"Achill, what happened...?" Above the ruins of the Royal Capital, Mystogan gazed up at Achill, who had suddenly returned to his original appearance, and asked in confusion, "Wasn't he just about to win? Why did he suddenly leave that powerful demon form—"
"I think that form probably hit its time limit," Gajeel replied with an indifferent shrug. "Makes sense. If something that ridiculously powerful didn't have some special restriction on its use, that'd be going too far. Usually, the stronger something is, the more likely it is to have some kind of weakness you could call a loophole. That goes for any powerful magic..."
"Right, that must be it..." Mystogan nodded in agreement, then tilted his head back again to watch how the battle in the sky unfolded.
In fact, while their guess wasn't necessarily correct, it wasn't entirely wrong, either! Achill hadn't entered hollowfication of his own accord, but its power was absolutely beyond question! If that powerful hollowfication had a loophole or a flaw, what was it? Probably the fact that Achill still couldn't fully control this immensely powerful and bizarre ability through his own will.
Enough digression. Now, back to the aerial battlefield ten thousand meters above the ground—
"Ha, hahaha! Looks like that monstrous form of yours finally disappeared completely!" With dark, shifting eyes, 'Achill' carefully scrutinized his distant opponent, who had fully regained his original appearance, and his confidence surged! He burst into wild, crazed laughter. "Good! That's good! That's just perfect! Now, then—"
"Let's reverse the situation from our last exchange a little—" A streak of black light flashed, and he abruptly appeared behind Achill. His long black tail, covered in hideous scales, instantly wound tight around his opponent's waist from behind. Grinning savagely, 'Achill' raised the Black Serrated Greatsword, once again filled with