenty of people stronger than me."
...
The battle between Jellal and Neinhart was temporarily one-sided.
Against Jellal, the ones Neinhart could materialize were no more than the Seven Kin of Purgatory—Zancrow, Rustyrose, Kain, Azuma, and the others.
Rustyrose was indeed dead. He had committed suicide in the Council prison.
...
Ishgar's western border—
Although the western army had the largest number of troops, only Ajeel had been sent out first.
The Alvarez Empire's million-man army was stationed here.
Inside the mobile fortress, Emperor Zeref sat upon his throne.
Invel stood with his hands behind his back and reported to Zeref.
"Your Majesty, Ajeel, who led the vanguard, appears to have been defeated. It was done by that giant dragon, Kurnugi."
"Brandish, Wahl, and Dimaria have likewise fallen into difficult battles."
Hearing this result, Zeref was not surprised. He merely gave a soft laugh.
"That is how it should be. If it were too simple, would that not be far too boring?"
"Ajeel, my grandson, has been defeated?"
Yajeel, hunched over and leaning on his cane, lowered his head.
Invel lightly adjusted his glasses and sighed with some emotion.
"To think all three sides can stop the Spriggan 12's attacks, and even the surprise attack unit has been dealt with. This is truly beyond my expectations."
Zeref seemed to see through Yajeel's thoughts and casually said,
"Ajeel is not dead."
Yajeel only lowered his head a little further.
Zeref turned toward God Serena, who was striking poses off to the side.
"Serena, it is your turn to appear."
"Leave it to me! God! This will be a fated encounter, God!"
...
Lisanna, who had been constantly watching the various Magic Power changes on the map, quickly reported to Mavis.
"The Alvarez Empire's western army has temporarily stopped advancing, but a powerful Magic Power is moving toward the western side at extremely high speed!"
On the map, God Serena was detected rapidly flying toward the west.
The red dot representing Serena was much larger than ordinary people's and extremely conspicuous.
...
Ishgar's northern region—
The Black Dragon Acnologia, Wings of Darkness, who had taken human form, lived here.
"The Black Wizard, that strange fellow, a dragon, Dragon Slayer Mages..."
The strange fellow referred to Raizel.
Acnologia stood up.
His skin began turning black, his hands became claws, and his body continuously grew taller.
ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR——
A roar echoed through the clouds.
Acnologia spread his wings, flew high into the sky, and headed straight for the Kingdom of Fiore!