Chapter 188: You Can't Break Through My Defense
"Bastard... I originally didn't want to resort to this, but now I have no choice."
Midnight slowly stood up, his body trembling slightly as dark, ominous magical energy began to leak from his frame. The air around him grew heavy, suffocating, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Lucy Heartfilia, clutching her keys, took a step back, her eyes wide with apprehension. "What... what else do you want to do? The winner has already been decided! You've lost!"
"At the stroke of Midnight, my distortion reaches its limit... AHHHHHHHH!!"
Midnight roared loudly, a sound that seemed to tear at the very fabric of reality. His body was instantly contaminated by a thick, viscous black substance that erupted from his skin like oil. He began to swell, his limbs elongating and thickening with unnatural speed. Bones cracked and reshaped, flesh rippled, and in an instant, the slender, gothic young man transformed into a massive, grotesque monster of knotted muscle and dark energy.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
The monster's laughter was a thunderous boom that shook the ground. His eyes glowing with a malevolent crimson light.
"What?!" Jura Neekis, the Iron Rock, gasped, his usually stoic face crumbling into shock. "This magical power... it's monstrous!"
"I have no idea what your fate will be!" Midnight bellowed, his voice distorted and deep, reverberating through the ruins of Nirvana.
"Waaahhhh!!"
Midnight roared and charged in front of Ren. His massive form moved with terrifying speed, defying his size. The ground shattered wherever he passed, stone turning to dust under his heavy steps. He pressed his palm, condensed with an apocalyptic density of powerful energy, straight toward Ren.
BOOM—————!!
A terrifying explosion erupted, shattering half of Nirvana with its raw, unbridled power. The ancient stone structures of the capital of the ancients disintegrated instantly. Everyone present—Lucy, Gray, Jura, Sherry, and Lyon—was blown away by the blast wave, tumbling through the air like ragdolls.
"Ughhhhhh!!"
"Waaahhhh!!" ... Pffftt!!
The dust hadn't even settled when nightmare became reality. Two massive, writhing tentacles shot out from the smoke, moving faster than the eye could follow. They pierced through the chests of the allied mages with sickening squelches, stringing them up like skewers.
The bodies of Ren, Lucy, Jura, Sherry, Gray, and Lyon were all impaled, suspended in the air, blood dripping down to pool on the shattered stones below.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Midnight laughed maniacally, seeing his enemies decimated in a single stroke. "This is the end! The ultimate nightmare!"
Suddenly!
Ren's voice rang out, calm and indifferent, cutting through the maniacal laughter like a sharp blade: "Stop laughing! It's annoying."
"Gah————?!" Midnight's laughter choked in his throat.
The world seemed to fracture. The gruesome scene of impaled bodies and destroyed ruins flickered like a broken image.
"Your Illusion Magic is indeed good," Ren continued, his voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere. "First, you use illusions to deceive our sight, then you coordinate it with your own Spatial Magic—Reflector—to deceive hearing and touch. Deceiving three of the five senses is enough to create a highly realistic effect."
As he spoke, the "corpse" of Ren hanging on the tentacle faded away. The real Ren stood perfectly unharmed a few meters away, his hands in his pockets, looking bored.
"To be honest, I was almost fooled by you too. However, one weakness is still too obvious."
Midnight looked at Ren with a ferocious expression, his monster form flickering slightly as his concentration wavered. "What did you say?!"
"It's the same as before. Your attack power is too weak; you can't break through my defense at all. These tentacles piercing my body are somewhat unnecessary!" Ren looked down at the illusionary tentacles that were supposedly skewering him.
"Damn it!"
Midnight suddenly remembered the reports, the previous clashes. This man... this monster... his defense was impenetrable. His Hierro skin was harder than steel. Midnight's magic, while capable of twisting space and reflecting attacks, lacked the raw piercing power to bypass Ren's physical durability. He had constructed a perfect nightmare, but he had forgotten to account for the reality of his opponent's invulnerability.
"My illusions... they should be absolute!" Midnight gritted his teeth. "Even if you know it's an illusion, your senses should still be trapped!"
"Buzz————!"
Ren raised his hand, ignoring the giant monster looming over him. He pointed his index finger not at the monster, but at empty air to his left. A small, dense black sphere began to form at the tip of his finger, crackling with green lightning.
Just as everyone thought Ren was about to attack Midnight's giant body, Ren suddenly turned his body and pointed to his side.
"Eh————?!"
In the empty space where Ren pointed, Midnight's eyes widened in disbelief. His invisibility, his displacement... how?
"Cero Oscuras!"
Ren uttered the words flatly, devoid of emotion.
"Wuaaahhhhhh!!"
The black light erupted. It was a beam of pure, concentrated spiritual pressure, a 'Black Hollow Flash' that devoured the light around it. It bypassed the illusionary monster entirely and struck the empty air.
But it didn't hit air. It hit the real Midnight hiding within the distortion.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!!
A series of buildings were all destroyed by the Cero Oscuras. The black beam tore a trench through the ancient city, vaporizing stone and metal alike. The sheer force of the blast stripped away the illusions instantly.
"Pwah!"
Midnight spat out a mouthful of blood, his body flying out of the distortion and crashing into the ruins of the shattered buildings. The giant monster vanished into smoke, revealing the small, battered form of the dark mage.
"My... my Illusion Magic... was ineffective?" Midnight gasped, trying to push himself up, his gothic clothes tattered.
"No, it was effective," Ren said, walking slowly towards him. "It's just that sight can deceive, but magic power cannot."
The 'Detection Nerves'—or Pesquisa—refer to the Arrancar's ability to sense spiritual pressure. In this world, it translated perfectly to Magic Sense. To Ren, every living being was a burning flame of energy. The opponent's strength and location were displayed in Ren's mind as clear as day. Although his eyes saw the giant monster, his Pesquisa showed Midnight's magical signature burning brightly to his side.
Lucy and the others also broke free from the illusion at this moment, gasping for air as if waking from a nightmare.
"Wha— what exactly happened?!" Lucy checked her chest, finding no wound, no blood. "I... I'm alive?"
"I remember my body being pierced just now..." Gray muttered, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. "It felt so real. The pain... the cold..."
"Was it an illusion?" Jura touched his body, his face grave. He had sensed that something was wrong, but the visual impact of the previous scene was too strong, and he hadn't managed to discern in such a short time that he had fallen victim to Illusion Magic.
Illusion Magic is no garbage magic. Once affected by it, what the eyes see is no longer reality, and one wouldn't even be able to perceive a magical attack launched by the opponent until it was too late. Midnight was truly terrifying to have caught even a Wizard Saint in his web.
"Your Excellency Ren, thank you," Jura bowed his head slightly. "If you hadn't intervened, we might have all been killed just now while trapped in that nightmare."
Ren waved his hand and said, "Don't mention it. We are all part of the Allied Forces; helping each other is what we should do."
At this moment, the battle between Erza and Hoteye also reached a conclusion nearby.
Hoteye's Heavenly Eye was formidable, seeing through almost all of Erza's attacks and softening the ground to neutralize her footing. But Erza's speed and versatility still exceeded Hoteye's expectations. Coupled with the heavy injuries he had sustained from Ren earlier, Hoteye couldn't keep up with the Fairy Queen's relentless assault. Erza's battle concluded shortly after Ren's, with Hoteye lying defeated amidst the softened earth.
High above, Natsu and Cobra were fighting fiercely in the sky and on the towering pillars of Nirvana.
The voices of Brain, Hoteye, and Midnight had all vanished from Cobra's hearing. The silence was deafening. It made Cobra feel uneasy and flustered.
"Impossible..." Cobra thought, his heightened hearing picking up only the ragged breathing of his fallen comrades. "Everyone... defeated?"
In the blink of an eye, he was the only member of Oración Seis left standing. Could he, with his strength, defeat that monster Ren? The man who swatted them aside like flies?
"No, that's impossible!"
Cobra gave a negative answer. He had fought Ren twice, and both times he had been utterly helpless against him. He was a complete and utter monster. Fear began to take root in his heart, drowning out the thoughts of his opponent.
But he was unwilling to simply give up Nirvana, which they had gone to such lengths to find. He couldn't lose here!
"What are you rambling about and thinking?!"
Natsu's roar shattered Cobra's internal monologue. The Fire Dragon Slayer rushed in front of Cobra, utilizing the moment of distraction. He punched him square in the face, and immediately followed up with a heavy punch to his abdomen. Natsu relentlessly struck Cobra, his fists blazing with fire.
"Bastard!"
Cobra tried to counterattack, his poison magic flaring, but a sharp pain shot through his back—the wound inflicted by Ren's Luz de la Luna earlier tore open. He flinched, his movement slowing for a fraction of a second.
That was all Natsu needed.
"Merge the flames from my left and right hands!" Natsu shouted, gathering massive amounts of magic power.
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!!"
Natsu merged the flames in his hands, forming a giant, superheated fireball, and slammed it into Cobra with all his might.
"Wuaaahhhhhh!!"
BOOM————!!
The fireball and Cobra crashed to the ground together, unleashing a violent explosion that shook the pillar they were standing on.
After the smoke cleared, Cobra lay unconscious in the large crater, his snake Cubellios coiled protectively but weakly around him. With this, all members of Oración Seis had been defeated.
"That's great! We finally defeated Oración Seis!"
Lucy and Sherry cheered, hugging each other in relief. The nightmare was finally over.
"We did it!" Happy flew circles in the air. "Aye!"
Just as the two were cheering, and the allied forces began to relax.
RUMBLE————!!
The earth shook violently. A wave of dark green, nauseating magic power shot into the sky like a beacon of despair.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to it. The air grew cold, and the ambient mana in the atmosphere began to scream.
They saw Brain, who had been defeated earlier, stand up again. But something was wrong. He looked like a completely different person. The intricate lines on his face were gone. His eyes were filled with bloodlust, and his entire demeanor seemed incredibly evil, radiating a chaotic energy that far surpassed his previous self.
"Br— Brain?" Lucy stammered, stepping back.
At that moment, the skull-topped staff lying next to Brain suddenly animated. It bowed, knelt, and kowtowed in a bizarre display of servitude: "Wel— Welcome back!! Guild Master, Zero!!"
Lucy couldn't help but complain: "The magic staff talked!!"
"Guild Master? Is he the Guild Master of Oración Seis?!" Sherry noticed how the skull magic staff addressed him. "I thought Brain was the leader?"
"Klodoa..." Brain—no, Zero—spoke, his voice raspy and dripping with malice.
Erza said with a serious expression, gripping her sword tightly, "Be careful! This guy is completely different from the one before! His magic power... it's in a different league!"
Zero grinned sinisterly, stretching his neck as if waking from a long slumber: "Things are getting quite interesting, Klodoa."
"Yes! I... I am very sorry!!" The staff, Klodoa, trembled.
"Speaking of which, it's been a long time. This feeling, this body, this voice, this magic power—it's all nostalgic!"
Zero looked at Ren, his red eyes locking onto the young mage. There was no fear in his gaze, only a twisted amusement.
"You're quite something, kid, tearing my guild apart like this."
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