So how did Erza defeat Midnight?
The answer was actually quite simple.
The Heaven's Wheel Armor.
As mentioned before, the weaknesses of Reflector Magic were that it could not directly distort living beings and could only twist one area of space at a time.
However, Erza's Heaven's Wheel Armor allowed her to control large numbers of swords and attack simultaneously from every direction.
Faced with this situation, Midnight had no choice but to distort space and teleport away.
The problem was that Erza could teleport too.
She had eaten the Warp-Warp Fruit and could instantly move to any location within her sight.
The moment Midnight teleported, Erza followed him.
She instantly appeared directly in front of Midnight and swung her sword.
Midnight was greatly startled and hurriedly twisted the armor on Erza's body, attempting to torture her and render her unable to fight.
But Erza had not only eaten the Warp-Warp Fruit.
She had also eaten the Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit.
This fruit allowed her to transform any part of her body into incomparably hard diamond, turning her into a Diamond Human.
The instant she felt her armor being twisted, Erza transformed into diamond.
The distorted armor could not harm her in the slightest.
Erza swung her sword and sent Midnight flying.
Had she not shown mercy, that single slash would have cut Midnight in half.
Even so, the instant he struck the ground, Midnight fell into a deep coma.
Rowan leisurely walked over and copied Midnight's Reflector Magic.
It was quite useful.
Afterward, he shifted his gaze to another battlefield.
Jura, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, was currently fighting Hoteye of Oración Seis.
Hoteye used Earth Magic, which allowed him to soften solid earth and stone.
In addition, he possessed Heavenly Eye Magic, allowing him to see through everything.
In the original story, these two types of magic allowed Hoteye to fight Jura on equal terms.
But Jura already understood Hoteye's abilities this time and had prepared countermeasures in advance, so the battle was gradually tilting in his favor.
Defeating Hoteye was only a matter of time.
Rowan then looked toward another battlefield.
Natsu was fighting Cobra of Oración Seis.
Like Natsu, Cobra was a Dragon Slayer Mage.
However, his Dragon Slayer Magic had not been taught to him by an actual dragon. Like Laxus, he had become a Dragon Slayer by having a Dragon Lacrima implanted into his body.
His magic was Poison Dragon Slayer Magic.
He could manipulate venom containing neurotoxins, and consuming poisonous substances restored his strength.
His poison could paralyze an opponent's body.
That alone was not particularly troublesome.
Poison might be annoying, but as long as one remained careful, it would not cause too many problems.
The real issue was that Cobra was also proficient in Sound Magic.
This magic allowed Cobra's ears to hear everything, including information he wanted to know, as well as anyone's inner voice and thoughts.
It was practically as absurd as Observation Haki.
No, it was even more outrageous than Observation Haki.
Magic truly did not follow reason.
It could even allow someone to hear thoughts.
As a result, no matter what move Natsu attempted during battle, Cobra would know about it in advance and calmly counter it.
In the original story, Cobra had used Sound Magic to eavesdrop on Natsu's thoughts and completely suppress him.
Of course, this magic was not without weaknesses.
Its greatest flaw was that the user's ears were far too sensitive.
In the end, Cobra had been defeated by Natsu roaring at full force like a dragon.
This time, however, all of Oración Seis's information had already been exposed.
Naturally, the battle between Natsu and Cobra had changed completely.
The moment the fight began, Natsu roared with all his strength, preventing Cobra from concentrating because of the overwhelming noise.
Cobra was struck by Natsu repeatedly and driven into a desperate situation.
His defeat was only a matter of time.
Rowan was already prepared to copy Cobra's magic.
Although Sound Magic had flaws, it was still an exceptional form of magic worth copying.
Afterward, Rowan shifted his attention toward Lucy.
The battle between Lucy and Angel had also reached a fever pitch.
Because Rowan had placed a barrier around Lucy to protect her from harm, Lucy completely let herself go and began beating Angel relentlessly.
She did not bother dodging any of Angel's attacks.
This infuriated Angel.
Her attacks could not harm Lucy, while she herself had to dodge Lucy's attacks.
How was she supposed to fight like this?
At that moment, Angel truly wanted to shout that her opponent was cheating.
Rowan glanced over before withdrawing his gaze.
Had this been Angel seven years later, Rowan would have been interested in copying her magic.
But the current Angel was not worth it.
At present, Angel was purely a Celestial Spirit Mage. All her combat power depended on the Celestial Spirits under contract with her.
However, Angel seven years later was completely different.
In the original story, after Angel lost to Lucy in this battle, all her Celestial Spirits became Lucy's spoils of war.
Having lost her Celestial Spirits, Angel reflected deeply and abandoned the path of a Celestial Spirit Mage, becoming a traditional mage instead.
She learned Angel Magic.
It was a rare form of magic that used gold coins as a medium to summon various angels for battle.
Using twenty gold coins, she could summon the powerful Angel of Strength, Chisela.
Using thirty gold coins, she could summon the Angel of Victory, Barakiel, who could use Dark Magic.
Using forty gold coins, she could summon the Angel of Sunlight, Shamshiel, who could use Light Magic.
Without question, it was a pay-to-win magic.
But it was also an extremely powerful one.
Unfortunately, Angel had not learned this magic yet.
Naturally, Rowan could not copy it.
Next, his gaze fell upon Racer of Oración Seis.
This fellow used Slow Magic, which reduced the target's perception of speed within a certain range around him.
Simply put, it was magic that made the target feel slower.
Although Racer himself did not actually become faster, in his opponent's eyes, he appeared to move at an unprecedented speed.
In the original story, he used this trick to deceive Gray and suppress him for a time.
But this time, Gray already knew the details of his ability and naturally would not fall for it.
The moment Racer began running, Gray directly created a layer of ice over the ground, making it incomparably slippery.
The instant Racer stepped onto the icy surface, he lost his footing.
He slid all the way toward Gray and was frozen into an ice sculpture.
After dealing with this troublesome opponent, Gray hurried over to help his teacher, Ur.
At this moment, Ur was chasing Brain and beating him relentlessly.
Brain, the leader of Oración Seis, had once served as the Director of the Magic Development Bureau under the Magic Council.
Before becoming its director, Brain had actually been a father with children and family responsibilities.
However, bandits attacked the village where his deceased wife and children lived, destroying his family.
By the time Brain returned, his children were already dead.
Overwhelmed by guilt for failing to fulfill his late wife's request, he developed a second personality that existed solely to destroy.
Consumed by hatred, Brain devastated the surrounding area and caused the village's destruction.
While serving as Director of the Magic Development Bureau, he had secretly engaged in child trafficking.
Ur had trusted this man far too much, resulting in her separation from Ultear and the chain of tragedies that followed.
Now that Ur had been resurrected and learned the entire truth, her hatred for Brain had never diminished.
Thus, after saying goodbye to Ultear, she embarked upon a journey to hunt Brain down.
Brain had been pursued so relentlessly by the resurrected Ur that he had no time to interfere with Erza and the others.
"Ice-Make Magic: Ice Knights!!!"
Under Ur's creation, one powerful knight of ice after another chased Brain down.
Naturally, Brain was no pushover.
He was proficient in Dark Magic and could freely manipulate darkness.
Yet against Ur's Ice Knights, he was steadily driven backward.
Gray and Lyon had both trained under Ur and were Ice-Make Mages.
But one could only create objects such as ice walls, nets, spikes, and hammers.
The other was slightly more skilled and could create ice fists, as well as animals such as giant eagles, white tigers, and great apes.
But compared with Ur, they were still far behind.
Ur was the one who had truly developed Ice-Make Magic to its absolute limit.
With a casual movement, she created an enormous number of Ice Knights and directly formed an entire knightly army.
That was why Ur had dared to pursue Oración Seis alone.
Oración Seis might have been powerful, but against Ur, who could create an army by herself, they were genuinely insufficient.
Before Erza and the others arrived, Ur had single-handedly suppressed Oración Seis and beaten them into a miserable state.
After Erza's group arrived, Ur withdrew most of her power and left the other members to them, focusing entirely on Brain.
Brain immediately felt immense pressure.
He pushed his Dark Magic to its limits.
Dark Rondo, Dark Capriccio, and one strange technique after another were unleashed.
But Ur's Ice Knights seemed endless.
Whenever one was destroyed, two more rose to replace it.
Brain went numb.
Yet he did not dare stop.
The moment he did, Ur, whose eyes had already turned red from killing intent, might genuinely finish him off.
But at that moment, the other members of Oración Seis were defeated one after another.
Brain's alternate personality gradually began to awaken.
Brain's other personality was called Zero.
Because he desired complete destruction, he sought to reduce all things with form into nothingness.
His magical power was so vicious and overwhelming that Brain used Living Link Magic to seal Zero with six locks.
Those six locks were the six members of Oración Seis.
As the members of Oración Seis were defeated one after another,
the seals gradually shattered.
The alternate personality began to awaken, and violent, terrifying magical power completely erupted from Brain's body.
Seeing this, the magical energy within Ur also began boiling.
It was only Zero.
What was so impressive about him?
She stared coldly at Brain's awakening alternate personality and roared,
"Iced Shell!!!"