"I'll go help as well."
Warrod Sequen saw that quite a few soldiers from the Alvarez Empire had fallen from the warships.
"Please be careful."
Raizel pointed toward Ajeel, who had blocked a shot from Jupiter with his palm.
"Kurnugi, I'll leave the one up there to you."
After seeing Natsu fight Ajeel before, and now seeing Ajeel block Jupiter with his bare hand, Kurnugi blinked.
"Can I fight him in dragon form?"
"Of course."
"No problem. Leave it to Lord Kurnugi!"
Before Kurnugi left, Raizel gave him one more instruction.
"Listen. If you sense Acnologia's presence, don't fight him. Run immediately. Got it?"
Kurnugi was someone Raizel had brought here.
If something really happened to him, Raizel would have no way to explain it to Selene.
Knowing that Raizel was worried about his safety, Kurnugi nodded.
"I know. Lord Kurnugi may be arrogant, but I'm not stupid."
The magic cruisers led by Ajeel were not sitting ducks either.
At Ajeel's command, dense magical energy shells rained down toward the ground.
"Tree Realm!"
Warrod Sequen lightly tapped his cane, and countless giant trees grew wildly, connecting into a row and blocking the Alvarez Empire's artillery fire.
"So Ishgar isn't entirely made up of weaklings after all."
When Ajeel saw Warrod's move, his interest was stirred. Just as he intended to descend and deal with Warrod—
"Your opponent is Lord Kurnugi!"
Kurnugi had already transformed into his true form as the Sword Saint Dragon.
The blades around his body cut through the airflow as he rushed toward Ajeel like a jet fighter.
When he approached Ajeel's flagship, the two blades on his forelimbs began to lengthen.
They directly sliced off the front half of the flagship.
After sweeping past the warship, Kurnugi circled once in the air, then transformed back into human form and landed on the deck, standing opposite Ajeel.
Ajeel's expression turned ugly as he glared viciously at Kurnugi.
"It's you, the giant dragon that roared inside the Alvarez Empire!"
"I am your Lord Kurnugi, the Sword Saint Dragon!"
...
Below, the Council's First Assault Unit led by Richard also began fighting Ajeel's troops.
Richard and Arcadios worked together against Bakel and Karim.
Arcadios's footwork shifted and darted constantly, toying with Bakel, who had nothing but brute strength.
Richard, meanwhile, went all out from the beginning, immediately activating his Heaven's Eye and casting all kinds of earth Magic.
"Why invade? Isn't love better?"
Richard stretched out a hand, and the ground beneath Karim's feet instantly softened, causing Karim's legs to sink into the mud.
The five female Mages created through Personality Enchant wielded long spears and cooperated flawlessly.
Without any truly powerful Mage to block them, they tore through the battlefield as if no one could stop them.
Bakel, who had been pushed into genuine anger, also began fighting seriously.
Arcadios immediately fell into a difficult battle.
Kurnugi was currently wielding twin swords, displaying a sword technique he had newly learned from the Fairy Tail library.
It was the sword skill of a former great sword attendant.
"Light-Splitting Shadow Slash!"
This sword technique won through speed. It was said to cut even light and shadow, and once the blade moved, it shone like a sword of light.
Ajeel was no weakling either.
His hands turned into sand swords as he crossed blades with Kurnugi.
However, Kurnugi's swordsmanship carried the power of the Sword Saint Dragon, making it quite troublesome for Ajeel.
His sand swords quickly began failing to hold up.
And Kurnugi seemed to grow braver the longer they fought.
After clashing swords for several minutes, Ajeel faintly felt that he could no longer keep up with Kurnugi's blades.
Ajeel immediately pulled back some distance.
"Sandstorm!"
Anyone caught inside the sandstorm would temporarily be unable to use Magic.
However, this was the second time Ajeel's move had failed against a Fairy Tail member.
He had used this move before against Natsu, so Kurnugi was already prepared.
He crossed his twin swords in front of him and slashed out two black tornadoes, directly destroying Ajeel's sandstorm.
Kurnugi swung both swords together, using the blades to reflect sunlight and other light sources. The sword-light phantoms confused Ajeel's vision.
In Ajeel's eyes, Kurnugi's twin swords suddenly multiplied.
Two swords.
Four swords.
In an instant, they became sixteen swords, and the number was still increasing.
Ajeel suddenly felt dizzy. He quickly shook his head, but by the time he recovered, Kurnugi had already closed in.
Kurnugi crouched halfway down, holding his swords in both hands with the blades crossed outside his thighs, then slashed diagonally upward.
A cross-shaped flash of light appeared across Ajeel's chest, and sword energy gathered into a pillar of light that surrounded him.
The world seemed to lose color as the sword energy shot straight into the sky!
...
Kardia Cathedral—
Freed, who was kneeling on one knee and supporting the activation of the runes, suddenly opened his eyes.
"The runes... A gap has appeared in the runes!"
Bickslow hurriedly contacted the guild through his headset.
"Report. Freed says a gap has appeared. Please stay alert."
Wahl's puppet body, together with his Weakness Soldiers, had their Magic Power perception hidden personally by Zeref.
After descending from the southern army, they circled most of the way around and launched a surprise attack on Magnolia at top speed.
After receiving the intelligence, Mavis immediately made a decision.
"Magic Barrier Particles removed! It may be the mechanized Wahl or Bloodman the God of Death! Guild defense group, prepare to meet the enemy!"
To maximize its defensive power, Precht's Amaterasu defensive formation covered only the area around the guild.
"Yes!"
The loud responses came from the nearly one-hundred-year-old Makarov and the more-than-one-hundred-year-old Precht.
...
"This level is nothing at all."
Puppet Wahl stood with his hands behind his back, his face sinister and his tone full of disdain.
"I will let them properly taste the power of the Alvarez Empire!"
...
Lucy and Levy also nodded.
The two of them had been left at the guild by Raizel and had not gone to the frontal battlefield.
It was not because they were weak
Rather, Raizel felt the guild's internal defense needed to be strengthened as well, so he had kept them here.
The battle in the south near Hargeon had also begun.
Wolfheim transformed into a giant beastman and swept across the battlefield like a meat grinder.
The Dragon Slayer group, who did not dare ride vehicles, fought on the ground.
"Sky Dragon, Poison Dragon, Iron Dragon, White Dragon, Shadow Dragon, Fire Dragon... Roar!"
The six Dragon Slayer Mages fired their roars together.
Lily secretly glanced over.
"To think we would see a sight like this..."
Carla kicked an imperial soldier flying.
"There's no time to be sentimental!"
Carla and Lily transformed into battle mode.
"I never expected there would come a day when I'd fight side by side with little cats."
The captain of the Hungry Wolf Knights, holding two giant scythes, sighed emotionally.
Kamikia casually threw out paper slips and retorted,
"Captain, those are clearly big cats."
"Rock-Iron Wall: Chain!"
Jura pressed his hands together, and a row of rock walls blocked the Alvarez army's artillery fire.
"Rock-Iron Fist!"
"As expected of Mr. Jura!"
...
Meanwhile, Laxus faced Wahl the Judge's true body, while Jellal faced Neinhart.
The northern army was led by War Princess Dimaria and Brandish. Aside from the army itself, Invel had also assigned them many powerful Mages.
If only Brandish were not doing the work without putting in effort...
Brandish was still fighting, but she was not fighting seriously.
She had chosen Ur as her opponent.
The moment their eyes met, it began.
An acting showdown!
Considering Ur's strength was genuinely decent, Dimaria could not find too much fault with it for the time being.
Not that she had the time to find fault anyway.
Because she had fallen into a difficult battle herself.
The combined assault of Ultear, Erza, and Kagura!