Chapter 217: The Strongest Mage in the Guild
Gildarts did not dare to be careless upon seeing this technique. After all, Ren's previous attacks—the attraction of the Blue and the repulsion of the Red—were already dangerous enough on their own.
Now, seeing these two opposing forces beginning to integrate into a singular, unstable mass, the magical pressure radiating from Ren suggested a power that would exponentially exceed the sum of its parts.
Boom————!
The air around Gildarts distorted visibly. A terrifying golden aura of magical power erupted from his body, shaking the very foundation of the earth.
He gathered this overwhelming crush-attribute magic into his right fist, the ground beneath him turning to fine dust solely from the pressure.
"Hollow Technique: Purple."
Ren flicked his fingers with casual grace.
From the tip of his fingers, a singularity was born. A massive sphere of violet destruction, born from the collision of infinite convergence and infinite divergence, shot towards Gildarts.
It didn't just push the air aside; it erased the space it occupied. Everywhere the sphere passed, smooth, circular voids were carved into reality, leaving nothing behind—not even dust.
Gildarts' eyes widened, recognizing the threat of total erasure. He stepped forward, his muscles bulging as he threw his punch to meet the void.
"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Empyrean!!"
ROAAAAAR!!
A pillar of pure white light exploded from Gildarts' fist, crashing into the purple singularity.
"Hraaaahhhhhhh!!"
The world turned white. The ground beneath Gildarts' feet shattered instantly, the shockwave pulverizing the bedrock for hundreds of meters.
Crack... crack!!
A sound that shouldn't exist—the sound of space fracturing—screamed through the air. Visible, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the Hollow Technique: Purple. The concept of "erasure" was fighting against the concept of "crushing."
Bang————!!
The laws of magic screamed in protest. The purple sphere, unable to withstand the sheer density of Gildarts' Crush magic, shattered into a rain of violet sparks. A powerful, residual impact shockwave rushed towards Ren, tearing up the earth in its wake.
Ren's Six Eyes widened behind his blindfold. 'He crushed virtual mass?!'
Ren quickly teleported, dodging to the side.
He had sensed it before, but now it was confirmed: Gildarts' Crush magic possessed a distinct advantage over his Limitless. It wasn't that the concept of the Gojo Satoru template was inferior to Crush, but rather a matter of raw output.
Gildarts' magical power was simply too dense, too vast. It was like trying to stop a tsunami with a sieve. When the difference in magical density is this high, the Infinity that slows down attacks gets overwhelmed and "crushed" before it can fully filter the threat.
Boom boom boom———!!
The ground where Ren had been standing a fraction of a second ago was obliterated. The stray shockwave continued its path of destruction, heading straight for a distant hillside. With a deafening crumble, the entire side of the mountain was blasted away, leaving a perfectly circular hole as if a god had taken a bite out of the landscape.
"Waaahhhhh!"
"Are they trying to kill us?!"
The onlookers screamed, shielding their faces from the flying debris. The destructive power on display was far beyond a simple sparring match.
Ren, taking advantage of the dust cloud, reappeared upside down in the air, directly behind Gildarts' head.
He crossed his middle finger over his index finger.
"Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void!"
The world shifted.
Ren activated his Domain. Instantly, a boundary expanded, trapping both him and Gildarts inside a separate dimension.
However, Ren knew that a normal-sized barrier would be too fragile against the Ace of Fairy Tail from the outside, and too dangerous for the spectators if it leaked. So, he improvised. He manipulated the parameters of the barrier, compressing the Domain into a sphere no larger than a basketball.
From the outside, the two mages simply vanished, replaced by a floating, pitch-black sphere roughly the size of a human head, hovering ominously in the center of the crater.
"Where are they?!"
Lucy shrieked, looking around frantically. "They disappeared! And what is that black ball?!"
"What's going on?!" Natsu shouted, sniffing the air. "I can't smell them anymore!"
Erza, her face pale, stepped forward. "This is Ren's Domain... a pinnacle technique of barrier magic. But I've never seen him compress it like this before."
She swallowed hard, remembering the Tower of Heaven. "It is a terrifying magic that directly attacks the brain. It doesn't damage the body, but it destroys the mind."
Gajeel crossed his arms, his iron studs gleaming in the sunlight. His expression was unusually serious. "Ren said before... 0.2 seconds inside that thing is enough to paralyze a Ten Wizard Saint level mage for five minutes. For an ordinary person? They'd be a vegetable for two months."
"What?!"
Gray, Lucy, and the others stared at Gajeel in horror.
"0.2 seconds... for five minutes of paralysis?" Macao dropped his cigarette. "Against a Wizard Saint?"
"That means..." Wakaba stammered, "If you get caught in that, you're dead. The Ten Wizard Saints would be at his mercy instantly. No wonder they call him the 'Saint Ten Killer'..."
The nickname "Saint Ten Killer" had been circulating privately within the guild. It wasn't an official title, but considering Ren had dismantled Jose Porla and Jellal Fernandes—two Saints—it was accurate. And now, he was using that god-slaying move on Gildarts.
Inside the Domain.
The moment Gildarts was pulled into the barrier, the concept of "nothingness" and "everything" assaulted him simultaneously.
It was a void of white, yet it was filled with infinite starlight.
"Ugh—!!"
Gildarts grunted, his eyes rolling back for a split second.
Information. Infinite information.
He saw everything. He felt everything. The wind that wasn't blowing, the texture of the universe, the atomic structure of his own blood, the history of magic, the color of a sound. It all rushed into his brain at once.
His brain wasn't being destroyed physically; it was being forced to process an infinite stream of stimuli.
My hands... I can't feel them... no, I feel them too much. I can't move. Why can't I move? I'm living... I'm dying... perception... transmission...
His thoughts began to stagnate. The signals from his brain to his body were drowned out by the noise of the universe. He was standing still, yet his mind was running a marathon every nanosecond.
He was dying. He knew it instinctively. If he stayed here for another second, his ego would dissolve into the void.
Move! Move, damn it!
Gildarts bit his tongue, using the sharp pain to anchor his consciousness for a fraction of a second. Magical power, vast and untamed, roared from his core, resisting the erosion of the Domain.
He couldn't think complex spells. He needed something primal. He needed to break the container.
Gildarts forced his trembling hand to touch the "ground" of this void.
"ALL CRUSH!!"
——————!!
Magic power exploded outwards, not as a beam, but as a shattering force.
The infinite void began to crack. The stream of information was disrupted by the concept of destruction.
Outside the Barrier.
The guild members watched in bated breath as the small, floating black sphere suddenly developed jagged, glowing white cracks.
Crack... CRACK!
Light spilled out from the fissures.
Bang————!
The black sphere detonated like shattered glass, dissolving into particles of dark energy.
Two figures reappeared in the wasteland.
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!"
Gildarts fell to his knees, gasping for air as if he had been drowning. Sweat poured from his forehead, soaking his orange hair. His eyes were wide, the pupils dilated.
He sat down heavily on the dirt, waving his hand frantically at Ren.
"No more! No more fighting! I surrender! You win, kid!"
"What————?!"
The silence in the guild was deafening.
"Did... did I hear that right?"
"Gildarts... actually surrendered?"
Makarov's jaw dropped. That was Gildarts. The man who challenged dragons. The man who walked through walls because he was too lazy to find the door. He had surrendered?
Ren landed softly, his white hair settling back down. He deactivated his technique and shook his head with a wry smile.
"No, I lost," Ren said, walking over to offer Gildarts a hand. "I used all my best techniques. Even Domain Expansion couldn't hold you, Uncle. As expected, your strength is extraordinary."
Ren wasn't just being humble. He knew the reality of the situation.
Gildarts hadn't used his full killing intent. And Ren hadn't used his lethal trump cards either—like the Fourth Hokage's Reaper Death Seal or other suicidal moves—but in a sparring context, he had hit a wall.
Even inside the Domain, Gildarts' magic power was so dense it acted like a physical armor against the information flood. And that Crush magic... it was a cheat. It could crush space, magic, and even the metaphysical barrier of a Domain. If Gildarts had been serious from the start, a direct hit from Empyrean might have bypassed Infinity and splattered Ren across the landscape.
"You brat!" Gildarts laughed breathlessly, slapping Ren's hand away and standing up on his own. "What do you mean you used all your moves! Don't think I don't know you have other transformations hidden up your sleeve!"
"..." Ren scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"But seriously," Gildarts wiped the sweat from his eyes, his expression turning serious. "What was that magic just now? It wasn't pain... it was... noise. I felt countless pieces of information drilling into my brain. It felt like I lived a thousand years in a second."
He was genuinely rattled. In all his years of wandering the world, facing S-Class monsters and dark mages, that was the only technique—besides the Black Dragon Acnologia—that had made him feel distinct, fatal danger.
"That's my Domain, 'Unlimited Void'," Ren explained. "As long as the opponent is pulled into the Domain, their brain will be flooded with a massive amount of invalid information. It forces the brain to process everything, which means it processes nothing. It causes a complete neurological shutdown."
Ren sighed, looking at the older mage with genuine admiration. "But Uncle is truly Uncle. According to my calculations, 0.2 seconds should be enough to paralyze a Ten Wizard Saint for five minutes. You were inside for nearly a full second, and you broke out on your own. You're completely unaffected now. Truly amazing."
Ren made a mental note to re-evaluate the power of his Domain in this world. In the Jujutsu world, it was absolute. But here, against monsters with magic power akin to nuclear reactors like Gildarts or dragons, the "sure-hit" effect could be resisted by sheer force of will and magical density. The consumption of mana to maintain the Domain against such resistance was also astronomical.
Gildarts' mouth twitched, and he rubbed his temples. "You brat... it was just a spar, and you used such a dangerous move!"
Unaffected? Gildarts thought. Hardly.
His brain felt like it had been put through a blender. If he hadn't crushed the Domain when he did, he would have been a vegetable. Even now, his head was throbbing, and his reaction time was shot. Although his magic power reserves were still high, his mental fatigue was maxed out. If the fight continued, he would make mistakes.
Decisively surrendering was the smart move. He was the adult here; no need to risk permanent brain damage for a sparring match.
Makarov, seeing that neither side intended to continue, raised his hand and announced with a booming voice:
"The victor has been decided! Winner: Ren!!"
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!!"
"So amazing!!"
"He actually beat Gildarts!!"
"It's completely confirmed now!"
The guild erupted into cheers, tossing hats and drinks into the air.
"The strongest Mage in the Fairy Tail Guild is Ren!!"
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