Chapter 286

Chapter 286: Chapter 286

Hades had originally planned to make a dramatic entrance, catch Makarov completely off guard, and thoroughly intimidate him.

Unfortunately for him, Makarov already knew exactly who the Master of Grimoire Heart was.

He hadn’t truly intended to unleash Fairy Law at all. The entire display had simply been bait to force Hades into revealing himself.

So the instant Hades appeared and began showing off his Grimoire Law, Makarov canceled his own spell without hesitation—and punched him.

No elaborate Magic.

No complicated technique.

Just one brutally simple, extremely powerful fist.

Hades clearly hadn’t expected it.

The punch struck him squarely and sent him hurtling backward through the air.

"I’ll handle their leader with Gildarts!" Makarov shouted without even looking back. "The rest of you take care of the remaining enemies!"

With that, the gigantic Makarov stepped straight across the enemy encirclement and pursued Hades.

Gildarts immediately followed.

The battlefield split apart.

And the war truly began!

...

"WHERE ARE YOUR OFFICERS?!"

Natsu roared as he tore through the surrounding Grimoire Heart grunts.

"YOU TRASH ARE JUST WASTING MY TIME!"

He kicked one attacker aside, punched another out of the way, and soon sensed a second intense source of fire nearby.

Natsu’s head snapped around.

"You’re that Fire God Slayer guy, right?!"

He grinned fiercely at Zancrow.

"COME ON! LET’S SEE WHOSE FIRE BURNS HOTTER!"

Natsu immediately charged him.

The two of them were practically walking furnaces.

As soon as they approached each other, the temperature around them rose so dramatically that everyone nearby instinctively moved away.

Nobody wanted any part of that fight.

...

"O-O-O-Our intelligence has b-b-b-been exposed, hasn’t it?!"

One of the Seven Kin, Kain Hikaru, was an enormous man with a rather unimpressive intellect.

He got along quite well with Zancrow, but unlike his friend, thinking quickly under pressure clearly wasn’t one of his strengths.

"A real man takes on the biggest opponent!"

Elfman spotted Kain’s enormous frame almost immediately and blocked his path alongside Evergreen.

"We’ll be your opponents!"

Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones interested.

"We can’t just pretend we didn’t see him," Freed said as he and Bickslow approached while clearing away ordinary Grimoire Heart members.

"There are only four scoring targets available. Whoever claims one first gets the credit."

Evergreen whipped around.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Elfman and I found this guy first!"

Bickslow grinned.

"Sorry, Evergreen. We’re not teammates today."

Freed raised his sword.

"First come, first served."

Before either side could argue further, a terrifying monster suddenly materialized from thin air and charged toward Fairy Tail’s members.

A massive wall of ice erupted upward and stopped it cold.

Gray stared past the frozen barrier toward the bespectacled man responsible.

"You’re the guy who uses creation Magic?"

Rustyrose smiled.

"Creation Magic? No, no, no."

He lifted one hand theatrically.

"What I possess is pure imagination. Whatever I can imagine, I can bring into reality."

Gray snorted.

"Fine. Then we’re your opponents."

He turned.

"Loke, let’s—"

Gray stopped.

"...Loke?"

His partner was gone!

...

Loke had abandoned Gray almost immediately and headed straight for the goat-headed man elsewhere on the battlefield.

"Capricorn."

The goat-headed figure turned.

Loke’s expression was unusually serious.

"I never expected to meet you here. How long has it been since you returned to the Celestial Spirit World?"

Caprico tilted his head.

"Oh? You recognize the Celestial Spirit Capricorn?"

His voice carried a faint trace of interest.

"Impressive."

"Of course I do. After all, I’m—"

"What?!"

Lucy’s shocked voice suddenly came from behind Loke.

"That goat is Capricorn?! Why is a Celestial Spirit working for a Dark Guild?!"

The instant Lucy appeared, Caprico’s expression froze.

His eyes widened.

"L-Layla-sama?!"

Lucy blinked.

"You knew my mother?"

Cana arrived immediately behind her.

"That guy was responsible for summoning all these people, right?"

Her eyes narrowed with interest.

"So he can summon humans?"

Cana grinned and pulled out a stack of cards.

"I wonder which of us can summon more—your humans, or my magical beasts?"

Nearly a hundred cards spread into a perfect arc above her head.

Light erupted from every one of them simultaneously.

The next moment, an enormous stampede appeared across Tenrou Island.

"BEAST STAMPEDE!"

A flood of magical beasts surged through the battlefield.

The entire frontline instantly dissolved into chaos.

If Cana hadn’t specifically ordered her summons not to attack anyone carrying Fairy Tail’s guild mark, those rampaging beasts probably would have treated her own allies like speed bumps and trampled straight over them.

"Whoa! Cana, watch where you’re sending those things!"

Lisanna transformed into a bird and quickly flew higher into the air.

Once she was safely above the stampede, she looked around the battlefield.

Her expression changed.

In the brief time since the fighting started, all four of the Seven Kin who counted toward the exam had already been claimed.

She immediately called out,

"Juvia! We didn’t get an opponent!"

Juvia had transformed into a ball of water and was clinging to Lisanna as she flew.

"Don’t panic. The battle only just started."

Her voice remained calm.

"Juvia’s Magic hasn’t fully taken effect yet."

Lisanna glanced around.

"Huh? Did it suddenly get dark?"

Mist had begun spreading across the battlefield.

"Is that fog? Or is it going to rain?"

"We’ll use the mist to ambush people and steal eliminations."

Juvia’s tone became considerably more determined.

"We can’t simply hand victory over to everyone else."

"Then who do we attack?"

"Wait for an opportunity. Inside this mist, Juvia’s perception is unmatched."

She paused.

"For now, we’ll eliminate ordinary Grimoire Heart members. It’s the safest way to build up our score."

"Okay!"

...

That left only Levy’s team and Mest’s team without a specific Seven Kin opponent.

Levy and Older Wendy were busy fighting the ordinary troops.

Levy steadily laid down Script formulas while Older Wendy handled the frontline in the simplest possible way—one punch per enemy.

Neither of them was particularly desperate to earn S-Class promotion, so they were effectively taking the opportunity to enjoy themselves while casually beating people up.

Mest was another matter entirely.

He was still sweating profusely and desperately debating whether he should actually participate.

Gajeel, meanwhile, had long since stopped waiting for him.

He was already fighting Yomazu, who wielded Eastern-style Solid Script Magic, and Kawazu, whose bizarre fighting style involved an alarming number of eggs.

Battles erupted across every corner of the island.

Erza and Mira had disappeared from the main battlefield entirely.

Laxus, however, remained completely still as he watched the direction Makarov and Gildarts had gone.

He could sense two powerful magical presences aboard the distant airship.

One of them should be his assigned opponent—Bluenote Stinger.

The man apparently hadn’t come ashore.

Laxus narrowed his eyes.

Lightning crackled around him.

"He have double of my magic power huh."

A fierce grin appeared on his face.

"That doesn’t mean I can’t fight him."

Laxus was still extremely irritated about losing to Marshall.

More than anything, it was the way he had lost that bothered him.

The whole thing had happened so suddenly and inexplicably that he never felt as though he’d properly demonstrated his strength.

He still wanted to prove himself.

So without another word, Laxus transformed into a streak of lightning and shot toward Grimoire Heart’s airship.

Rather than waiting for Bluenote to come to him—he was going to find the bastard himself.

...

At roughly the same time, Erza and Mira left the main battlefield and flew high above Tenrou Island.

"We need to find the Mage who uses Arc of the Great Tree as quickly as possible," Erza said.

"Marshall warned us that his target may be Tenrou Island’s Great Tree itself. We absolutely cannot let him reach it."

"I’m searching."

Mira scanned the island below.

"There are a lot of powerful magical beasts here, and I can sense several unusually strong magical presences mixed among them."

Their task was to deal with Azuma.

With nearly enough Magic Power to approach the level of the Ten Wizard Saints, he was dangerous enough that Makarov had assigned two S-Class Mages to him.

That alone showed how seriously Fairy Tail was taking him.

Erza, however, had a slightly different idea.

She wanted to end the fight immediately.

Find Azuma.

Beat him as quickly as possible.

Then move on and support everyone else.

"Are you looking for me?"

Both women stopped.

Before they could locate Azuma—he had appeared on his own.

The large man tilted his head slightly as he studied them.

"Did someone leak our intelligence?"

His eyes moved between Erza and Mira.

"Your guild’s movements seem remarkably organized."

Erza drew her sword without hesitation.

"I don’t have time to explain anything to you."

Her gaze hardened.

"Fight."

"This won’t take long."

Azuma smiled faintly.

"How arrogant."

Then his expression became more interested.

"But good. I wanted to see how strong Fairy Tail really is."

He looked between the two women.

"Titania, Queen of the Fairies... and the Bloodthirsty Witch."

Azuma spread his arms.

"Will the two of you attack together?"

"Or one at a time?"

Erza stepped forward.

"I’m alone is enough."

...

While every member of Fairy Tail gradually found an opponent of their own, something entirely different was happening beside an old grave somewhere deep within Tenrou Island.

A young man with black hair and dark eyes slowly awakened from his sleep.

For a moment, he simply stared quietly at the world around him.

Then his gaze settled upon the grave before him.

His voice was barely above a whisper.

"The world still rejects me..."

Zeref lowered his eyes.

"Mavis."

"I came to apologize."