"Hey, Natsu, wake up! We're here!" Gray kicked Natsu on the butt.
"Huh? We're here?" Natsu opened his eyes and resurrected with full health. He jumped up, his whole body ignited with blazing flames, "Great! Finally, we don't have to take that damn boat!"
At this moment, dense footsteps came from all directions.
"Who! How dare you break into Tower of Heaven!"
With a sharp shout, hundreds of heavily armed patrol soldiers poured out from the darkness, surrounding Lu Chongwei and others.
The leader of the soldiers, the captain, held a Magic Gun and glanced at everyone with disdain.
"It turns out they are just a few rats that don't know how to live or die." The captain sneered, "Jellal has an order, trespassers will be killed without mercy! Fire!"
"You idiots, you want to block my way?"
Natsu let out a wild the Roar, exerted force on both legs, and rushed into the enemy formation like a cannonball.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Natsu's right fist was wrapped in blazing flames and hit the leader's chest hard.
A loud bang!
Violent flames erupted, and the captain didn't even have time to scream. Together with a dozen soldiers behind him, they were directly knocked away by this terrifying force and turned into charcoal in mid-air.
"Enemy attack! Fight back quickly!" The soldiers were shocked and raised their weapons one after another.
The battle has officially begun!
"Ice Make·Ice Cannon!"
Gray His hands quickly formed seals, and an ice cannon took shape. With a deafening roar, countless sharp ice cones poured out like a torrential rain, freezing a large number of soldiers into ice sculptures.
"Open! Virgo's door! Virgo!"
Lucy took out Celestial Spirit Key and drew a golden trajectory in the air.
Along with the light, Virgo appeared out of thin air wearing a maid outfit.
"Princess, what are your orders? Do you want to punish me?" Virgo asked expressionlessly.
"Now is not the time for joking! Fight them away quickly!" Lucy pointed at the soldiers rushing over and shouted.
"Follow your orders." Virgo flashed and burrowed into the ground. The next second, she emerged from the ground beneath the feet of several soldiers, and with a powerful and heavy Rising Dragon Punch, she sent them directly into the air.
"Water Slash!"
Juvia waved his hands, and several high-pressure water blades as sharp as knives roared out, easily cutting off the weapons and armor of the soldiers and defeating them.
However, there are so many guards at Tower of Heaven that they seem to be inexhaustible to kill.
"A swarm of annoying flies."
Lu Chongwei frowned slightly, impatience flashed in his eyes.
He slowly put his hand on the handle of the knife at his waist.
"Zheng--"
The crisp sound of drawing a sword sounded.
When Ryujin Jakka was unsheathed, the surrounding temperature soared sharply. The air seemed to be ignited and became hot.
"Then... what kind of monster is that!"
The soldiers looked at Lu Chongwei in horror. The murderous intent and high temperature made them lose the strength to hold onto their weapons.
"Nadeshiko."
Lu Chongwei swung the knife lightly.
There are no fancy moves, just an ultimate golden Flame Sword Qi that sweeps out close to the ground!
"Boom--!"
The golden sea of fire swallowed up everything within a hundred meters in front! The hard rock ground was burned into lava, and hundreds of soldiers evaporated directly under the terrifying high temperature without even leaving ashes!
The whole place was silent.
Both the remaining soldiers and Natsu and others were deeply shocked by the power of this sword.
Just then.
Tower of Heaven's tower suddenly made a violent mechanical roar.
Under the astonished gaze of everyone, a wide steel staircase slowly extended from the inside of the tower to the ground in front of everyone.
The control room at the top of the tower.
Jellal looked at the scene below through the crystal ball, and his smile became even crazier.
"Great, really great!" Jellal looked at the figure of Lu Chongwei in the crystal ball, with greed and excitement in his eyes. "This level of magic is simply an unexpected surprise."
He pressed the loudspeaker button on the console, and the sound spread throughout Tower of Heaven through the magic circle.
"Welcome to Tower of Heaven, brave invaders."
Jellal's voice echoed in the night sky, revealing a high level of banter.
"This game officially begins now. As long as you can get through this staircase and reach the top of the tower, I will give you a chance to challenge me."
Jellal stared at Lu Chongwei in the crystal ball and licked his lips.
"Especially you, the man who uses fire. You will be my perfect prey."
Era, Magic Council headquarters.
In the solemn circular conference room, the atmosphere was as depressing as dripping water. Nine congressmen who hold the highest power in the magic world sat around the round table, and everyone's face was extremely gloomy.
"Everyone, everyone must have received information about the sudden appearance of Tower of Heaven in the sea."
Speaker Crawford, who was sitting at the main seat, knocked on the table, his voice low and majestic, "The scale of this tower and the magic power fluctuations it emits have far exceeded our expectations. If left unchecked, it will definitely cause a devastating blow to the entire continent!"
"Your Excellency Speaker, I propose to immediately dispatch Rune Knights directly under Magic Council!" A burly member stood up and said loudly, "With the combat power of the Knights, we will definitely be able to uproot that tower!"
"Stupid!" Another congressman retorted with a sneer, "According to the detection, the tower is surrounded by high-level defensive barriers. If the Knights go there, they will only die. We must take a long-term approach!"
"Long-term plan? When the tower is completely completed, we will all die!"
There was a fierce quarrel in the conference room, with members of the council passing the blame and no one willing to come up with a definite plan.
At this moment, a light and elegant footsteps broke the noise.
"Knights? What's the use of that kind of toy?"
Jellal Fernandes wore a gorgeous white robe, smiled confidently, and walked slowly to the center of the round table. His young and handsome face looked particularly dazzling under the light, but his blue eyes revealed a chilling coldness.
"Jellal Fernandes, what do you have in mind?" the speaker asked with a frown.
Jellal Fernandes looked around at the MPs present, and the smile on his face gradually faded.
"In the face of threats of this level, conventional methods are meaningless." He said word by word, his voice echoing in the empty conference room, "I propose that we directly use transcendent time and space destruction magic - Etherion!"
As soon as these words came out, the whole place fell into silence.
The pupils of all the congressmen were trembling violently, as if they had heard some extremely terrifying words.
"Are you crazy!" An elderly congressman pointed at Jellal Fernandes, his fingers trembling, "Etherion is Magic Council's ultimate weapon! Once launched, a hundred miles radius will be reduced to nothingness! How can such a highly destructive forbidden magic be used easily!"
"That's right! And launching Etherion requires the vote of more than half of the members, which is impossible!"