Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Chapter 197

"Heh. I became one of the Ten Wizard Saints with nothing more than my Thought Projection. I simply wasn’t fighting seriously before."

Jellal forced himself back up.

"Do you really think you can defeat me, Erza?!"

"Do not speak recklessly."

Erza’s voice remained calm.

"That will only expose your weakness, Jellal."

She pressed the control on her belt again.

The Crimson Armor materialized around her body.

"Marshall."

Erza glanced toward him.

"Let me be selfish one last time. I won’t take too much of your time."

"Uh... sure."

Marshall scratched his head.

Then he shot a glare at the confused Pride.

He had a growing suspicion that Erza had picked up some bad habits from this girl.

Why was she starting to use Pride’s weird lines too?

Once Erza and Jellal resumed fighting, however, Marshall noticed something strange.

After several consecutive battles, Erza’s Magic Power had barely fallen at all.

Under normal circumstances, that should have been impossible.

There was only one reasonable explanation.

During this short period, her reserves had suddenly surged again.

What an unreasonable talent.

Erza was probably on the verge of awakening her Second Origin as well.

As a result, Erza was still almost at her peak.

Jellal was another matter entirely.

He had already been stabbed through the abdomen, pierced by Marshall’s beam, beaten around several times, and had expended a large amount of Magic Power on his own attacks.

He was injured, exhausted, and had already consumed most of his reserves.

Against Erza, he was at a disadvantage almost everywhere.

One of the Ten Wizard Saints was being chased down and cut apart by a Mage who technically hadn’t even crossed that threshold yet.

It was an incredibly miserable sight.

Finally, Erza carved a cross-shaped slash across Jellal’s chest.

Jellal collapsed.

This time, he no longer had the strength to stand.

"Jellal."

Erza looked down at him.

"The moment you realized you had chosen the wrong path and still refused to turn back, today’s outcome was already decided."

She lowered her sword.

"You can spend the rest of your life regretting what you’ve done in prison."

"Erza..."

Jellal said nothing more.

He simply closed his eyes.

He knew there was no longer any way to undo what had happened.

...

"Finished?"

Marshall walked over.

"Feeling a little better?"

"Mm."

Erza dismissed the Crimson Armor.

"My own affairs aren’t important right now."

She immediately turned her attention to Marshall.

"What happened to you earlier?"

Concern entered her eyes.

"Is your body really all right?"

She moved closer and began checking him anxiously.

What had happened during Etherion’s descent had genuinely frightened her.

"I’m fine."

Marshall waved it off.

"Just a minor accident. Nothing serious."

As he spoke, he discreetly pulled back the hand where scales had appeared and deliberately changed the subject.

"Simon is the one we should be worried about."

Erza immediately looked toward the unconscious man.

"His body has already recovered, and his soul doesn’t appear to be damaged either, but he simply won’t wake up."

Marshall frowned.

"I’ve never encountered anything like this before. We may need to take him back and ask Porlyusica."

Erza lowered her eyes.

"This..."

She sighed.

"It’s my fault. I should have stopped him from coming back."

Pride floated over with a frown.

"Master."

Marshall looked at her.

"Why did that man stand in front of us?"

She genuinely seemed unable to understand it.

"I do not comprehend his actions."

"..."

Erza remembered some of the thoroughly heartless things Marshall had previously told her about his Apostles.

’My Apostles can’t truly die. If something dangerous happens, just let them take the hit.’

’Pain? So what if it hurts? They’ll forget it once they revive.’

’Anyway, an Apostle’s life doesn’t count as a life. Don’t start trying to teach them otherwise.’

Even now, Erza still thought Marshall was a little too harsh on them.

Marshall sighed.

"He meant well. He was trying to save you."

Then he added, "It’s my fault for not telling him beforehand that you’re effectively immortal."

Pride tilted her head.

"How incomprehensible."

Then she appeared to remember something.

"Still, it saved the materials required to reconstruct my body."

She thought for a moment.

"Perhaps that debt should simply be charged to Greed."

"..."

Marshall and Erza stared at her.

They decided to treat it as the thoughtless words of a child.

Even if the "child" in question clearly wasn’t normal.

Marshall suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right."

He looked at Pride.

"You cut Greed apart earlier."

Pride showed no remorse whatsoever.

"That makes things a little more troublesome."

Marshall looked around at the enormous crystal structure surrounding them.

"Now I’ll have to make several more trips to move this entire Lacrima tower."

Erza blinked.

"Wait."

She looked around.

"You want the whole Tower?"

"Of course."

Marshall answered as though it were obvious.

"This entire place is made from Lacrima that’s now filled with Magic Power. Its value is impossible to estimate."

He spread his hands.

"Obviously we’re taking it."

"It’s our loot."

Erza thought about that.

"All right."

She nodded.

"I’ll help too."

At that moment, the space ahead of them suddenly distorted.

Someone completely unexpected appeared.

"Everyone stay where you are!"

A man materialized before them.

"Magic Council Enforcement Unit! Doranbolt! I’m here to apprehend everyone involved in the R-System incident!"

The Council member who had suddenly appeared was an old acquaintance they hadn’t seen for quite some time.

Unfortunately, after manipulating memories in the past, Doranbolt—also known to them as Mest—no longer remembered himself as a member of Fairy Tail.

"A Council officer?"

Erza frowned.

"They got here surprisingly quickly this time."

She didn’t recognize him either.

Her memories involving Mest had also been erased.

Marshall, however, looked at the newcomer.

"Bro, why did you come alone?"

Doranbolt paused.

"Where are the other Council forces?"

"The follow-up unit is already on its way. I arrived first because of my teleportation Magic."

He straightened.

"Now, I need all of you to cooperate—"

Once Marshall confirmed that Doranbolt hadn’t brought anyone else with him yet, he directly undid the Memory Magic affecting them.

Memories suddenly returned.

"Eh?" ×2

Doranbolt and Erza both froze.

They stood there for a moment, processing the memories that had abruptly reappeared.

Then Doranbolt blinked.

"Yo!"

He looked between them.

"Marshall, Erza. Long time no see."

Erza stared at him.

"Eh?"

Then recognition fully settled in.

"Mest? When did you sneak into the Magic Council?"

"All right, all right."

Marshall interrupted before they could get sidetracked.

"You can catch up later."

He looked at Doranbolt.

"Let me explain what happened here first."

Marshall gave him a brief account of the Tower of Heaven incident, with Erza occasionally filling in details.

Doranbolt quickly understood the situation.

"I see..."

He looked at the two of them.

"So you defeated Jellal, whose Thought Projection held a seat among the Ten Wizard Saints."

He nodded slowly.

"That’s impressive."

Marshall asked, "What’s happening at the Council? Why did you react so quickly this time?"

"Councilor Yajima eventually noticed that Councilors Siegrain and Ultear had disappeared."

Doranbolt explained, "Then Etherion failed to destroy the Tower of Heaven."

"The Council immediately dispatched a force to investigate."

He gestured toward himself.

"Since I specialize in teleportation Magic, they sent me ahead of the main unit."

"That explains it."

Marshall nodded.

"Then report everything exactly as it happened."

He pointed toward the ruins.

"Tell them Fairy Tail resolved the incident."

"Jellal is lying over there, and there’s also Trinity Raven from Death’s Head Caucus—"

Marshall suddenly stopped as he looked around.

"Huh?"

His eyes narrowed.

"Where’s Ikaruga?"

The place where Ikaruga had been lying was empty.

At some point while nobody was paying attention, she had apparently slipped away.

Marshall clicked his tongue.

"She actually ran."

How outrageous.

He had even been planning to capture her and interrogate her afterward!

"Well, great."

Marshall sighed.

"There goes part of our credit."

He looked toward Erza.

"Erza, you really need to develop the habit of making sure your enemies stay down."

"..."

Before Erza could answer, familiar voices suddenly came from below.

"ERZA-NEE!"

"MARSHALL!"

"SIMON!"

Sho and the others, who were supposed to have left by ship, came rushing back.

When they had seen the effects of Etherion from the sea, they had been terrified that something might have happened to Erza and Marshall, so they had all decided to return and help.

Unfortunately, by now everything was already over.

There was nothing left for them to assist with.

Doranbolt looked toward the newcomers.

"Marshall, these people are..."

His expression became slightly complicated.

"Aren’t they accomplices who helped construct the Tower of Heaven?"

"Wrong."

Marshall answered immediately.

"They’re victims of Jellal’s conspiracy."

Doranbolt paused.

Then nodded.

"You’re right."

He looked thoughtful.

"You really do think quickly..."

Marshall and Doranbolt soon began discussing how to handle the aftermath in the way most advantageous to Fairy Tail.

Meanwhile, Sho and Wally carried the unconscious Simon over.

"What do we do about him?"

Marshall looked toward Simon.

"Things here won’t be resolved quickly."

He considered it for a moment.

"Let’s do this. I’ll teleport all of you back to the guild first."

Then he turned toward Erza.

"Oh, right."

"Erza-nee, now that everything is over, we can finally tell everyone in the guild about this, right?"

"Of course."

Erza smiled.

Then she looked at Sho and the others.

"Sho."

Her gaze moved across her old companions.

"Why don’t all of you join Fairy Tail too?"

---

Make a mistakes on Chapter 168, Marshall magic should get an additional 2000 not getting to 200.000.