Chapter 162: The Battle for Supremacy
"Bang!"
The Jutsu Shiki barrier, [Rule: Magic is not allowed], shattered into a thousand pieces of purple light as Ren's casual, Cursed Energy-wielding presence simply walked through it.
"Swish!"
Freed, his face now pale and beaded with rain, frantically drew his rapier through the air, casting his next enchantment.
[Rule: Within this Jutsu Shiki, all who...]
"Bang!"
Before the rule text had fully formed in the air, Ren, who hadn't even broken his stride, tapped the nascent barrier with a finger wreathed in the swirling, gravitational force of Blue. The barrier imploded, collapsing in on itself before it could even activate.
Ren walked forward, a Blue Sphere wrapped around his palm like a harmless lantern, and with each step he took, he would either tap or simply pass by another one of Freed's painstakingly set traps. In less than a minute, the entire courtyard of Kardia Cathedral, a complex web of layered enchantments that had taken Freed hours to prepare, was shattered and useless.
Freed's face was pale, his breathing heavy. This was his life's work, his ultimate magic, rendered as fragile as glass.
He drew his sword, his hands trembling slightly, and wrote one last, desperate rune in the air.
"Swish!"
A massive barrier unfolded, this one darker, more resolute, encircling the entire cathedral entrance and sealing both of them inside.
[Rule: Only one person can exit this Jutsu Shiki.]
Ren saw the rule of this new barrier and finally stopped, a small, amused smile on his face. "Oh? It seems you've prepared yourself mentally. A duel to the death? How very dramatic."
"That's right!" Freed's voice was tight, but his resolve had hardened from fear into grim determination. "If you want to fight Laxus, you must get past me first!"
If Freed had previously thought Laxus had a 40-60 chance against Ren, after seeing Ren break through his Jutsu Shiki barriers so easily, he realized his estimate had been laughably optimistic. This was, without a doubt, the man capable of defeating a Wizard Saint.
Laxus's chances against Ren were, at best, 30-70. Pessimistically, perhaps even 10-90.
'Ren is powerful,' Freed thought, gripping his rapier. 'But he has one weakness... his magic power. This Gojo Satoru form, this 'Limitless' and 'Blue'... it must consume an enormous amount of energy. If I can exhaust enough of his magic power here, if I can force him to take me seriously and spend that power... then Laxus's chances of winning will be greater. This is the only thing I can do for him now.'
He would not be a simple obstacle. He would be a sacrifice.
"Dark Ecriture: Darkness!!!"
Freed wrote the Dark Ecriture runes on his own body. His form swelled, his skin turning a deep, demonic purple, and dark, shifting runes spread across his flesh like cracks. Horns jutted from his head, and a palpable aura of shadows and malice exploded from him.
"Boom!"
Freed stomped his foot, shattering the stone beneath him, and charged. He moved with unnatural speed, appearing instantly in front of Ren and throwing a demonic, rune-covered fist directly at Ren's blindfolded face.
Ren didn't dodge. He didn't evade. He simply stood there.
Just as Freed thought he was about to land the blow, that his fist would shatter Ren's skull, it stopped.
His fist, brimming with the power of Darkness, was frozen in the air, less than an inch from Ren. It was as if an invisible, tangible wall blocked him, a sensation just like his own Jutsu Shiki barrier.
"What... is this?!" Freed roared, pushing with all his might.
"This is what I just mentioned," Ren's voice was bored, as if lecturing a slow student. "The Limitless Cursed Technique. Your attack hasn't stopped, it's just slowed down. The closer it gets to me, the slower it becomes. Right now, it's traveling less than a millimeter every thousand years. It's appearing, to you, as if it's completely still."
"Snap!"
Ren's palm, moving at a speed Freed couldn't even register, grabbed Freed's suspended fist. He pulled Freed out of the Limitless field and towards him. His other hand, already clenched into a fist and glowing with raw Cursed Energy, powerfully struck Freed's abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Freed let out a scream of pure agony. It wasn't just a punch; it felt as if his internal organs were being willed to wail, to tear themselves apart from the inside.
"It's not over yet!"
Ren, now a blur, struck Freed with punch after punch, each one infused with Cursed Energy that bypassed his demonic transformation. Freed gritted his teeth, his vision blurring. In a desperate, animalistic roar, he swung his arm, using Ren's own momentum to forcefully throw him away, then shot into the air.
"Dark Breath!!"
Freed unleashed a dark vortex from his mouth, a swirling torrent of shadow and cursed runes, attacking Ren from above.
Ren, on the ground, simply raised his palm. A small Blue Sphere formed within it.
All of the dark vortexes Freed released were suddenly, violently, pulled from their path. They were stretched, torn, and swallowed by the Blue Sphere, disappearing into its gravitational void.
"What?!" Freed's eyes widened in horror. His magic was being eaten.
"Swish!"
Ren's figure vanished. He appeared in the air, directly above Freed's head, then kicked him in a brutal, inverted overhead bicycle kick.
"Teleportation?!"
Freed hadn't expected Ren to know even this magic. He had no time to dodge. He immediately crossed his arms, his demonic form tensing, to block the blow.
"Boom!"
"Ugh!" The force of the kick shattered his guard, breaking both his arms.
"Whoosh!"
Before Freed's plummeting body could even gain momentum, Ren teleported beneath him, slamming another Cursed Energy-infused kick into his back, sending him flying upward again.
"Boom!"
Freed's body plummeted to the ground like a meteor, creating a large, spider-webbed crater in the stone courtyard.
Ren floated down lightly from the air, his shoes barely making a sound as they touched the wet ground. Freed lay in the crater, coughing up blood, his demonic form flickering and fading.
"That's enough," Ren said, his voice flat. "You should just lie down quietly. My Cursed Energy strikes are not something an ordinary person can endure."
Ren stepped forward, preparing to enter Cardia Cathedral.
"Stand... stand still..."
Freed, his arms broken, his body trembling violently, shakily got to his feet. Blood poured from his mouth.
"I won't... I won't let you... just go find Laxus... like this!"
Freed roared, a desperate, final cry of loyalty. He brought his hands together, ignoring the pain of his broken bones, and began gathering all of his remaining magic power.
"Since that's the case," Ren sighed, "I won't hold back."
Ren raised his right index finger. He continuously poured the positive energy generated by the Reverse Cursed Technique into the Limitless Cursed Technique, and a small, impossibly dense red energy sphere began to gather at his fingertip.
"Dark Blast!!"
Freed unleashed everything he had left. A massive, powerful dark magic blast erupted from his body, tearing towards Ren. Wherever the magic blast passed, the ground shattered into pieces.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
[Akarin's Note: Cursed Technique Reversal: Red (Jutsushiki Hanten: Aka) is the opposite of Blue. Instead of pulling things in, it creates a powerful, explosive repulsive force.]
The red sphere, no bigger than a marble, launched from Ren's finger. It generated a terrifying, overwhelming repulsive force. All the ground in its path was crushed and shattered, repelled from its very existence.
"Boom!!!"
The two forces collided. The Dark Blast, a massive wave of dark magic, was instantly, utterly, and completely overpowered. The repulsive force generated by Red tore the Dark Blast apart, neutralized it, and continued on, undeterred, rushing towards Freed.
In this clash, Ren's Cursed Technique Reversal was clearly, absurdly, superior.
The terrifying repulsive force struck Freed's body.
"Ughhhhhh!!!"
"Boom!"
Freed's body smashed through the massive, ancient doors of Cardia Cathedral. A powerful impact surged into the main hall. A heavily scarred figure, smoking and broken, tumbled into the cathedral's main hall, rolling several times before finally stopping, landing right beside Laxus's feet.
Freed, struggling, his eyes barely open, looked up at the man he had sworn to follow. "Laxus... be careful... Ren..."
As soon as he finished speaking, he could no longer hold on and fell unconscious.
A figure, silhouetted by the rain and the shattered doorway, stepped into Cardia Cathedral with light, almost silent footsteps.
"Has he arrived?"
Laxus's face, which had been passive, twisted into a ferocious smile as he looked towards the entrance.
Soon, Ren stood before Laxus, the rain dripping from his blindfold, his hands back in his pockets.
"Hey, hey! What's with this new look?" Laxus's voice boomed in the cavernous hall, his tone a mix of mockery and genuine curiosity. "It's almost annoyingly handsome, hey!"
Laxus couldn't help but tease when he saw Ren's appearance.
"Is that so?" Ren replied, his voice light. "I just changed my style a bit. My handsomeness is pretty much the same as my original self, right?"
Laxus's mouth twitched. "You're truly shameless. I never noticed that about you before."
"If you didn't even notice a man as handsome as me," Ren retorted, "then it can only be that your eyesight is poor."
"Ren," Laxus said, his smile fading, his voice turning serious. "I'll give you one more chance. Join me. With my power and your... whatever this is... together we can surely create the strongest Mage Guild in Fiore. No, in all of Ishgar."
Laxus once again extended an invitation to Ren.
"I'm not interested," Ren refused again, his tone final.
"What a shame!" Laxus's aura began to crackle, golden lightning starting to arc from his shoulders. "Since you're not interested, then don't get in my way. I will be the Fairy Tail Guild Master, and I will build the strongest guild!"
Ren raised an eyebrow, finding it inexplicable. "I'm getting in your way? We've barely met a few times, haven't we? How am I getting in your way?"
Laxus's eyes widened, and he shouted, his voice echoing with rage and thunder, his ferocious expression finally showing his true colors. "Your existence! Your mere existence is already seriously hindering me!"
"You know, don't you?" Laxus stalked forward, his magic pressure causing the stone floor to crack. "Who is the strongest person in Fairy Tail? Before, everyone debated whether it was me, or Gildarts, or you. Until you defeated Jose, the Guild Master of Phantom Lord Guild."
"After that," Laxus spat, "the discussion about who was the strongest... disappeared. Everyone in the guild, everyone in my guild, believed you were the strongest Mage. And even the old man... he wanted to pass the Guild Master position to you!"
Laxus's fists clenched, his body now fully wreathed in lightning. "That position clearly belongs to me! To me! I am his blood! It's my birthright!"
"Now it's going to be snatched away by an outsider who's only been in the guild for a year!"
"I'm not reconciled!" Laxus roared, his voice pure fury. "I swear! What belongs to me, I will take back with my own hands!"
He ripped his headphones from his neck, throwing them to the ground. "Come on, Ren! Let's decide now! Who holds the title of the strongest in Fairy Tail... is it me, or you!"
[Akarin Note:
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