Makarov closed his eyes in resignation.
Fairy Tail would not end; he couldn't stop his teacher's fall from grace, but this will would surely be passed down... However, that fatal attack failed to land for a long time.
The little old man opened his eyes in confusion, looking up to see Hades' palm right before him, and a hand... firmly grasping his wrist.
No matter how powerful Hades' magic was, it couldn't budge that hand.
Snapping back to his senses, Makarov hurriedly backed away. The young man's irritatingly smug smile immediately came into view, and he spoke in pleasant surprise, "Hope! So it's you, kid..."
Hope waved with a smile. "Yo~ Master. We haven't seen each other for half a day; how did you end up getting hung up and thrashed by a guy even older than you? This makes me, the Fourth Generation Master, lose a lot of face."
Makarov's mood, which had just improved, immediately soured. Every time he wanted to show Hope some respect, the kid would open his mouth... He really was asking for a beating!
Looking at the young man who was completely ignoring him, Hades gave a cold snort. Dark magic burned fiercely along Hope's arm like flames.
Hope instinctively let go. It wasn't that he was wary of Hades' magic, but mainly because he didn't want his clothes to get ruined.
In Hades' eyes, however, it didn't seem that way. While backing up, he sized Hope up. The moment their gazes met in mid-air, he already understood the young man's capabilities.
"You're the young man who defeated Bluenote? Not bad. Makarov has good eyes to choose you as the next Fairy Tail Master."
"True, true."
Hope tilted his head back proudly. "You have no idea, to beg me to be the Master, the little old man even—"
Before he could finish, Hope saw out of the corner of his eye that Makarov was casually shaking a fist larger than a sandbag, so he immediately straightened up.
"Hmph, you evil old ghost Precht!"
"Your plan has already failed. Surrender now. Considering your past contributions to the guild, I'll allow you to turn yourself in."
Looking at the suddenly righteous Hope, Hades felt the kid's head wasn't quite right, but then again, which powerful Mage didn't have their quirks?
Hades didn't care about the offense. The moment Hope appeared, he had already ignored Makarov. "Hope, why not join my guild? If you come, you'll be the Vice Guild Master of 'Grimoire Heart,' second only to one."
"Oh? Shouldn't your second-in-command be this guy?"
Hope pulled out the card imprisoning Bluenote, causing Hades' pupils to shrink. The man he had spent a fortune on to save by buying an alchemical kidney had actually lost again.
And the new kidney had been blown up too... Hades suppressed his dissatisfaction. "Grimoire Heart has no need for trash. My offer still stands."
Hades was inviting him sincerely. He greatly admired Mages who possessed transcendent magical talent and could realize that talent. Moreover, to open the Great Magic World, the more high-level combatants, the better.
However, the result of his invitation was already predetermined.
"Sorry, I have no intention of changing guilds."
Hope refused without hesitation. Just kidding, everyone in Fairy Tail was an eccentric; he had already been molded into the Fairy Tail shape and loved this guild very much.
"Since I cannot have you, I'll just have to destroy your future with my own hands."
After a sigh, Hades' eyes turned completely cold. His black robes billowed without wind, and the surging dark magic made the entire coast begin to tremble.
Hope shrugged indifferently, and then his figure vanished from the spot like a phantom.
Hades' pupils constricted, and he leaned to the right almost purely on instinct.
Boom!
A palm wrapped in purple incantations grazed his old cheek. The violent magic directly blasted a wall of air through the sea behind him that failed to close for a long time.
"Reaction speed isn't bad, old man." The air currents blew Hope's hair into a wild dance, but the corner of his mouth curled into an excited arc.
Hades didn't respond; his counterattack poured out like a rainstorm.
Every move carried the power to tear through space, as dark magic and complex Formula were cast effortlessly from his hands. The ground cracked, trees turned to dust, and in just a few breaths, the coastal area where the two fought was already a mess.
Hope wove through the dense attacks. His movements seemed perilous, yet he always managed to dodge at the critical moment.
"Can you only hide?"
Hades' Voice carried a sneer. He slammed his hands together, and a massive black Magic Circle unfolded in the Sky. Dense dark chains fell like a torrential rain, covering every inch of space within a hundred-meter radius.
There was nowhere to hide.
Even Makarov, who had long since hidden in a safe spot to watch the show, couldn't help but worry a little for Hope.
Of course, he also knew that worry was unnecessary.
Bang!
An explosion shattered the countless approaching magic chains.
In front of Hope, a pink figure appeared with cat-ear-like shapes on both sides of its head, resembling a boxer. It wore studded black leather gauntlets with a small red button on the knuckle of the index finger.
"This is... 'Manifestation Arc'?!"
Hades looked at the suddenly appearing figure and immediately recognized it as an imaginary magical creation of the 'Manifestation Arc.' The intelligence was wrong; this kid actually mastered other Lost Magic as well.
"It's not magic, it's a Stand!"
Hope struck a pose that looked awkward but gave off a cool feeling, commanding the pink figure in front of him:
"Take his life! Killer Queen!"
The pink figure immediately charged at Hades. Although its speed wasn't very fast, it gave Hades an uneasy feeling.
He absolutely could not let it touch him.
Under Hades' control, a large number of magic chains stopped pestering Hope and instead turned like snakes to coil around 'Killer Queen.'
However, upon touching Killer Queen's body, those magic chains without exception turned into explosives and detonated around it.
The ability to turn objects into bombs... Hades narrowed his eyes, thinking of the bomb demon Jackal from Tartaros; they had the same ability.
Hades was truly a genius among geniuses. In just a few exchanges, he realized that 'Killer Queen' was an imaginary creation Hope had completed by combining 'Bomb Curse' and 'Manifestation Arc.'
"An interesting combination." Hades shook his numbed arm, but the admiration in his eyes turned into a deeper chill. "But it's not enough."
With a 'Amaterasu: Formula 24,' Hades instantly blasted the Killer Queen that had rushed in front of him to self-destruct into magic particles.
Hope gave a helpless smile. Time was too tight; he was so focused on showing off that he forgot 'Manifestation Arc' simply didn't have enough time to perfect his imagination.
Since he couldn't let Killer Queen pull off the classic 'Bites the Dust,' Hope would have to do it himself.
"Old man, there's no ship in the new era that can carry you. Just get the hell down!"
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