Chapter 90: Destroying the Moon
Boom—!
The massive, Haki-infused slash from Ren's Murakumogiri tore through the cavern. The entire ruins were cleaved, leaving a huge, smoking gash that ran the length of the temple floor.
Everyone's eyes widened and their mouths dropped open in absolute shock. Although they had witnessed his power once before, such an attack—one that split the very earth—was incredibly stunning, no matter how many times they saw it.
The slash had passed through Deliora.
Crack—!
A single, hairline, vertical line appeared in the middle of Deliora's massive, frozen body.
Then, crackle crackle—!
Dense, spider-webbing cracks appeared all over the demon's form.
Bang—!
Deliora's body, which had stood as a monument to terror for a decade, began to crumble. It wasn't melting; it was disintegrating.
Rumble—!
Deliora's body fell to the ground, not as a monster, but as a shower of ice and dust. It was gone.
"What?!"
Everyone except Ren was stunned by this scene.
"What... what's going on?!" Natsu shouted, confused. "Why did it... shatter? It looked like it was made of ice..."
They were no longer surprised that Ren's attack could destroy Deliora; Ren had already displayed terrifying combat power that could split mountains.
But Ren's attack shouldn't turn a demon into frozen ice. The demon was the ice.
"Could it be..."
"How could this be..." Lyon Vastia, his eyes wide, stumbled forward, falling to his knees as he stared at the pile of ice dust. "Deliora is... already dead..."
He finally understood. The Iced Shell hadn't just sealed the demon.
"Ten years..." Lyon whispered, his voice breaking. "The ice... the ice was Ur... and it gradually took Deliora's life, sapping its energy, killing it from the inside out. We... we were just trying to revive a corpse. We merely witnessed the final moment..."
His arrogance, his rage, his life's entire purpose, shattered in that instant.
"There's no chance left... I... I can never surpass Ur now."
Tears streamed down Lyon's face, mixing with the blood from his defeat. They were tears of failure, yes, but also of something else. He wasn't just grieving for his inability to surpass his master; he was, for the first time in ten years, grieving for her. He was overwhelmed with happiness that his strongest, kindest master had not lost to this monster after all. She had won.
Gray also stared blankly at the scene before him, his mind numb. 'So... Master... you had already killed Deliora for me... long ago.'
"Master..."
Gray lowered his head, covering his face with his hands as a decade of guilt, fear, and sorrow finally broke. Tears flowed uncontrollably from his eyes. His master hadn't just sacrificed herself to delay the problem. She had solved it. She had saved him, and everyone else, completely.
With Deliora's body now just a pile of inert ice, the primary threat was gone. There was no longer any need for a fight. The immense, oppressive aura of Whitebeard vanished as Ren returned to his original form.
Whoosh—!
Ren let out a long, heavy breath, his body slumping slightly. Whitebeard was indeed powerful. Unbelievably so. But using that form, even for a few minutes, and executing two Haki-infused, tremor-powered attacks... it consumed his magic power at a terrifying rate. He was not lasting long again.
Using Whitebeard with only five and a half stars of magic power was still incredibly strenuous. He figured he would need at least seven stars of magic power to allow for more freedom in its use.
"Yay—! That's great! Deliora is dead!" Lucy cheered, breaking the heavy, emotional silence. "This means the village's curse is lifted!"
"Aye!" Happy clapped his paws together.
"It's not great at all! I didn't do anything!" Natsu, who was still stuck in Lyon's ice, was very unhappy.
Last time, dealing with Eisenwald, he was just a bystander because he had been on a vehicle for too long. This time, he was a bystander again—first beaten up by Ren, and then frozen solid. This S-Class Quest should have been completed by him!
Lucy scoffed, "Whose fault is it that you were careless and got frozen? You deserved it!"
"Damn it! You didn't do anything either!" Seeing himself being mocked by mere Lucy, Natsu became furious, not metaphorically, but literally. He tried to breathe fire, but the ice around his torso wouldn't let him expand his lungs.
Lucy argued, "I... I just didn't get a chance to act yet, yes, that's right!"
Ren, who was catching his breath, smiled and said, "Alright, if you want to complete the quest, you actually still have a chance."
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, his anger forgotten. "Isn't Deliora already...?"
"Who told you the curse was related to Deliora?"
"What?!" The group stared at him.
Ren pointed up, through the hole in the roof. "The villagers' curse hasn't been lifted. The moon is still purple. Deliora being here was just a symptom, not the cause. If you can figure out a way to lift the curse on the way back, then you can still count it as completing the S-Class Quest."
"Really?! That's great!" Natsu cheered.
"Aye!"
Lucy, however, was less optimistic. "What are you guys so happy about? We couldn't figure it out in a day and a night, so how are we going to figure it out on the way back?"
She had completely given up now. As long as the curse could be lifted, that was all that mattered.
Natsu grinned and said, "At least there's still hope, isn't there?"
Gray, who had finally composed himself, walked over to Lyon, who was sitting on the ground, defeated and broken, his followers (Zalty, Sherry, Yuka, and Toby) now beginning to stir.
"Do you know how to lift the curse?" Gray asked. Not with anger, but with a quiet, tired voice.
Lyon didn't look at him. "I don't know... but I also had my doubts about the curse. For these three years, we've also been under this light, and even closer to it, yet nothing happened to us, while they were cursed."
"That's right!"
Lucy suddenly realized. "Oh, if the curse was really caused by the moonlight or Deliora, then Lyon and the others, being closer to both, should have been the first to be cursed. Yet, they show no signs of it at all."
"Let's go," Ren said, his energy returning. "It's about time to head back. If we don't, the villagers will start to worry."
Ren said and turned to leave. Natsu (finally melted by his own body heat), Lucy, and Happy quickly followed.
Natsu said to Ren, "Ren, can't you give us a hint? Just a little one?"
"Yeah! Just a little, just a tiny bit," Lucy also chimed in. This was a great opportunity to significantly raise her guild standing, and she didn't want to miss it either.
"Aye!" Happy begged. "If we complete this quest, I can buy lots of fish!"
"No!"
"Tch! Stingy!"
The group walked out, bickering as they went.
Gray stopped at the exit and looked back at Lyon, his heart filled with a strange, complicated guilt. He knew that Lyon's resurrection of Deliora wasn't just simply about defeating Deliora to surpass Ur; his true purpose, hidden beneath all that pride, was to destroy Deliora and avenge Ur. To finish the fight she couldn't.
"What are you looking at?" Lyon said grumpily. He had lost this time. Although he hadn't lost to Gray, he had undoubtedly lost terribly, and he didn't want Gray to laugh at him.
"You should also find a guild to join, Lyon," Gray said, his voice soft. "A real one. There are comrades and rivals there. You'll... you'll definitely find new goals. Ur wouldn't have wanted this for you."
"Boring... Get lost!" Lyon snapped, turning his back.
Ren and the others returned to the village. Along the way, they discussed the problem for a long time but still had no clues. Upon returning to the village, they immediately saw that the entire village was still full of demons. The purple moon was high, and the curse was in full effect.
"Sure enough, the curse hasn't been lifted!" Lucy sighed.
They had been wondering if the curse, the real curse, might have been linked to Deliora's magic after all. But it seemed it wasn't that simple.
The village chief, Moka, still in his demon form, led all the villagers forward, his tone no longer hopeful, but bordering on hysterical. "Mages! Deliora is gone, but the moon... the moon is still purple! When... when exactly are you going to destroy the moon—!"
Ren smiled. "Don't worry. Isn't it just destroying the moon? Let's do it now."
"What—?!"
Everyone—Gray, Lucy, Natsu, Happy, and all the villagers—was startled by these words.
Lucy whispered, "Hey... Ren... do you know what you're saying?"
"Aye!"
Natsu, however, became excited when he heard Ren say he was going to destroy the moon. "I knew it! We still have to destroy the moon! Awesome!"
Gray quickly waved his hands, panicking. "No, no, no... that's impossible! Ren, you can't be serious!"
Ren ignored them. He stepped into the center of the village square and looked up at the purple moon.
"Full Body Takeover: Edward Newgate!"
For the second time that night, Ren began to take over Whitebeard. His height rapidly increased, his muscles swelled, and his appearance began to change. In a blink of an eye, Ren transformed into Whitebeard's towering likeness, his white coat billowing in the night wind.
"So big—!"
The villagers, who hadn't been at the ruins, were startled to see Ren suddenly become so tall, a true giant.
Ren stood firmly on the ground, planting his feet. He took his right hand, clenched it into a massive fist, and placed it on his left hip.
Buzz—!
A white, transparent, spherical light shield—a bubble of pure, condensed, world-breaking power—enveloped Ren's fist.
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