Chapter 664 - 664: Shattering the World

Athena and Athena II stood locked against each other, palms pressed together as neither gave an inch.

Natsu and Wendy immediately tried to use the opening to rescue Sting and Rogue, but Duke was watching them far too carefully.

Before either of them could move, Athena's eyes suddenly blazed with brilliant white light and fired twin laser beams at Athena II, forcing the black mechanical doll to answer with beams of her own.

The two attacks collided in midair and erupted into a violent explosion.

The resulting flash was so bright that even Duke instinctively raised an arm to shield his eye.

That was the opening Natsu and Wendy had been waiting for.

They rushed him at full speed.

Natsu grabbed the sword Duke was holding against Sting and Rogue's throats and heated his hand until the blade melted apart, then drove his left fist straight into Duke's face.

Wendy used the same opportunity to free Sting, Rogue, Lector, and Frosch from their restraints.

Athena intercepted Athena II when she tried to intervene, then glanced toward Natsu and Wendy.

"Leave Athena II to me. You two deal with the false Duke!"

"Leave him to us!!!"

Natsu and Wendy attacked from opposite sides, each whipping a leg into Duke's abdomen and sending him flying.

Duke dug one hand into the ground and managed to stop himself before glaring back at them.

"Don't get carried away, brats."

...

Raizel's battle with God Serena was also nearing its end.

What surprised Raizel was that being reconstructed as a doll had done nothing to diminish Serena's strength.

Serena initially tried to engage him in close combat, and Raizel indulged him by using [Take Over: UlforceVeedramon.]

Once Serena realized that Raizel's speed was simply too overwhelming for him to gain any advantage up close, however, he immediately changed tactics.

"Cavern Dragon's Earth Collapse!"

The rocky ground throughout Purgatory shattered and rose into the air.

Serena followed immediately with Purgatory Dragon's Blazing Hell and Sea King Dragon's Water Formation, sending scorching flames and a raging vortex of water toward Raizel from opposite directions.

Raizel accelerated straight into the converging attacks.

A streak of blue light tore through the fire and water, and in the blink of an eye he was already standing in front of Serena.

Before Serena could react, Raizel drove a fist into his stomach and smashed him into the ground hard enough to leave a deep crater.

Serena forced himself back to his feet and thrust both hands toward the sky.

"Eight Dragons' Scattering Bloom!"

Eight different forms of Dragon Slayer energy gathered overhead before merging into a colossal pillar that came crashing down.

The V-shaped armor on UlforceVeedramon's chest shone with brilliant blue light.

A massive V-shaped beam erupted upward and collided head-on with Serena's attack, tearing straight through the Eight Dragons' Scattering Bloom and dispersing the entire pillar of energy.

Serena was not discouraged in the slightest.

"Eight Dragons' Wild Fang!"

Eight elemental dragons surged toward Raizel. Unlike ordinary attacks, these dragons could devour energy and grow stronger by absorbing it.

Raizel's form changed immediately.

[Take Over: Jesmon.]

"You have eight dragons?"

He looked at the incoming beasts as nine blades separated from Jesmon's body—the three sword spirits Atho, René, and Por, together with the blades on his arms and tail.

"I have nine swords."

The blades flashed through the air.

All eight elemental dragons were cut apart almost simultaneously.

Atho continued straight through them and cleaved Serena's doll body cleanly in half.

There was no blood.

Instead, fragments of artificial material, metal pieces, and mechanical components scattered across the ground as Serena's two halves fell apart.

Raizel looked down at what remained of the former strongest Mage in Ishgar and shook his head.

"You died once already, and someone still dragged your corpse back out and turned it into a doll."

He sighed.

"Fine. I'll send you off properly this time."

The three sword spirits lifted Serena's severed body and carried it toward one of the patches of wildfire burning across Purgatory.

Flames soon engulfed the remains, steadily consuming the artificial body until nothing would be left.

In the end, dust returned to dust.

...

Although this particular Purgatory world had been transmuted by Enny, Luso was equally capable of controlling everything within it.

She raised both hands, and enormous clay dolls began tearing their way out of the earth, surrounding Erza and Kagura from every direction.

The two women moved back-to-back without even needing to exchange a glance.

"One side each."

The dolls seemed endless.

Erza used Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt to slice apart several of them in quick succession, only for more to emerge immediately afterward.

A grotesque rabbit doll with a spring for its lower body suddenly shot toward her at tremendous speed, clutching a huge wooden mallet.

Erza failed to react in time and was sent flying by the blow.

Before she could properly recover, an enormous wooden board covered in spikes descended from above.

"Requip: Adamantine Armor!"

Erza brought the two massive shields together and raised them over her head.

The spiked board slammed into the Adamantine Shield with tremendous force, but while the armor remained completely unscathed, every spike shattered apart on impact.

Enny watched without expression.

"Armor transmutation... No, I suppose yours would be called Magic."

She showed little concern.

"But this is still our world."

Luso licked her lips and snapped her fingers.

Another enormous doll, this one wearing boxing gloves, immediately charged toward Erza and threw a punch.

Even with the Adamantine Armor protecting her, the sheer difference in mass and raw force drove Erza backward.

Luso spread her arms with obvious delight.

"You can't defeat us inside our own world."

Even Enny, who normally looked perpetually uninterested in everything around her, allowed the faintest smile to appear.

Erza narrowed her eyes and stared directly at the sisters.

"Then we'll simply destroy this world."

Beside her, Kagura released the seal on Archenemy.

The instant the cursed blade left its sheath, a terrifying wave of resentment erupted across the landscape.

For a moment, it felt as though Purgatory itself had been drowned beneath a sea of blood.

The furious howls of humans, magical beasts, and dragons seemed to echo directly beside their ears, carrying generations of accumulated hatred and resentment.

The barren hellscape was transformed into something resembling a blood-soaked battlefield of demons and corpses.

"What is this?!"

Neither Signario sister had expected anything like it.

Luso froze outright, while Enny recovered slightly faster.

Seeing Kagura walking steadily toward them, she immediately transmuted another suit of alchemical armor and prepared to meet her head-on.

At the same time, golden light enveloped Erza.

"Requip!"

The Heaven's Wheel Armor appeared around her once more.

"Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt!"

In the blink of an eye, nearly a hundred magical swords materialized around Erza.

Rather than aiming solely at the Signario Sisters, she sent them flying in every direction, relentlessly attacking the very fabric of Purgatory itself.

Luso's eyes widened.

"What...?"

Enny's expression twisted with anger.

"She's destroying our world again!"

Raizel had already shattered one of their transmuted worlds before. Enny had never imagined that Erza would attempt exactly the same thing.

The sight clearly rattled Luso.

"No... No! I won't allow it! There's no way your destruction can keep up with my World Transmutation!"

Luso poured everything she had into her alchemy.

The number of enormous dolls suddenly exploded, filling the landscape with one grotesque creation after another.

But Erza answered in kind.

More and more magical swords appeared around her, forming an ever-growing storm of blades that tore through the advancing dolls as quickly as Luso could create them.

Toys, monsters, and warped constructs were shredded one after another while the surrounding world itself continued to fracture beneath Erza's assault.

"Her destructive power is exceeding my World Transmutation...!"

Luso's composure was almost completely gone.

First Raizel, and now Erza.

She had run into two monsters in succession, both capable of simply tearing apart a world she had painstakingly created.

"Calm down, Luso!"

Enny could not spare any attention to help her younger sister.

Kagura remained directly in front of her, watching every movement, and there was still another sword hanging sheathed at Kagura's waist.

Clearly, Kagura had not yet shown everything she could do.

"No, Enny-nee! I refuse to lose to someone like her!"

Luso's expression became increasingly frantic as she poured even more power into her alchemy.

"I'll show you what my power can really do—Mad World Transmutation!!!"

Behind her, one enormous doll after another began taking shape.

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