Who Else?!

"Gerard—" Seeing Gerard completely frozen within the pillar of ice, Erza finally broke down, crying and screaming. Tears the size of beans streamed endlessly from the corners of her eyes.

Even though she knew Gerard was no longer the Gerard he used to be, even though she knew he had fallen completely into darkness, even though she knew Nameless's actions were the right choice for everyone's sake, she still could not suppress the stabbing pain in her heart and burst into tears!

Thinking of the happy times she had spent with Gerard, thinking of those difficult yet bittersweet days when everyone had struggled together, Erza's heart felt as though it were being torn apart. If Grandpa Rob was the person she admired most, then Gerard was the person she had looked up to most in her still-immature young heart!

Though everything he had done later had become utterly evil, the beautiful traces he had once left in her heart were difficult to erase!

At that thought, Erza cried out silently in her heart. Why? Why did you have to fall, Gerard?! Why couldn't everyone just live happily like before?!!

Though she was overwhelmed with grief and tears continued to stream down her face, soaking her clothes completely, Erza did not blame Chen Wuming in the slightest. She knew clearly that Nameless, who had been forced to personally kill the little brother he had cared about most, must surely have felt even worse than she did. That was what Erza thought...

"It was over... sigh." With a soft sigh, Chen Wuming sensed that the magic power within him was beginning to run low. He decisively released Sode no Shirayuki's Shikai and returned it to his extradimensional space.

Closing his eyes and carefully sensing it, he found that his extradimensional space was no longer as empty as before. Apart from the magical rapier his grandfather had given him, two unusual single-edged long blades floated within it—Wabisuke and Sode no Shirayuki!

Feeling the connection between himself and the two Zanpakutō, Chen Wuming had the feeling that if he wanted to Requip them again, it probably would not be as troublesome as before. Well, after all, it skipped the summoning process—the process of summoning Zanpakutō from the world of Bleach out of thin air...

Having already experienced summoning twice, Chen Wuming clearly understood that unless he first summoned a Zanpakutō from Bleach, the only weapons he could Requip were the three currently stored in his extradimensional space. Of course, that did not rule out other weapons he might acquire in the future.

But just as he had originally thought, Chen Wuming naturally hoped that every Zanpakutō in Bleach would become a weapon for his Requip Magic! As for other weapons, he truly did not think much of them. Yet according to the fundamental principles of Requip Magic, the weapons he could Requip could only be things inside his own extradimensional space! In other words, if he wanted to Requip a Zanpakutō, he first had to summon the Zanpakutō he wanted from the world of Bleach!

Of course, each Zanpakutō only needed to be summoned once. Once it had been summoned into his extradimensional space, it would remain there or in his Requip space forever! If he wanted to use that Zanpakutō again later, he could simply Requip it directly! That saved him quite a bit of trouble. After all, if he had to summon a Zanpakutō every time before Requipping it, that would be far too annoying...

After sorting out the characteristics of his Requip Magic, Chen Wuming prepared to rescue Erza from the sea first. Erza did not seem to be in good condition, and she appeared to have some injuries as well. They had probably been caused when she tried to stop Gerard...

Sighing inwardly, Chen Wuming acted as soon as he thought of it and immediately ran toward the shore. In his view, with Erza's injuries, she simply could not control a ship like that amid the raging waves. If things went badly, it might even capsize at any moment! To prevent that from happening, he had to get her out of the sea as quickly as possible!

Reaching the edge of the water in quick strides, Chen Wuming did not hesitate before Requipping Sode no Shirayuki once more! After all, he could not swim. Jumping into the sea to save someone directly would be suicidal!! Uh, it seemed that both Chen Wuming and Achill were the type to die the moment they touched water?

Enough nonsense, back to the point! After taking out Sode no Shirayuki, Chen Wuming immediately released it, intending to use its ice-and-snow abilities to build an ice bridge across the sea. But just then—

"Hmph—" A pair of strange eyes suddenly snorted coldly. Then, amid a rapid series of cracking sounds, countless fine cracks suddenly spread across the ice pillar that had frozen Gerard, before it shattered into ice fragments that danced through the air before Chen Wuming's stunned gaze!

"Good, very good! My—" Gerard stepped out of the icy mist one step at a time, his body radiating an almost suffocatingly evil magic power. Looking at Chen Wuming's astonished eyes, the corner of his mouth curled upward into an incomparably sinister smile. Gerard sneered darkly, "Big Brother Nameless! What you did just now was really quite impressive!! If it had not been for the protection of the great god Zeref, I would have been killed by you just now!!!" The last sentence was practically a roar.

"H-How was that possible?!" Chen Wuming stared in extreme shock at Gerard, who had broken free from the ice behind him. His eyes were filled with disbelief! He could not believe that his attack had achieved so little effect?! That was impossible! Based on Gerard's magic power from before, Second Dance: White Ripple should absolutely have wiped him out completely?! But why did it seem to have had no effect at all now?!! And he said he had Zeref's protection? Could it be—

Did he have some kind of helper?!

At that thought, Chen Wuming immediately became even more vigilant! He did not believe that nonsense about Zeref helping him. If there was a reason Gerard had suddenly broken free of the ice, then there was only one possibility! Gerard definitely had a helper somewhere nearby!! And someone who could not only protect Gerard from his White Ripple attack without a scratch, but also casually destroy White Ripple's ice pillar, had to be extremely powerful! He had no choice but to be cautious!

Because one careless mistake could even get him killed!!! As someone who had crossed over, he understood very well the simple truths that caution kept one safe and that even the best sailor could capsize in a gutter!

"Gerard?!" Erza cried out in shock. She stared blankly at the roaring Gerard, her emotions a complicated mixture of surprise and joy. She was happy that Gerard was alive; as the person she had once admired, deep down she still did not want him to die like this. But she was also shocked that Nameless's powerful magic had not affected Gerard at all?! Th-That was far too terrifying!! After the initial joy, what filled Erza's heart even more was deep worry. Perhaps even she herself could not tell whether she was worried that Nameless might face danger, or that Gerard might be killed by Nameless again? Or perhaps it was both?

Not knowing the truth and simply believing that Gerard had broken free through his own strength, she naturally did not know whom she should worry about. But if she knew what Chen Wuming was thinking—if she knew that a powerful enemy might be lurking nearby and watching them—then perhaps she would worry more for her Big Brother Nameless?

"Ahahahaha, Big Brother Nameless, attack me!" Ignoring Erza's expression aboard the ship, Gerard saw Chen Wuming become incomparably cautious after watching him break free. His vanity utterly satisfied, he finally burst into wild laughter. "Go ahead and kill me again! Just like before, cut me down on the spot!! What? Why aren't you attacking? Why aren't you trying to kill me again?! Is it because your pathetic kindness has suddenly flared up, or because—"

"Y-O-U—J-U-S-T—D-O-N-T—D-A-R-E—T-O—M-O-V-E?!!!" Gerard's face turned cold as he spat out each word. "Now that you know I truly have the protection of the great Zeref, you've lost the courage to keep fighting me. Because you fear the existence of a god, you no longer dare to fight me at all, do you?! Am I right, Big Brother Nameless?!!" As he finished speaking, a terrifying, shudder-inducing evil magic power suddenly erupted violently from Gerard's young body!