The late afternoon sun bathed the winding roads outside Magnolia in a warm, golden hue. The deep, guttural thrum of a high-performance magical engine echoed off the canyon walls as the Lamborghini Urus tore down the highway.
After two days, we can see Blake and Cana are driving towards Magnolia after completing their quest.
This wasn't the epic, cross-continental trek to Giltena. It had been a short, sharp, two-day excursion to handle a rogue wyvern in the neighboring mountains—a "date with violence," as Cana liked to call it. They were relaxed, the windows down, wind whipping through the cabin.
"That was too easy," Cana laughed from the passenger seat, kicking her feet up on the dashboard. She held a half-empty bottle of sparkling wine, looking thoroughly pleased with life. "You didn't even have to use your sword. You just glared at it until it landed."
Blake, one hand casually draped over the steering wheel, smirked behind his sunglasses. "It knew better. Besides, I didn't want to scratch the paint."
They were having fun in the car, the air filled with easy banter and the comfortable silence of a couple who knew each other's rhythms perfectly.
Then, once they reached the Fairy Tail guild, Blake parked the Urus in the newly expanded garage. The engine died with a soft purr.
"Home sweet chaotic home," Blake said, opening his door.
They both get down from the car and walk towards the guild hall.
They walked with a leisurely, synced pace. They both are walking together, with Cana hugging Blake's hand. She had both of her arms wrapped around his right bicep, leaning her head against his shoulder, radiating a possessive, happy affection. It was a public display they had become comfortable with over the last few weeks.
They reached the massive double doors. Blake reached out with his free hand.
"Ready for the noise?" he asked.
"Always," Cana grinned.
Then Blake opens the door and says, "We are back."
He stepped across the threshold, Cana clinging to him, a smile on his face expecting the usual flying chairs, fireballs, and screaming matches.
But there was nothing.
Then everyone in the guild looks towards the door.
Natsu, mid-punch, froze. Gray, half-naked, stopped. Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Mirajane—everyone turned.
There is pin-drop silence.
It wasn't the silence of anticipation. It was the silence of a funeral. Or perhaps, the silence of animals sensing a tsunami.
Every eye in the room darted from Blake and Cana... to a specific table in the center of the hall.
Blake frowned, sensing the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure. "Guys? What's with the—"
CRASH.
Then we can hear a glass shattering sound.
It was a sharp, brutal sound that echoed violently in the silent hall. A thick glass tankard had been crushed. Not dropped. Crushed into fine, glittering dust by sheer grip strength.
Blake and Cana, confused by the silence, look towards the glass shattering sound.
Sitting at the center table, surrounded by an aura of dark, vibrating intensity, was a man with orange, slicked-back hair and a stubbly chin. He was staring at the doorway. Specifically, he was staring at Cana's arms wrapped lovingly around Blake's bicep.
And see Gildarts looking at the two of them with a jaw-drop expression.
His eyes were wide, vacant, and filled with a mixture of soul-crushing betrayal and paternal apocalypse. His mouth hung slightly open. He looked like a man who had just watched his house burn down, only to find out the arsonist was his best friend.
Cana froze. Her grip on Blake didn't loosen, but her face went pale.
"Dad...?" she squeaked.
The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. The guild members held their breath, praying for survival.
Then, a voice broke the silence. A voice dripping with malicious, electric amusement.
Then Laxus, who is on the top floor, smirks. He was leaning over the railing, his arms crossed, watching the scene with the glee of a man watching a train wreck.
"Hey, Blake," Laxus called out, his voice echoing clearly. "When is the wedding?"
The air in the guild hall instantly dropped ten degrees.
Blake looks at Laxus and shoots him a glare that promised future pain. You traitor.
But the damage was done. The word "wedding" acted like a trigger on a nuclear detonator.
Gildarts, who heard that, started to release ominous energy.
It wasn't just magic. It was Crush magic, fueled by the hysterical rage of an overprotective father. The table he was sitting at disintegrated into sawdust. The floorboards beneath him began to cube and float. A dark purple aura flared around him, shaking the very foundations of the building.
"Wedding...?" Gildarts whispered, his voice sounding like grinding stones. "My Cana... my little girl... holding hands... with him?"
Blake felt his instincts screaming. This wasn't a fight he could win with words. This wasn't a fight he could win with logic. This was a force of nature.
Seeing that, Blake looks at Cana and says, "Well, that was a good run."
He looked down at her, his expression grim but resigned. "How many weeks was it? 5? 6? It was the best six weeks of my life."
He gently disentangled her arms from his.
"We will continue it if I come out of it alive."
Then Blake turns around and starts running outside Magnolia.
He didn't hesitate. He used Soru, vanishing from the doorway in a blur of motion, heading straight for the open plains. He knew he couldn't fight Gildarts in the city. If they clashed here, Magnolia would be wiped off the map.
Seeing that, Gildarts also starts moving.
"BOY!" Gildarts roared, exploding from his seat with enough force to blow the roof off the entrance.
He paused for a fraction of a second near Cana. He placed a gentle, shaking hand on her shoulder, his eyes wide and frantic.
"Don't worry! I will take care of him and release you from his clutches!" he declared heroically, in his eyes Cana was the victim. "Daddy's here!"
And starts running.
He crashed through the wall next to the door (because opening it takes too long), leaving a cartoon-shaped hole, and thundered after Blake.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU THIEF!"
Hearing that, Cana tries to stop him. "Dad! Wait! It's not like that! Dad!"
But Gildarts didn't hear it as he was already chasing Blake out of Magnolia. He was a man on a mission, fueled by paternal delusion and crush magic.
For a moment, the guild hall was silent again, staring at the destroyed wall and the dust cloud settling in the distance.
Then, someone snickered.
Then, Natsu burst out laughing.
Once the two juggernauts leave the guild hall, everyone starts laughing until their stomach hurts.
"DID YOU SEE HIS FACE?!" Macao howled, pounding the table.
"HE THINKS BLAKE KIDNAPPED HER!" Wakaba wheezed.
"Laxus, you are evil!" Mirajane giggled, though she looked delighted. "That was perfect!"
Even Erza was shaking with suppressed mirth. "Blake... may rest in peace."
Then someone says they should go and see the battle.
"Are you kidding?!" Natsu yelled, jumping up. "Gildarts vs. Blake?! Serious mode?! I'm not missing that!"
"It's a clash of the strongest!" Gray shouted, grabbing his coat (but forgetting his shirt).
Hearing that, everyone starts to go after the two to see what happens next. The entire guild poured out of the hall, a stampede of spectators eager for the show of the century.
Everyone is gone except Cana, who was stunned, looking towards the way Blake and Gildarts left. She stood in the empty hall, her hand still reaching out. She was mortified. She was furious. And she was worried. Not that Blake would lose, but that her dad would say something incredibly stupid before getting punched.
Then Happy comes and wakes Cana out of her stupor. The blue cat flew in front of her face.
"Aye! Cana! Unless you want to be a widow before the wedding, you better go stop them!"
He tells her to get going.
Cana blinked, then her eyes narrowed. "That stupid old man..."
Then she also runs towards them both, sprinting out of the guild, her cards ready.
Meanwhile, Blake and Gildarts are already outside Magnolia in the barren lands.
They had moved fast. In seconds, they had crossed the city limits, crossed the forest, and landed in a desolate, rocky wasteland surrounded by canyons—a place designated for S-Class sparring, where even if destruction happens, no one will blame Fairy Tail.
Blake skidded to a halt, turning to face his pursuer. He wasn't winded. He stood tall, his black coat settling around him, his expression calm but guarded.
Gildarts landed a few yards away. The impact of his landing created a crater. He straightened up, his magical aura flaring so hard the pebbles around him began to float and disintegrate.
They stood face to face.
The Ace of Fairy Tail versus the Prodigy. The Father versus the Boyfriend.
"I knew it," Gildarts growled, pacing back and forth like a caged lion. "Years ago... when she looked at you with those sparkly eyes... I should have thrown you into a volcano then. I have made a mistake, and look what it cost me! My negligence... my absence... it left the door open for a wolf!"
"You tricked her!" Gildarts shouted, pointing an accusing finger. "You charmed her! You manipulated her fragile heart! My Cana is innocent! She doesn't know about men like you!"
"Gildarts, listen to me," Blake said, keeping his voice steady. "I didn't trick anyone. Cana is a grown woman. We love each other. It's mutual."
"LIES!" Gildarts continued to argue.
"She's a delicate flower!" Gildarts raved, tears actually welling in his eyes. "She needs protection! She needs a father! Not a... a boyfriend who drives a loud car and cuts mountains in half!"
Blake stared at the man. Then an image formed in Blake's mind.
He remembered Cana last night.
He remembered Cana drinking beer in a barrel larger than her torso.
He remembered Cana screaming profanities at Macao during a poker game.
He remembered shouting and fighting guild members, throwing cards that exploded with lightning, and drinking men twice her size under the table.
He remembered the fierce, independent, powerful woman who had helped him defeat a Lich King.
"Innocent flower..." Blake muttered.
Blake shakes his head, "You're delusional, old man," Blake said flatly. "You won't listen to me. You see what you want to see."
Then Gildarts crunches his knuckles. A sound like breaking boulders echoed in the canyon. His face hardened, the tears gone, replaced by the terrifying visage of the strongest mage in the West.
"Damn right you are," Gildarts said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous rumble. "I don't need to listen. I need to exorcise the pest."
His magic flared white. The ground beneath him turned to dust instantly.
"You will pay for messing with my daughter."
Then Gildarts gathers magic in his arms.
It wasn't a spell. It was pure Crush. A concentrated sphere of destruction wrapped around his fist, glowing with a blinding, white light. It was the power to shatter mountains, castles, and magic itself.
He charged. He wasn't fast like Racer; he was inevitable. He moved with the momentum of a landslide.
Blake took a deep breath. He didn't draw his sword.
No. This needed to be a clash of wills.
Then Blake also coats his fist with Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki.
Black and red lightning erupted from Blake's body, crackling wildly around his fist. The air screamed as the two opposing forces—Destruction and Willpower—prepared to meet.
And runs towards Gildarts.
They closed the distance in a heartbeat.
"GILDARTS!"
"BLAKE!"
Then they both throw their punches.
Gildarts threw a straight right, coated in white Crash magic.
Blake threw a straight right, coated in black Haki and red lightning.
The fists closed in. Inches.
But their fists do not meet.
They stopped.
They didn't touch.
There was an invisible barrier between them, a sphere of pure, compressed pressure where the Crash Magic and the Advanced Conqueror's Haki collided. The energies repelled each other with such force that reality itself seemed to bend.
ZZZZZZZT-CRACK!
A sphere of black and white energy expanded outward, pulverizing the rock for a hundred meters in every direction. The ground beneath them didn't just crack; it evaporated, creating a massive bowl-shaped crater instantly.
And the clouds in the sky split apart due to their clash.
The shockwave shot upward. The thick layer of afternoon clouds was sliced cleanly in two, rolling back as if cut by a god's knife, revealing the dark blue of the upper atmosphere.
The guild members who were running towards the two of them crested the final hill just in time.
Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, Makarov—the whole stampede skidded to a halt.
When they saw the clouds splitting apart, they stopped in their tracks.
They felt the wind blast past them, nearly knocking the weaker members off their feet. They saw the black and white lightning arcing into the heavens. They saw the sky break.
And stared into the sky with a shocked face.
Natsu's jaw was unhinged. His scarf whipped violently in the wind. The fire in his belly turned cold for a second. "They... they didn't even touch..." he whispered, his dragon senses screaming at the sheer level of power. "That's... that's monsters fighting."
Gray had forgotten about his missing shirt. He shielded his eyes from the glare. "The sky... they split the sky? Just from a punch? Are they even human?!"
Wendy was holding onto Carla, her knees shaking. "The air... the air is trembling! It's so heavy! Is this what S-Class means?!"
Lucy was pale, hiding behind Erza. "I thought... I thought it was a joke! I thought they were just gonna brawl! They're trying to kill each other! Over dating?!"
Makarov, standing at the front, didn't look scared. He looked... tired. And incredibly proud. He watched the sky split, he watched his two strongest "children" locked in a stalemate of world-ending proportions.
"My retirement," Makarov sighed, clutching his heart. "My poor retirement. Who is going to pay for that landscape?"
But Cana, who had just arrived, breathless, pushed past them all. She saw the sky. She saw the black lightning. She saw her father and her boyfriend trying to erase each other from existence.
Her shock turned to pure, unadulterated fury.
"YOU IDIOTS!" she screamed, her voice cutting through the rumbling aftershock.
But in the crater, the two men, locked in their clash of wills, didn't hear her. They only saw each other. And the fight was far from over.