The Northern Battlefield

At the foot of Mount Zonia, in the primeval forest, the wind howled and tore at the forest like a knife.

Laxus stood atop the top of a collapsed giant tree trunk, his coat fluttering wildly in the wind.

The Spriggan 12 – Death, Bloodman.

The demon of the Book of Zeref is dressed in a long black robe, its body entirely black, with strange red patterns appearing on parts of its torso.

From the moment he stepped onto the battlefield, this guy had no intention of engaging the allied forces in a direct magical clash.

His body dissipated in the air like charred ashes, turning directly into black particles that blotted out the sky, pressing forward with the howling wind through the forest.

Laxus's forehead veins bulged as he yelled at the top of his lungs towards the rear.

"Retreat! These are Magic Barrier Particles; do not make any contact with them."

He suffered greatly from these Magic Barrier Particles when he fought against the Tartaros.

He never wanted to experience that suffocating feeling again, the sensation of the airway seeping into his lungs and slowly tearing apart his magic and organs.

Present Riyao is on the eastern coastline, there's no one here who can easily cleanse their lungs and heal their wounds; once they get involved, it's a death sentence.

Upon hearing the roar, Fairy Tail members such as Freed, Gajeel, and Gray retreated in unison without any hesitation.

However, the mages following behind, the Blue Pegasus and Sabertooth, were clearly hesitant.

Several of the younger members of the Sabertooth team slowed their pace by a beat, their eyes still filled with confusion.

What is that plume of black smoke?

"Wait, something doesn't smell right in the air..."

Sting and Ichiya turned pale upon seeing this and immediately ordered a retreat.

But the black wind is much faster than a human leg.

The howling black storm swept across the front lines of the woodland in the blink of an eye.

There was no loud roar, no earth-shattering explosion, only a series of dull thuds as people fell to the ground.

The mages who inhaled the black smoke could barely scream. They clutched their necks tightly with both hands, and black veins appeared on their skin at a visible speed. They collapsed among the withered branches and fallen leaves, foaming at the mouth.

Not only the allied forces, but even the imperial soldiers at the forefront were caught up in it.

Bloodman's attack was indiscriminate; the heavily armored Alvarez soldiers fell in droves, twitching twice in the mud before falling lifeless.

Freed's rapier traced a series of runic paths in mid-air.

[Dark Ecriture - Rejection]

The eerie green spell runes exploded from the void, densely covering his chest and limbs.

An invisible force field instantly isolated the surrounding toxic fog.

Freed drew his sword, turned, and flew back, his figure darting rapidly along the edge of the black mist. He grabbed two Sabertooth members who were lying on the ground convulsing, and forcefully pulled the slower friendly forces out.

The moment he landed, he brought his left hand together and pointed it repeatedly at several wounded men whose faces had turned purple.

[Dark Ecriture - Dispel]

The words, shimmering with a faint light, pierced the wounded soldier's chest like silver needles.

With a violent cough, several wisps of black mist, each the size of a thumb, were forced out of their mouths and noses, landing on the pile of fallen leaves and burning small, smoking craters.

"You've been a huge help!"

Sting caught his guildmate who was nearly collapsing, wiped the cold sweat from his face, and thanked Freed with lingering fear.

"Don't let your guard down, it's not over yet!" Gray slammed his palms together in front of him, and icy blue magic surged wildly through the humus layer.

The others weren't idle either; wind blades, fireballs, and light projectiles rained down like they were free. The dense roar shattered the countless fluttering dead leaves, temporarily blocking the Magic Barrier Particles outside the defensive line.

"It's useless."

Bloodman's icy voice resonated deep within everyone's minds.

The black mist, blasted apart by magic, flowed back eerily in mid-air, like iron filings attracted by a magnet, and in the blink of an eye, it reassembled into the tall, slender figure draped in a black robe.

[Explosion Curse]

The surrounding scattered Magic Barrier Particles instantly turned into a dazzling fiery red!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of loud explosions resounded at the front line of the position in the forest, and scalding hot air waves mixed with wood chips and gravel flew everywhere like shrapnel.

The ice wall that Gray had erected was blasted to pieces, and the ancient tree behind it, which would take several people to encircle, was also snapped in half, sending the allied troops flying more than ten meters away.

Gajeel shielded his face with one hand, slid back a considerable distance, and plowed two deep furrows in the ground.

"Is this the Jackal's Curse?! Is this guy a demon too?"

Gajeel's eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief.

Before everyone could regain their footing, Bloodman made a sweeping motion in the air with both hands in front of him.

[Slashing Curse]

There was no magical fluctuation in the air, but the piercing shriek tore at our eardrums.

That was the method of Ezel from the original Nine Demon Gates!

Countless invisible wind blades slashed wildly across the ground, shearing the entire forest cleanly like stubble. The protective magic of the dozens of mages in the front row instantly collapsed, their blood staining large patches of fallen leaves. The allied forces were severely damaged on the spot.

"Asshole!"

Laxus was completely enraged. He slammed his fists into his chest, and the Dragon Slayer magic within him erupted like a volcano!

[Azure and Crimson Dragon Form]

A violent blue lightning bolt intertwined with a dark red lightning bolt, causing all the rubble and broken wood in the forest to levitate under the influence of the strong magnetic field!

Boom!

He stomped a crater five meters in diameter into the ground. Before the mud could even explode, he had already transformed into a two-colored bolt of lightning that tore through the retina, instantly traversing a distance of a hundred meters!

The lightning bolt slammed into Bloodman's face, tearing his head and upper body to shreds with its fury!

However, Laxus's expression darkened.

"Damn it, I can't seem to hit anything."

There was no dull thud as the fist struck solid flesh; instead, it passed through only a cloud of cold, viscous black smoke.

The black smoke, blasted into fragments, re-gathered three meters away. Bloodman slowly turned his neck, making a crackling sound, his voice so flat that it betrayed no emotion.

Embrace death.

The surrounding black mist, like living tentacles, suddenly coiled around Laxus's ankles along the tree roots.

Gajeel narrowed his eyes slightly, cracking his knuckles with one hand, the iron bones creaking as they rubbed together.

"Hey, Thunder Dragon, if you can't handle this, let me do it!"

Without waiting for Laxus's response, the magic power within him surged violently like a monstrous beast awakening.

The steel dragon Metalicana, which had been hovering beside him, let out a deafening roar. Its miniature dragon body transformed into streams of light, flowing down its skull and into Gajeel's body.

Gajeel entered a state of oneness with the dragon, and the magical power within his body became even more abundant.

Crack!

Hard, cold Iron Dragon surged out from under his skin, covering his cheeks and neck. With a tearing sound, his clothes ripped from his back, and he suddenly spread out a pair of thick iron wings that were two meters wide!

Its ten fingers curled into chilling dragon claws, and its entire body, covered in iron scales, gleamed with a unique, cold metallic luster in the dim forest. Its ferocious dragon might swept across the entire area like Mount Tai pressing down.

With a flap of his wings, Gajeel caused the ground to explode, sending up waves of mud and debris. He charged straight at Bloodman like an armor-piercing bullet fired from a gun!

[Iron Dragon's Steel Shattering]

The Iron Dragon swept across with overwhelming force, shattering the newly formed Bloodman into pieces once again.

Even more terrifying, a second after the attack hit, thousands upon thousands of claw marks, invisible to the naked eye, erupted in the void!

Ding ding!

The dense, tearing physical forces surged back and forth within the extremely small space, actually cutting those Magic Barrier Particles into even smaller fragments!

For the first time, a gasp of surprise escaped from beneath Bloodman's mask.

"You surprised me, but that's not enough."

Bloodman abandoned his initial contempt, and his black robe instantly swelled to three times its original size; he was now beginning to take this battle seriously.

Buzz--

Black mist surged in from all directions, turning half the sky into a deep, inky black night. All the trees withered and died, and even light could not penetrate it.

"Damn it, how am I supposed to fight this? There are so many Magic Barrier Particles."

Sting and Rogue were forced back to back by the overwhelming pressure, their white light and black shadows flickering wildly as they prepared to enter a state of oneness with the dragon and fight desperately.

In this suffocating moment of Despair, a glaring gash was suddenly torn open in the churning dark clouds overhead.

"Oh my, I never thought I was this strong."

A bolt of blue lightning fell straight down from the sky without warning, crashing into the very center of the forest!

Boom!

There was no earth-shattering shockwave upon landing; only a visible cyan ripple swept across the ground.

Wherever it passed, the raging black fog and withered vegetation seemed to be greeted by spring rain. The black fog melted away completely in the blink of an eye, and even a trace of life reappeared underfoot.

The blue lightning slowly dissipated.

His exposed chest and arms were covered with a dense layer of crystal-clear jade dragon scales, reflecting a warm yet majestic divine light.

A head of dark green hair danced wildly in the gale, and two winding, coral-like blue dragon horns extended from the sides of its head, faintly exuding a mystical vitality.

The person who arrived was actually Riyao.

He raised his right hand, which had completely transformed into a dragon claw, to shield his eyes from the sun. He stretched his scaly neck, and a slight smile appeared on his lips, revealing two sharp dragon fangs.

The Fairy Tail members all stood there dumbfounded, their jaws practically dropping to the ground.

Wasn't this guy tens of thousands of miles away on the eastern coastline? How did he suddenly fall from the sky?