"Shade!!"
Jose slammed his palm onto the cracked earth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Surges of malevolent magical light erupted from beneath the surface, pulverizing the ground as they tore toward Kael in a jagged line of destruction.
Kael didn't flinch. He casually clenched his massive fist and drove a heavy punch into the oncoming magic.
Crack! Crack!
The atmosphere fractured on the spot, laced with jagged white fissures. A violent vibration wave ripped through the ground and met Jose's attack head-on.
BOOM——————!!
The collision unleashed a cataclysmic shockwave. The already battered arena groaned under the pressure as deep cracks spread across the entire structure like a spiderweb.
"Hold on to something!"
"Aaaaaah!"
Members of both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord braced themselves—shielding their faces from flying debris or gripping the railings with white-knuckled force to keep from being swept away by the gale. Beyond the stadium, the citizens of Onibus felt the earth heave beneath their feet; screams rang out as they scrambled farther from the epicenter.
Bang!
Kael burst through the wall of smoke, Murakumogiri raised high. With a thunderous roar, he brought the legendary blade down on Jose.
"Magic Shield!!"
Jose snapped his hands up, conjuring a shimmering violet barrier to intercept the strike.
Boom!!
The blade crashed into the shield with the weight of a mountain. The impact caved in the earth beneath Jose's feet, shattering stone into a thousand fragments.
Crrrk—!
A jagged crack opened across the surface of the "impenetrable" barrier.
"What?!"
Jose's eyes widened. He couldn't believe his defensive magic was buckling under sheer physical force.
"Dark Stream!"
Desperate to force Kael back, Jose fired several beams of concentrated black-purple energy. Kael simply rotated Murakumogiri with practiced ease, batting the beams aside one after another as if swatting flies.
Whoosh!
Kael planted his feet, gathered himself, and unleashed a massive horizontal sweep.
Jose sensed the danger and threw himself backward.
CRACK————!!
The sheer force of the slash cleaved the entire arena in two. The upper half of the massive stone structure tore free, lifted clean off its foundations—only to arc through the air and crash down in a roaring heap of rubble.
The spectators froze in collective shock. Whether Fairy Tail mages or the remnants of Phantom Lord, they stood slack-jawed, paralyzed by the scale of the destruction.
Jose's expression hardened. He had dismissed Kael as a child playing at hero, but what he was witnessing was outright monstrous. How can Makarov have someone like this under him? Envy curdled into poisonous rage. I can't let this brat live!
"Phantom Soldiers!!"
Jose summoned a horde of shadowy, ethereal warriors. They surged toward Kael like a dark tide, meant to drain the life from anything they touched.
Kael's fist began to hum with power. A translucent white sphere of compressed vibration formed around his knuckles.
"Haaa!"
Crack! Crack!
The air shattered again. The vibration wave didn't just repel the soldiers—it crushed them into nothing. The shockwave kept going, slamming into Jose before he could fully react.
Crrrk—!
His secondary barrier shattered like cheap glass.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Jose screamed as the force struck him squarely in the chest, sending him tumbling backward through layers of broken stone.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Guild Master!"
The Phantom Lord members cried out, faces drained of color.
"He did it! Kael's winning!"
Fairy Tail cheered, their spirits soaring.
Makarov, however, remained silent, eyes wide with disbelief. Is Kael really human? he wondered. Jose is a Ten Wizard Saint—one of the ten most powerful mages on the continent. And Kael isn't merely matching him… he's crushing him. How did he get this strong this fast?
Boom!
A pillar of dark, suffocating magic shot into the sky, blasting rubble aside. Jose rose from the debris, disheveled, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. His eyes had turned pitch-black, giving him the look of a vengeful demon. Above Onibus, the sky began to churn with dark, ominous clouds.
"You… damn brat… you've actually made me angry!"
Jose poured every last ounce of magic into his hands, compressing it into a pulsing black-purple sphere of pure malice.
"DEAD WAVE!!!"
A colossal beam of dark energy erupted, screaming toward Kael.
Kael gripped Murakumogiri with both hands, expression calm. At the blade's tip, a brilliant, transparent sphere of light appeared—the concentrated essence of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Kael swung downward, meeting the dark wave head-on.
BOOM——————!!
A blinding explosion swallowed the arena. A shockwave of heat and light expanded outward, disintegrating everything in its path. Makarov instantly expanded into his giant form, using his massive body as a shield to protect his guild. The Phantom Lord mages weren't as fortunate; many were hurled into the air like leaves in a storm.
The arena—already half-destroyed—finally gave out and collapsed into dust and debris.
"Haha… Hahaha… Hahahahahaha!"
Jose's manic laughter echoed through the settling haze.
"Finally! You're dead! No one survives that! Do you see, Makarov? This is what happens when you challenge a Wizard Saint! Your precious brat is nothing but ash!"
A voice drifted through the smoke.
"Hey. Don't go declaring people dead that early. It's bad luck."
Jose's laughter died in his throat.
"Gack—!"
As the haze thinned, a towering figure stepped forward. Kael stood in the center of the crater, white captain's coat fluttering in the wind. He was completely unscathed, his expression bored.
"No! That's impossible!"
Jose shrieked, on the edge of madness. "That was my strongest magic! No one—not even Makarov—could take that head-on without a scratch! You're lying! This is an illusion!"
Kael looked at him, his gaze carrying the weight of the "World's Strongest Man," Whitebeard.
"Hmm… I'll give you this: your magic has some bite. For a 'Wizard Saint,' you've got a few decent tricks. But overall?"
He paused, eyes steady.
"You're… so-so."
Fairy Tail stared, speechless. Calling a Wizard Saint "so-so" was the ultimate humiliation.
"You arrogant… little… BRAT!"
Jose roared, his magic flaring out of control. "If one blow won't do it, I'll hit you a hundred times! A thousand times! I'll tear you apart!"
Kael lifted a hand, cutting him off.
"There's no need for all that,"
Kael said, his voice flat and cold.
"One blow. I'll finish you in the next blow."