"Fairy Tail's Lucy has been eliminated by Mermaid Heel's Kagura!"
"Fairy Tail's Marcus has been eliminated by Blue Pegasus's Ichiya!"
"Fairy Tail's Alzack has been eliminated by Four Headed Cerberus's Bacchus!"
"Fairy Tail's Bisca has been eliminated by Lamia Scale's Jura!"
Four announcements rang out in rapid succession, plunging the arena into an uproar.
Fairy Tail had lost four members almost the moment the battle began. Even more shocking was who had eliminated them. Each defeat came at the hands of a guild leader from the previous round's defending champions.
To the spectators, it looked obvious. The major guilds had decided Fairy Tail was too dangerous and moved to erase them first.
Rowan Mercer heard the announcements mid-flight and initially reached the same conclusion. Then he dismissed it just as quickly.
Mermaid Heel aside, Blue Pegasus and Four Headed Cerberus had deep ties to Fairy Tail. Their masters were former Fairy Tail members. Blue Pegasus had even searched for Fairy Tail relentlessly after Tenrou Island vanished. Rowan himself had healed their injured mages.
They wouldn't do this.
Lamia Scale was the same. Jura and Lyon were proud, straightforward people. Schemes like this weren't their style.
If anyone would resort to dirty tactics, it would be Sabertooth.
Yet Sabertooth wasn't among the four.
"Either this is coincidence," Rowan muttered, "or something happened that I don't know about."
He shrugged it off.
Lucy and the others had only been there to fill numbers. With them eliminated, he no longer had to worry about holding back wide-area magic. In fact, it made things easier.
Then his perception caught something else.
Five distinct clusters of magical power entered his range simultaneously, all moving toward him.
Rowan stopped in midair.
"…Now this is interesting."
This wasn't random anymore. It was coordinated.
Rather than hunting more points, Rowan descended and landed in the open street, waiting.
Two minutes later, twenty-five mages arrived together.
The leaders of the five defending guilds stood at the front.
Minerva stepped forward, fan in hand, her smile sharp. "Rowan Mercer, you're strong. But what do you do now?"
Rowan ignored her and looked instead at the other four leaders.
"I understand Sabertooth pulling something like this," he said calmly. "But you four. Why?"
His gaze hardened.
"Think carefully before you answer. What you say will decide how badly you're injured in a moment."
Jura stepped forward, guilt written plainly on his face. "Each of our guilds lost someone this morning. We were told that if we didn't work together to eliminate you, they wouldn't come back alive."
He didn't need to finish.
Rowan understood immediately.
Kidnapping. One hostage per guild. A crude tactic, but devastatingly effective against decent people.
"You're not worried about disqualification?" Rowan asked, finally turning his eyes toward Minerva. "After this, they'll report you to the royal court."
Minerva laughed softly and shook her head. "They have no proof. And you don't need to know anything else."
Rowan's eyes narrowed.
"So that's it. Someone above you is backing this."
Everything clicked.
The instant eliminations. The perfect positioning. The timing.
The royal court had interfered.
They had fed Sabertooth information about the match in advance. They had manipulated the deployment so Lucy and the others were placed near the five guild leaders. And afterward, they ensured the leaders could regroup and find Rowan immediately.
That was why Minerva was so confident. With the palace involved, there would be no consequences.
Their goal was obvious.
Defeat Rowan here, then take back the Eclipse Gate.
"Well," Rowan said, a slow smile forming, "you miscalculated."
Twenty-five elite mages stood before him. Nearly all were near S-Class. Several were top-tier S-Class. More than one was a Wizard Saint.
Together, they could likely bring down even one of Ishgar's Four.
But Rowan wasn't afraid of numbers.
He feared neither attrition nor encirclement.
"Attack together," Minerva ordered sharply. "Eliminate him, and your guild members are released. Then we fight fairly for the title."
The others activated their magic, faces heavy with reluctance.
Rowan spread his wings and rose into the air.
"Fine," he said lightly. "I'll take all of you at once. Saves time."
A massive magic circle ignited beneath him.
"Giant Magic: Transformation."
His body began to expand.
Dozens of meters. Hundreds. Thousands.
The streets vanished beneath his shadow.
Buildings became toys.
The growth didn't stop until his form blotted out the sky itself.
Eight thousand meters.
A colossal cat loomed above the city, fur like mountains, eyes like twin moons.
Rowan had never stopped refining Giant Magic. In his current form, its effect was even more pronounced than when he transformed into a dragon. A dragon's body was already too perfect. A cat's wasn't.
That made the amplification absurd.
Below, mages froze in place.
In the stands, the audience fell silent.
The temporary city looked like a dollhouse beneath him.
A city simply wasn't big enough to hold a cat like this.
...
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