Heat Breath!

"Ah! Another mountain peak vanished?!"

"Why did I say 'another'? It feels like a mountain was already wiped out earlier..."

"There isn't much left of the town either, but at least some of it remains..."

"Haha, this is good enough. We survived Deliora's attack, after all."

"Thank the great mage..."

Countless townspeople stood on the road leading to other towns in the distance, watching the mountains set ablaze afar. Some grumbled and chatted, while others prayed or gave thanks.

At the same time, after confirming that Deliora had been destroyed, Ywen gently floated down before Ul, Lyon, and Gray. With a calm expression, he said, "Mission complete!"

"A child?!"

After Ywen landed before them...

Ul froze as she looked at Ywen's excessively youthful face. She had originally thought Ywen would be some old man who had delved deeply into the magical arts, but now it seemed he was about the same age as her apprentices, Lyon and Gray?!

"Brother Ywen, you're amazing!"

Lyon looked at Ywen excitedly. Ywen's appearance was like opening the door to a whole new world for him. So mages could actually become this powerful?!

"So strong..."

Gray nodded repeatedly as well. It was also his first time seeing a mage of this level—someone truly capable of destroying heaven and earth!

"Not really..."

Ywen humbly shook his head. Compared to Aileen, who could reshape an entire country whenever she felt like it, this was nothing.

Rumble...

Just as Ywen announced the completion of the mission, the impact from the meteor caused a more distant mountain peak to collapse in an avalanche. Accompanied by a deafening roar, it surged toward the town.

"Oh no, it's an avalanche!"

Gray's eyes widened as he stared at the enormous white wave rushing toward them with a howl.

"Honestly, an avalanche of this scale is rather troublesome!"

Ul watched the massive white torrent, several crystal-clear beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It would have been fine if she were at her peak, but after her battle with Deliora, she no longer had enough magic power to stop an avalanche of this magnitude.

"But if it's only a matter of protecting a few people..."

Ul thought that while the town could no longer be saved, she was still confident she could protect everyone present.

Fortunately, the townspeople had all fled while she was fighting Deliora. In other words, even if the town was swallowed by the avalanche, it did not matter—no one would be hurt because of it...

"Guess there's no other choice..."

"You all, step back..."

Ywen looked at the approaching avalanche and turned around. As he told Ul and the others to retreat, his eyes changed. His human pupils suddenly became like those of some reptile, and then his body began to expand...

At the same time, the once-bright sky was suddenly, without warning, covered in dark clouds. Fierce winds swept through the town, and faint flashes of lightning flickered overhead!

In just a few seconds, heaven and earth changed color. Wild winds raged, dark clouds and mist filled the air, and lightning flashed amid roaring thunder!

It was as though some god lay hidden behind those thick clouds, quietly looking down upon all living beings!

BOOM!!

Lightning blazed, and thunder resounded!

"Whimper..."

Amid the terrifying rumbles, the snow-white giant bear seemed to sense something and instinctively lay flat on the ground, trembling as it whimpered.

ROAR!!

At the same time, Ywen gradually completed his transformation. He suddenly let out an inhuman roar, and the next second, his body turned azure-blue as he flew into the sky, vanishing into the dark clouds!

"Brother Ywen, what just happened?!"

Lyon and Gray looked at each other. Both had been stunned by Ywen's sudden transformation.

"Could that have been some kind of Take Over Magic?"

"But what kind of Take Over Magic could create such an exaggerated scene?"

Ul could not understand it. Although she had traveled far and wide and was considered fairly experienced, she had never seen magic this outrageous.

Just as Ul, Gray, and Lyon were filled with confusion, the dark clouds overhead suddenly began to churn!

Boom!

Lightning flashed, and it seemed as though a pair of scarlet eyes flickered in and out of sight within the clouds.

"There! There's a monster inside!"

Gray's sharp senses caught that fleeting glimpse in the sky, filling him with fear.

"Even if there's something in the clouds, it can only be Brother Ywen, right?"

"How could there possibly be a monster?"

After hearing Gray's words, Lyon smiled. He had watched Ywen fly into the sky with his own eyes. With Ywen's strength, how could there possibly be a monster inside those clouds?!

"There really is a monster!"

Gray argued back. He had really seen a gigantic monster.

"Impossible..."

Lyon shook his head. He refused to believe it, certain that Gray had merely imagined it.

"Boom!"

Just as the two were arguing, a massive, ferocious head suddenly emerged from the dense clouds. It was as large as a house, with twin horns on its head and eyes like millstones.

"There really is a monster!!"

Lyon's eyes widened as he stared at the enormous head.

"See? I wasn't lying to you!"

Seeing Lyon's shocked expression, Gray's fear immediately lessened somewhat, replaced by a hint of smugness.

"No, it's not a monster..."

"This is..."

Ul stared at the creature's enormous head emerging from the sky, rolling endlessly through the clouds, and felt her heart tremble.

There was a description for that kind of creature...

Its horns resembled a deer's, its head a camel's, its eyes a rabbit's, its neck a snake's, its belly a house's, its scales a fish's, its claws an eagle's, its paws a tiger's, and its ears an ox's. Its name was...

"A dragon?! That's a dragon?!"

"Could that be Ywen transforming?"

Gray and Lyon's eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Heat Breath!!"

Just as Gray and the others stood stunned, the giant dragon opened its blood-red maw, unleashing a terrifying beam of heat from its mouth!

In an instant, the enormous heat wave collided with nature's raging avalanche, turning endless snow and ice into billowing white steam!

When the blizzard collided with the dragon's Heat Breath, the victor was... the Heat Breath!

The terrifying Heat Breath burned straight through the seemingly endless blizzard! Its residual heat became a scorching wave that incinerated every snowflake before it could even draw near!

In the blink of an eye, the avalanche vanished without a trace—but it wasn't over yet!

Ywen's full-powered Heat Breath did not stop. It shot directly toward the snow-covered mountains several kilometers away...

"Boom!"

With a terrifying roar, the snow mountain vanished completely in the span of a blink. Yet even then, Ywen's Heat Breath showed no sign of stopping, its blazing wave continuing to thunder forward!

One mountain, two mountains, three mountains...

The endless flames burned through more than a dozen towering peaks before Ywen's Heat Breath finally ceased...

"Phew~"

Seeing that the snow on the nearby mountains had all melted into vapor...

Ywen finally closed his mouth, then slowly transformed back into human form and descended from the sky.

"Great, the avalanche has been dealt with too!"

Ywen crossed his arms before his chest, satisfied with his handiwork. Perhaps even Ywen himself had not noticed that his way of thinking had quietly entered Fairy Tail mode.

"Although I do want to thank you, wasn't that way too excessive?!"

Gray and Lyon stared wide-eyed at the nearly completely destroyed town, the vanished mountains, and the enormous peaks in the distance that were still burning and spewing lava, transformed from snow mountains into volcanoes.

"Wasn't Deliora already taken care of? I melted the avalanche too, so everyone can live safely..." Ywen turned around and glanced at the ruins before him, then sighed helplessly. "I see. Deliora actually destroyed the town without anyone noticing! Sigh, you really are helpless! I'll give you one last hand, then!"

"No, no, no, that was destroyed by you..."

Gray and Lyon silently complained.

Still, they did not dare say it aloud. It was not that they were cowards—Ywen's power had simply left far too deep an impression on them. They would probably never forget it for the rest of their lives...

After saying that, Ywen ignored Gray, Lyon, and the others, and began acting on his own.

Dark, eerie patterns suddenly spread across Ywen's body. Then endless Gravity Waves surged toward the sky, and in the next second, the ruins of the entire town began to creak and rumble.

Under Ywen's control, the rumbling ruins flashed with black light, slowly lifting from the ground and flying into the sky. This was not merely one or two districts—Ywen's Gravity Waves covered the entire town! He was clearing away all the town's rubble...

But it was not over yet. Even the mountains Ywen had destroyed, along with their shattered fragments, rose into the sky under his control.

A few minutes later...

A gigantic stone sphere made of rubble, covering the entire sky above the town, had taken shape...

"You're joking, right?!"

Gray and Lyon stared at the massive stone sphere in the sky. They were so terrified that they had forgotten how to speak. At that moment, only one thought remained in their hearts...

Was this... the power of a god?!

"Here you go!"

Of course, none of this had anything to do with Ywen. Right now, his eyes held only his own task. He manipulated the ruins one by one, stacking them around the town like building blocks to form several towering mountains.

"All right, I've returned the mountains to you?"

Half an hour later, after finishing everything, Ywen wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned around, and spoke softly to Gray and Lyon.

However, when Ywen turned around, he found Gray and Lyon sprawled on the ground. They had no idea why they had collapsed either. Their legs had simply gone weak, and by the time they realized what was happening, they were already sitting on the ground.

In early September of Year X774, Ywen, a mage of Fairy Tail, completed a Ten-Year Mission and successfully defeated Deliora, the great demon created by the Dark Mage Zeref. Along with Deliora, more than a dozen mountains that had stood near the town for centuries also vanished...

In response, the Magic Council stated: "..."