Ace—now a transcendent dragon warrior clad head to toe in crimson Red Digizoid armor—slowly lifted his head.
Beneath his visor, his eyes burned with golden-red flames.
With every breath, scorching, superheated air hissed through the vents of his faceplate.
Laxus stared at EmperorGreymon from across the crater, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
He could sense that Ace's aura had completely changed.
This wasn't merely an enhancement of magical power; it was a fundamental leap in his hierarchy of existence.
Though it sounded exaggerated, Laxus felt as if he were looking at a mortal who had just ascended to the realm of a god.
What made Laxus's heart race even faster were the raw "concepts" radiating from that armor and the massive broadsword.
The concept of flame.
The concept of dragons.
The concept of absolute, unyielding evolution.
These forces intertwined, forming a higher-dimensional presence that Laxus's magic-sensing instincts couldn't even fully comprehend.
"So this is your trump card..." Laxus murmured, his gaze sharpening like a blade.
A heart-stopping aura erupted from the Dragon Slayer.
All five pairs of his lightning wings fully expanded, the membranes sparking violently against the air.
The dark gold lightning arcing across his newly formed lightning blade grew even more chaotic, charring the stone floor wherever the tip pointed.
No more holding back.
The ground beneath Laxus's feet exploded as he transformed into a golden thunderbolt, shattering the sound barrier as he charged straight at EmperorGreymon!
His right fist, wreathed in furious, blood-tinged lightning, tore through the air, leaving a vacuum trail in its wake.
This was his absolute strongest physical attack, combining his Dragon Slayer magic with every ounce of his raw, physical might.
The force of this punch was enough to reduce a small mountain to dust.
Facing this apocalyptic strike, EmperorGreymon—Ace—moved.
He simply took one step forward, drew his right fist back to his waist, and met Laxus's lightning-charged strike with a straightforward punch of his own!
There was no shouted technique name.
No charging roar.
It was just the simplest, most direct, most violent straight punch.
But the moment his fist shot forward, the flaming dragon heads forged into his gauntlets simultaneously opened their jaws, spewing scorching breath.
The massive Dragon Soul Sword on his back hummed with a fierce resonance, its golden patterns glowing in perfect sync.
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!
Fists collided.
Time seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.
Then, a terrifying, circular shockwave exploded outward from the two combatants!
Wherever the shockwave passed, the ground was completely ripped apart.
The rubble was vaporized by the sheer heat before it could even scatter.
The ruins within a hundred-meter radius were utterly pulverized, while the distant remains of the cathedral walls collapsed like dominos.
Laxus's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
His full-powered, life-burning strike had been completely blocked by pure physical strength—no, it was the raw power of that armor.
But it was more than just a block.
Laxus could feel the lightning on his fist rapidly "evaporating."
It wasn't being neutralized or shattered but fundamentally suppressed.
The absolute heat of EmperorGreymon's flames was burning away the lightning.
The concept of the Dragon Spirit was suppressing the Dragon Slayer.
"How is this possible..." Laxus gritted his teeth, frantically channeling every last drop of magic in his body into his right arm.
The lightning flared, desperately trying to break through the wall of fire.
Beneath his faceplate, Ace evaluated the impact.
Laxus was undoubtedly using his absolute maximum power.
The force behind this punch easily rivaled the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints.
However, EmperorGreymon's defensive capabilities far exceeded Ace's expectations.
By the time the kinetic force passed through the Red Digizoid armor and the buffer of his Digital Soul, the impact felt negligible to Ace's actual body.
"Is this his limit?" Ace wondered to himself. "Let's push it."
He decided to add more fuel to the fire.
"Digital Soul... Full Release!"
Hum!
A blinding, crimson-gold radiance erupted from EmperorGreymon's body!
it was the pure, unadulterated "evolutionary energy" originating from the very core of the Digital World.
The light washed over his armor like a tidal wave, making the metal look even more solid and dazzling.
The flames licking off the Dragon Soul Sword shifted from crimson to a searing white-gold, their temperature skyrocketing.
Laxus's expression shifted to pure horror.
He felt Ace's energy level leap upward yet again.
If the clash had been a stalemate just a second ago, it was now a total, one-sided suppression.
The moment Laxus's lightning touched the crimson-gold radiance, it was forcibly broken down, purified, and absorbed by the flames.
He couldn't hold this clash any longer.
Lightning exploded at Laxus's feet as he broke the clash, instantly retreating dozens of meters.
But even as he leaped backward, his hands were already flashing through complex seals.
His five pairs of lightning wings beat frantically, leaving a massive web of electrical traps in the air.
"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd: Thousand-Layer Prison!"
Thousands of golden lightning bolts descended from the sky, each striking with pinpoint precision toward EmperorGreymon.
The bolts wove together in mid-air, forming a massive, inescapable cage of pure electricity that completely sealed Ace inside.
The density of the lightning was terrifying—the air inside the cage was completely ionized, emitting the heavy, pungent smell of ozone.
This was one of Laxus's ultimate trapping techniques, a spell strong enough to paralyze and crush even the toughest S-Class mages.
But Ace didn't even glance at the bars of lightning.
He simply raised his left hand, spread his fingers, and made a gentle grasping motion toward the electrical cage.
Fwoosh!
Centered around EmperorGreymon, a torrent of pure white fire erupted.
This was no ordinary fire; these were the absolute flames of the Legendary Ten Warriors, capable of burning through magic, energy, and impurities.
The moment the white flames touched the cage, the violent lightning bolts dissolved, evaporated, and vanished as if encountering their natural predator.
Three seconds.
In just three seconds, Laxus's ultimate lightning prison was completely burned away into nothingness.
Laxus's pupils shrank, but his combat instincts took over.
His body transformed into a bolt of lightning, appearing almost instantaneously in the air directly above EmperorGreymon.
He coiled every last ounce of his intensely compressed lightning into his right leg, bringing it crashing down like a battle-axe!
The speed and power of this dropkick were the absolute peak of Laxus's life.
Before his heel even landed, the sheer wind pressure had already carved a ten-meter-wide crater into the floor beneath Ace.
But EmperorGreymon's response was effortlessly simple.
He merely stepped forward, sank his right shoulder, and slammed it upward to meet the falling Dragon Slayer.
BOOM!!!!!!
A deafening impact echoed across the ruins.
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