Jellal felt the immense Magic Power radiating from the newcomer, as heavy and oppressive as a mountain, and silently calculated how much strength he still had left.
Light flashed across the cavern, reflecting brilliantly from a perfectly bald head beneath the oil lamps mounted along the walls.
A tall, muscular man emerged from the passage and regarded them with a solemn expression.
Bacchus swallowed.
"Lamia Scale's… Jura Neekis, the Iron Rock."
Jura held his staff in one hand and wore the White Magic Cult's strange ceremonial robes.
Combined with his naturally imposing presence, the outfit made him look disturbingly convincing as some kind of cult patriarch.
Kagura silently drew her sword and tensed once more.
Jura was Lamia Scale's strongest mage and had ranked fifth among the Ten Wizard Saints before the Tenrou group returned from their seven-year disappearance.
At the time, he had even carried the unofficial reputation of being the strongest human mage beneath the Four Gods of Ishgar.
Kagura and Bacchus had both witnessed his strength during the Grand Magic Games and knew perfectly well that Jura had been capable of defeating either of them even then.
Admittedly, his reputation had suffered somewhat since the Tenrou group returned.
Ankh had nearly killed Acnologia. Laxus had slain the strongest of the Four Gods of Ishgar.
Then Natsu and the others had undergone dragonification during the Dragon King Festival and fought dragons directly.
Compared with events like those, Jura no longer seemed quite as untouchable.
But that had merely turned him into something else—
the benchmark for world-class strength in the new era.
Anyone capable of defeating Jura could reasonably be considered a true international powerhouse, strong enough to stand against top fighters from almost any continent.
Anyone who couldn't…
was still merely an elite by continental standards and would struggle badly against monsters on the level of the Spriggan 12 or the dragon race.
A benchmark was still a benchmark.
And in her current condition, Kagura had no confidence she could defeat the bald man standing before them.
"Jellal-dono…"
Jura's voice remained grave.
"We met on the battlefield half a year ago."
His gaze hardened.
"A pity. You were foolish enough to trespass here."
Jellal parted his lips, intending to reason with him.
Jura attacked first.
Stone instantly encased his fist as he charged forward and drove the enormous rock-covered blow straight toward them.
"Watch out!"
Jellal immediately stepped in front of the others.
Starlight gathered in his palm, and he met Jura's fist head-on.
BOOM—!
The destructive force of Heavenly Body Magic collided with magically reinforced stone.
Cracks raced through Jura's enormous rocky fist until chunks began exploding away.
Jellal gritted his teeth and pushed harder, preparing to force Jura back.
Then another voice rang out beside him.
"Ice-Make!"
Lyon!
Jellal reacted instantly.
Golden light erupted around his body, and he shot backward like a meteor just as Jura's stone fist crashed into the ground, blasting shattered rock across the cavern.
At the same moment, countless ice birds descended from every direction.
There were enough of them to shred a person into a bloody mess.
Kagura's sword flashed repeatedly as she moved through them, cutting apart bird after bird before they could reach the others.
Jellal landed and looked beyond Jura.
His expression became even heavier.
Lyon stood among several newly arrived figures.
The rest of Lamia Scale's mages had come to reinforce Jura, surrounding Jellal's group once again.
"Surrender and accept the doctrine of Whiteout."
Lyon regarded them coldly as frost spread through the air around him.
"If you do, you may still survive."
"Dream on!"
Kagura lowered her stance and shot toward him with an iai charge.
Lyon didn't move.
Before Kagura could reach him, her expression suddenly changed. She twisted her sword horizontally across her chest—and an invisible force struck her.
Kagura was hurled backward.
Jellal caught her before she hit the ground.
Ichiya moved closer, his usual ridiculous expression replaced by unusual seriousness.
"Sabertooth is here as well."
Kagura steadied herself and stared toward the woman who had just materialized out of warped space.
A seductive figure in a high-slit qipao emerged with a confident smile.
Minerva Orland.
Sabertooth's strongest female mage.
"It's been a while, Kagura."
Minerva narrowed her eyes.
"Still this weak?"
Kagura snorted.
"Big words."
Behind Minerva stood the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth, Sting and Rogue, along with Rufus Lore, Orga Nanagear, Yukino Agria, and many more of the guild's elite members.
Aside from Fairy Tail, the two strongest guilds in Ishgar had now gathered in the same underground battlefield.
Jellal stared at the enormous number of outstanding mages standing under Whiteout's influence.
"This doctrine…"
He sighed inwardly.
"It really is terrifying."
If anything, seeing so many exceptional people reduced to obedient weapons only strengthened his resolve to destroy the White Magic Cult completely.
"Take them down!"
Jura and Minerva shouted almost simultaneously.
The brief standoff ended.
The second large-scale battle erupted at once.
This time, Jellal and the others were nowhere near as comfortable as before.
Jellal had already spent a tremendous amount of Magic Power.
Now he was being attacked simultaneously by Jura and Minerva, and because he couldn't afford to use lethal force against either of them, he was steadily driven backward.
Kagura was forced to contend with Lyon, Sting, and Rogue at once.
Bacchus became trapped among the remaining guild elites and couldn't break free.
Ichiya was simply being chased around by an entire crowd.
The situation deteriorated rapidly.
Then, just as the balance was about to collapse completely, a violent explosion finally thundered from the tunnel behind them.
The sound Jellal had been waiting for.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art!"
Two voices roared at once.
Red and green streaks of light shot into the cavern as Happy and Panther Lily flew at full speed, each carrying one Dragon Slayer.
Then they hurled them forward.
Hard.
"Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!"
"Karma Demon: Iron God Sword!"
Natsu and Gajeel roared as two Dragon Slayer Secret Arts erupted simultaneously.
And both attacks locked onto their respective juniors with frightening accuracy.
Sting and Rogue's expressions changed.
They didn't even have enough time to counter.
The attacks hit them squarely.
The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth were immediately blasted across the cavern.
And that was the signal.
More figures charged in behind Natsu and Gajeel as magic erupted throughout the underground chamber.
Carla carried Wendy through the chaos, and Wendy immediately spotted one of her closest friends.
"Sherria!"
She activated Dragon Force and rushed straight toward her, trying to restrain her before she could attack anyone else.
Haku, the little admirer who seemed permanently attached to Wendy now, followed right behind her.
Gray, meanwhile, spotted Lyon and immediately decided this was an excellent opportunity to settle an old score.
An enormous ice cannon formed in front of him.
He fired it directly at Lyon's face.
Lyon had barely started shouting back when Ultear joined in and began pelting him with crystal spheres.
The resulting scene was an inspiring portrait of sibling harmony.
Elsewhere, Sorano painfully restrained Yukino's increasingly violent resistance while Lucy summoned Celestial Spirits to help immobilize her.
Kiria, looking thoroughly unwilling to participate in this sentimental family reunion, finally used her Blade Dragon Slayer Magic to sever Yukino's consciousness and knock her out.
Minerva once again found herself suppressed by Erza.
Jura suddenly felt a chill race across his freshly polished scalp and instinctively dodged aside.
A sword slash passed through the space where his head had been.
Suzaku, only recently healed by Wendy, had joined the battle as well.
"Demon Soul—Take Over."
With Diabolos now fighting alongside Fairy Tail, the already elite rescue force completely reversed the battlefield's momentum.
At the rear, Mirajane calmly activated her newest Take Over.
"Seilah."
Her appearance transformed into that of Seilah, one of Tartaros's Nine Demon Gates.
Mirajane smiled gently.
Then she activated the Curse.
"Macro."
The command spread across the battlefield in an instant.
Every mage caught within its range abruptly lost control of their own movements.
Mirajane's smile remained warm.
"Good night~"
Her order fell softly across the cavern.
Those with weaker Magic Power immediately collapsed into sleep, wiping out more than half the enemy force in one stroke.
A second successful battlefield cleanup.
Jellal suddenly noticed a hand extending toward him.
He looked up.
Ankh was standing beside him with an easy smile.
The tension finally left Jellal's shoulders, and he let out a long breath of relief.
"Perfect timing."