Lu Chongwei Incinerates the Demonic Beast, Gray Pathetically Becomes Bald

Every drop of moisture had been evaporated in that single instant!

"Is... is this his true strength?"

Gray stared in despair at the figure standing in the center of the sea of flames, a profound sense of powerlessness rising in his heart.

Just then, a large hand suddenly grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"What are you spacing out for! Do you want to turn into a roast pig?!"

Gildarts was drenched in sweat, his face flushed red from the heat.

He hoisted Gray up as if he were a mere chick, shielding several civilians who had just escaped with his other hand, and roared:

"Run! Get away from that monster!"

The group scrambled away, running for hundreds of meters in one breath until they hid behind a grove of trees, only then daring to stop and catch their breath.

Even from this distance, the oncoming heatwave was still suffocating.

Many people had varying degrees of redness and burns on their skin, and they were groaning in pain.

Gray slumped to the ground, gasping for air.

Suddenly, he felt his scalp burning, and a charred smell seemed to drift toward him.

"Hm?"

Gray instinctively reached up to touch his hair.

At that touch, his face turned deathly pale.

Fire!

His hair had actually spontaneously combusted!

"Waaah! It's on fire! My head is on fire!"

Terrified out of his wits, Gray frantically slapped at his head with both hands and rolled wildly on the ground.

Seeing this, Gildarts quickly grabbed a handful of dirt and smothered it over his head, finally managing to extinguish the flames.

Gray climbed up shakily and reached out to touch his head.

His once handsome black hair had now turned to ash.

In its place was a smooth, blackened...

Bald head.

"My... my hair..."

Gray touched his slippery scalp, tears welling up in his eyes.

This was the hairstyle he had been most proud of!

Meanwhile, at the center of the battlefield.

Lu Chongwei stood in the middle of the pillar of fire, the Ryujin Jakka in his hand radiating a light that no one dared to look at directly.

He was like a god presiding over flames, watching everything before him with cold indifference.

The three Gidoken were completely broken by now.

Their sturdy magical defenses were as fragile as paper in the face of this extreme fire.

"Screee--!!!"

One Gidoken tried to flap its wings and flee.

Lu Chongwei's eyes shifted.

"Flash Step."

His figure vanished into thin air.

The next second, he appeared directly in mid-air, blocking the path of that Gidoken.

There were no flashy movements.

He simply swung his blade.

"Nadeshiko."

A visible slash of flame swept across.

The massive Gidoken didn't even have time to scream before its enormous body was instantly swallowed by the fire.

There was no gore.

Only ashes filled the sky, drifting down into the magma below.

Seeing their companion perish in an instant, the remaining two Gidoken were terrified to their cores.

They no longer attempted to attack, instead fleeing frantically in two opposite directions.

"Too slow."

Lu Chongwei shook his head, the red light in his eyes intensifying.

He slowly raised the long blade in his hand, pointed it downward, and thrust it fiercely into the flowing magma beneath his feet.

"Inferno Hell."

Rumble—!!!

The earth began to tremble violently.

Immediately after.

Dozens of pillars of fire, reaching from the earth to the heavens, erupted without warning!

Like a cage, those pillars of fire instantly enveloped an area of several hundred meters in radius.

The two Gidoken that were fleeing happened to collide right into the rising pillars of fire.

"Boom!"

The flames instantly engulfed them.

This time, not even ashes remained.

They vanished without a trace, vaporized directly in the terrifying high temperature as if they had never existed at all.

The world finally fell silent.

There was only the sound of flowing magma and the crackling of burning flames.

Lu Chongwei let out a long breath.

With a shift of his will, the sky-filling flames began to rapidly retract, eventually shrinking back entirely into the blade.

"Whew..."

Lu Chongwei felt a wave of intense dizziness wash over him, and he stumbled, nearly falling to the ground.

He felt the empty magic power pool within his body and gave a bitter smile.

The power of Shikai is truly terrifying, but the consumption is just as exaggerated.

Maintaining the Shikai for less than a minute, combined with two techniques, had drained his magic power completely dry.

It seems that until my total magic capacity increases, this move can only be used as a trump card.

Lu Chongwei sighed to himself.

He looked around.

The valley, once rugged and filled with jagged rocks, had now been leveled into a flat plain.

All vegetation, rocks, and even that small hill had completely disappeared.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of glass-like substance—crystals formed from the melting and subsequent cooling of the rocks.

"Job done."

Lu Chongwei sheathed Ryujin Jakka, which let out a crisp "click."

The next morning.

The sun was bright, and the breeze was gentle.

On the way back to Fairy Tail, the atmosphere among the three was somewhat strange.

Lu Chongwei and Gildarts walked in front, occasionally glancing back at Gray, who was following behind, before bursting into laughter.

Gray was currently wrapping his head with a tattered cloth, bundling himself up tightly, with only a pair of eyes filled with resentment exposed.

"Hey, Gray."

Lu Chongwei held back his laughter and teased.

"Actually, being bald isn't so bad. At least it's convenient to wash, and you save on shampoo."

Gildarts couldn't help but add insult to injury:

"Yeah, yeah, and the reflective effect is great. You won't even need a lantern when walking at night; you've got built-in lighting."

"You two bastards! Shut up!"

Gray roared in grief and indignation.

He felt as though his dignity had been shattered into pieces.

A bald head!

How was he supposed to show his face in the guild from now on? How could he face those cute girls?

"Lu Chongwei! I'm going to kill you! I'm definitely going to kill you!"

Gray swung his fists and charged, only for Lu Chongwei to casually press a hand on his head, leaving him unable to reach his target no matter how hard he tried.

"Stop messing around, Baldy Qiang."

"I am not Baldy Qiang!!!"

Amidst the laughter and joy (mostly from Lu Chongwei and Gildarts), the gates of the Fairy Tail guild finally appeared in their line of sight.

Lu Chongwei stepped forward and kicked the door open.

"Bang!"

"We're back!"

Lu Chongwei shouted.

The guild fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a burst of cheers.

"Oh, oh! They're back!"

"How was it? Did you finish the mission?"

"You aren't hurt, are you?"

Everyone crowded around, asking questions all at once.

Makarov sat at the bar, holding a letter in his hand with a strange smile on his face.

"So, you've returned."

Makarov waved the letter in his hand.

"I've already received the client's thank-you note. I heard that not only did you eliminate the magical beast, but you also helped them 'renovate' the terrain while you were at it?"

Gildarts scratched his head in embarrassment and cast a glance toward Lu Chongwei.

Lu Chongwei, meanwhile, whistled with an innocent look on his face.