"ERZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
As the Fairy Tail guild members cried openly, overwhelmed by the sheer, unyielding power Erza had just displayed, the rest of the stadium was left completely speechless. In that single, bloody hour, the public's perception of Fairy Tail violently shifted. They weren't just a washed-up guild scraping by on pure luck anymore. They were absolute powerhouses. By soloing the Pandemonium event, Erza had undeniably reclaimed her title as the strongest female mage in Fiore.
"Amazing! Amazing! Absolutely amazing!" Chapati Lola screamed into his microphone, practically vibrating with hype.
No one could believe what they had just witnessed.
"Hmm..."
"What?"
While everyone else in the stadium was in a daze, Finn remained completely calm. However, he found himself distracted. Cana Alberona, despite being deeply intoxicated, had practically glued herself to his side and was staring at him intently.
"No, you just really remind me of someone," Cana murmured, shaking her head as she took another swig from her bottle. She didn't hold back her thoughts.
"Why do you say that?" Finn raised his eyebrows behind his mask.
"It's just a gut feeling," Cana replied, flashing a highly mischievous, knowing smile. "But, like in gambling, my gut feelings are usually dead right."
"...Instead of trying to try to guess my identity, you should probably focus on the next event," Finn sighed, cleanly dodging the topic. "Since your guildmate completely cleared out the Pandemonium, the organizers are scrambling to set up a replacement game."
"I don't really care what it is. I'm absolutely confident I can win. Well, except..."
Cana trailed off. Even if she had to face Jura Neekis, she wouldn't be afraid. Her father was Gildarts Clive—arguably the strongest active mage on the continent. Unlike other mages who relied on "the power of friendship" or sudden plot-armor boosts, Gildarts was just naturally, overwhelmingly strong. Cana had inherited a fraction of that raw potential.
However, her sharp intuition told her that she likely couldn't beat Finn. She trusted her gut implicitly, and watching him effortlessly dominate Natsu and Jellal simultaneously the day before had proven exactly how monstrous his magical reserves were.
"Don't worry," Finn offered smoothly. "The upcoming game is entirely in your favor."
"Is it?" Cana looked at him, her eyes narrowing curiously. "How do you know that?"
"Just a feeling."
"..."
Cana's lips twitched in annoyance at his vague answer. Strangely, as she stood closely beside him, she suddenly felt an intense, burning wave of hostile stares locking onto her back. When she leaned in even closer to test the waters, the murderous intent in the air practically doubled.
"...What exactly are you doing?" Finn asked, completely speechless as to why she was suddenly invading his personal space. Still, he was internally grateful that during their private training sessions over the last few months, he had subtly convinced her to upgrade her wardrobe. While her outfit was still highly revealing, it was nowhere near as indecent as her old bikini top.
"Hehehe... this is interesting," Cana laughed, thoroughly enjoying the dark, jealous glares shooting toward her from the Fairy Tail area—specifically from Lisanna and Mirajane.
"Don't play with fire. You might actually get stabbed in an alleyway later," Finn warned her dryly.
"Oh, don't worry about me. You should be worried about yourself!" Cana shot back, leaning in with a smirk. "As such a charming, secretive man, if you walk around Crocus at night, you might just get ambushed by random women."
"...."
Has Earthland really become an unsafe environment for men, too? Finn seriously considered staying indoors for the remainder of the tournament.
Regardless of Cana's teasing, the organizers finally managed to wheel out the replacement game for the remaining five competitors.
"Introducing the Magic Power Finder, or MPF!" Mato announced with a dramatic flourish as a large, spherical mechanical device was rolled into the center of the arena. "When you strike this machine with your magic, it instantly calculates the raw output and assigns it a numerical value! We will rank the remaining wizards based entirely on these raw scores!"
"See?"
Finn glanced down at Cana. It was exactly as he had predicted.
Frankly, the event was brutally simple. It required absolutely no tactical thought or stamina. You simply dump your absolute strongest, most devastating magical attack into the machine, and the one with the highest number wins. For someone wielding a nuke like Fairy Glitter, it was an automatic win.
"How did you actually know that?" Cana took another drink, her eyes locked onto him. Her hunch was proving more and more correct. Only one specific person knew she had the confidence and the firepower for a raw output test like this.
Up in the Fairy Tail B dugout, the rest of her team was growing incredibly restless.
"Dammit, stop flirting with that masked guy!" Gajeel yelled.
"Stop playing around and focus, Cana!" Laxus grunted, crossing his arms.
"We are getting absolutely nothing out of her today," Juvia sighed helplessly.
Meanwhile, Mirajane simply narrowed her eyes, staring directly at Finn with a dangerously sweet expression.
"Look, Mira's noticing you, too," Cana laughed, brazenly attempting to link her arm through Finn's.
Finn smoothly sidestepped, completely dodging her grasp. "Don't do something stupid. Just focus on the event, or I will forcibly sober you up right now."
He knew perfectly well that despite her drunkard persona, Cana possessed one of the sharpest and most emotionally intelligent minds in Fairy Tail.
"Tsk! Am I really that unattractive to you?" Cana snorted, crossing her arms and pouting. "Fine. But you had better tell me exactly why you're wearing that stupid disguise later."
Cana was incredibly curious. If her hunch was correct, why was he hiding?
"Wait until the Grand Magic Games are completely over," Finn replied softly, keeping his voice down. "Everyone else is being patient, so you should be too."
In reality, Finn knew perfectly well that the sharpest women he was intimately involved with had likely already figured out his identity. Erza, Mirajane, and Cana all had incredible intuition. Yet, it felt as though they were all biding their time, holding back like water behind a cracking dam. Once this tournament ended, he knew the floodgates would burst and he would have to answer to all of them.
But right now, he still had a kingdom to conquer.
"Well, there are three days left. You can't escape me after that," Cana promised.
As they bickered, Millianna of Mermaid Heel stepped forward as the first competitor.
"Kitten Blast!"
A magical circle rapidly expanded as Millianna fired a twisting, concentrated tube of magical energy directly into the sensor pad.
THUWAAAM!
The digital display above the machine rapidly ticked upward before locking onto a number: 365.
The stadium murmured in confusion. Without a baseline, the audience had absolutely no idea if 365 was a pathetic score or a legendary one.
Fortunately, Captain Lahar leaned into his microphone to provide context. "The Rune Knights actually utilize this exact device for our internal military training. I can assure you, a score of 365 is incredibly high. It is roughly equivalent to the maximum output of a standard Rune Knight Unit Commander."
With the baseline established, the remaining competitors stepped up one by one.
As expected, Hibiki Lates scored the lowest. His Archive magic was purely designed for data processing and telepathic communication, not raw destruction. He tapped the machine, resulting in a pathetic score of 92.
"Ugh..." Hibiki hung his head in deep depression.
"Haha!" Cana openly laughed at him.
"Don't laugh at him," Finn reprimanded lightly.
"Aren't you laughing behind that mask?" Cana countered instantly.
"....Ugh." Finn couldn't deny it.
If this had been any other day, Hibiki, the notorious playboy of Blue Pegasus, might have tried to smoothly flirt with Cana to recover his pride. But seeing her standing so closely beside the terrifying masked leader of Heavenly Blue, his survival instincts flared. He decided it was safer to keep his distance.
"Finn-san, watch me!"
A telepathic voice suddenly echoed in Finn's mind. Orga stepped up to the plate, visibly winking at Finn before squaring his broad shoulders and channeling an absurd amount of dark magic.
"120mm Black Thunder Cannon!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A massive, devastating pillar of black lightning completely engulfed the machine.
The digital numbers spun wildly before locking in: 3825.
The stadium erupted in shock. That single blast was nearly ten times stronger than a Rune Knight Commander!
Orga smirked, incredibly proud of himself. Fifth place? Yeah right! He firmly believed that score was enough to secure second place overall. He fully expected Finn to take first, but nobody else was beating 3825!
Then, Jura Neekis calmly stepped onto the field.
The Wizard Saint didn't boast or pose. He simply focused his magic and struck the earth.
"Fuji Eruption!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
The ground beneath the machine violently exploded upwards, unleashing a devastating, localized volcanic eruption of pure earth magic!
The sheer concussive force rattled the entire stadium.
The numbers on the MPF display skyrocketed, finally stopping at a staggering 8544.
"What do you think?" Cana asked, a wide, confident grin spreading across her face.
"You're better," Finn replied without a second of hesitation.
"Hehe, you really do know me best," Cana practically beamed. She shoved the bottle of wine directly into Finn's chest. "Hold my booze for a minute."
"..." Finn blankly stared down at the bottle.
"You can have a drink if you want," Cana winked playfully over her shoulder as she walked toward the machine. "You might even get a taste of my saliva in there."
There were a great many things Finn wanted to say in response to that.
Yet, Finn knew that within this place, there were definitely heavily cultured perverts in this stadium who would pay millions of Jewels for that exact bottle.
But as Cana stepped up to the plate, the entire stadium's focus narrowed exclusively onto the final two competitors: Cana of Fairy Tail and Finn of Heavenly Blue.