False God

Gray and his men wiped out the ordinary cult members.

It didn't take them much effort at all.

As for those few cadres, they weren't exactly weak, but compared to Gray and his team, they were completely outmatched.

If he had appeared earlier, he could at least have been a minor boss; now he's just a nobody on the sidelines.

After more than a year of training, everyone's strength has increased significantly. These ordinary cult leaders are no different from children in front of the current main force of Fairy Tail.

The grass on the left side of the plain was washed away by the water and turned into mud.

Briya was being chased and beaten by Juvia.

Juvia's eyes were glowing red, and several turbulent waterspouts swirled around him, chasing Briya away in a panic.

"How dare you covet Lord Gray of Juvia! Unforgivable!"

On the other side, Jerome drew his greatsword, which was billowing black smoke, while Ur snapped his fingers.

The cadre Jerome was frozen solid by Ur, sword and all.

With a crisp snap, extreme frost instantly spread from the blade to Jerome's entire body, turning him and his sword into a large, crystal-clear ice sculpture.

Ur patted the ice crystals off his hands and curled his lip in disgust.

"The younger generation is really terrible."

The virus magic released by cadre Meli during the chaos caused considerable trouble for Gray and his group, causing them to visibly falter and feel weak in the limbs.

Wendy trotted up with light steps and clapped her hands.

A soft, clear halo of wind rippled outwards, instantly dispelling everyone's fatigue and nausea.

Wendy tilted her cute little face up to look at the palm-sized white Sky Dragon perched on top of her dark blue hair, and grinned, eager to claim credit.

"The virus is also an abnormal situation, Grandine, how am I doing?"

Mini Grandine gently patted Wendy's forehead twice with her chubby little paws, her eyes full of praise and satisfaction.

The powerful Gomon family used torture instruments to attack Lucy, Virgo happily went to greet her, returning to the Celestial Spirit World in high spirits.

Lucy watched from the side, her lips twitching, and she slapped herself on the forehead.

"That idiot Virgo."

Before Lucy a sigh of relief, Abel, the cadre, picked up a few strands of Lucy's blonde hair that had just been blown off by the wind, tied them up like an ugly doll, held them in his hand, and chanted a spell.

Abel picks up Lucy's hair and uses it to control Lucy as she attacks Gray.

Lucy screamed with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Ugh, it's me again?! Help me!"

Gray was chased so hard he was exasperated, dodging the whip with a series of leaps and bounds, while simultaneously conjuring a chilling, solid ice blade in his hand.

The frost-covered longsword swept across, and with a few crisp cracking sounds, Abel and the remaining cadres who hadn't had a chance to act were all frozen into solid blocks of ice.

Gray put away his ice skates, put his hands back in his pockets, and exhaled a puff of white breath.

"If Erza hadn't wanted to wipe out these fanatical followers in one fell swoop, she would have already destroyed this Dark Magic Cult."

At this moment, the only noise in the entire arena was concentrated on the open space in the very center.

The wooden stick seemed to have eyes in Riyao's hands, striking Natsu's wrist, elbow, or knee with perfect precision every time.

The force was used with exquisite precision, without injuring the muscles and bones, yet it forcefully shattered Natsu's momentum and punching power with each upward movement.

Natsu's body was sore and weak from being hit so hard. He had a lot of violent Dragon Slayer magic power, but he couldn't gather it at all. He was so frustrated that he gritted his teeth.

Riyao twirled the stick, glancing sideways and mockingly.

"Hey, hot buddy, you're not good enough? Your crew has already defeated the enemy, how come you haven't even defeated this little minion yet? How embarrassing!"

"Damn it! Why won't this stick burn?"

Natsu's forehead veins throbbed wildly as he grabbed the stick, flames shooting up along it.

He figured that since he couldn't burn the wooden stick, he'd burn the Bugatti Veyron instead.

The scorching red flames shot upwards along the wooden stick, burning all the way towards Riyao's hand holding the end of the stick.

Riyao didn't even blink. He firmly gripped the wooden stick with his wrist, raised his right leg, and kicked out, sending Natsu flying.

A muffled thud!

The kick landed squarely on Natsu's stomach, causing him to arch Natsu body like a shrimp and fly more than ten meters away, rolling around in the mud like a mud monkey.

Gray and the others turned to look at the Bugatti Veyron and all rushed towards them.

An ordinary cult soldier casually kicking Natsu like a ball—that's just bizarre.

Gray frowned and spoke up to remind him.

"Be careful, this dragon is strange; I've never seen one like it within the Order."

Lucy stood behind, touched her chin with one finger, and stared at Riyao with a suspicious look.

This style reminds me of some scheming bastard.

That gossipy, irritating tone, and that cunning way of hitting people where they're most vulnerable during a fight—the more Lucy thought about it, the more familiar this vibe seemed.

What they didn't notice was...

Mirajane's side has been exposed.

She originally intended to use her ordinary physical abilities to exchange a few blows with Erza using a wooden stick, but Erza's dual swords moved so tightly that Mirajane was forced to retreat repeatedly.

In desperation, Mirajane secretly transformed one of his right hands into a grotesque, black-red demonic claw to block the sword's edge.

Erza held her longsword horizontally, raising her eyebrows and staring intently at her.

"Mira..."

Mirajane quickly hid the demon claws back in his sleeves and pretended to be stupid in a gruff voice.

"What are you doing? Wait, who is Mira?"

Erza stared at her expressionlessly, her eyes looking at her like she was an idiot.

"Stop pretending. You're the only one on the entire continent who possesses this demonic aura right now."

Seeing that he couldn't hide it any longer, Mirajane simply pulled off his hood and burst into uncontrollable laughter, clutching his stomach.

"Haha, we've been exposed."

Mirajane stuck out her tongue.

With a man's face sticking out his tongue...

When that rugged man made that playful, cute tongue-out gesture, Erza felt a wave of nausea wash over her, and her lips twitched uncontrollably.

Mirajane moved closer to Erza.

"Don't expose us yet, help us put on an act for a while longer. You do this, then that and that."

Mirajane gripped Erza's arm, whispering their plan, while secretly making a strawberry cake gesture with her other hand.

Erza her lips, looking rather unwilling, but was ultimately won over by the strawberry cake.

Her eyes flickered, but she ultimately cooperated and raised the sword sheath.

The next moment!

Mirajane flew backward, tracing a graceful arc, and landed in Riyao's arms.

She weakly gripped Riyao's collar with both hands, tilted her head and leaned against his chest, whimpering in an extremely affected and weak voice.

"Little brother, I can't beat that woman, you must avenge me..."

As she finished speaking, her hand fell limply to her side, and she looked as if she were dead.

Riyao blinked, instantly understanding Mirajane's meaning.

My wife has already put me on this path, it would be a waste not to take it.

He immediately looked up to the sky and burst into tears.

"No!! Brother!! You damned bastards, give me back my brother's life!"

Riyao's appearance has changed slightly; his short black hair has turned into long white hair, his left eye is gold, and his right eye is silver.

An indescribable, peculiar divine energy quietly spread from his body, and the entire world seemed to fall into complete silence at that moment.

[Life Mimicry - False God]

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Gray and all of them.

From Gray's perspective, the Riyao appeared in front of them all at once, and they were all sent flying by a single blow, crashing together as they flew backward.

Bang!

Gray, Natsu, Lucy, Juvia didn't even have time to make a defensive move before they were hit solidly by a wooden stick.

Everyone was thrown backward uncontrollably, crashing into a pile like a human pyramid.

Ultear, hiding in the shadows, stared wide-eyed.

"Time was just paused. Who is this guy?"