Chapter 328 – It Doesn't Mean You've Gotten Stronger
Ren's body began to change. The black clothes he had been wearing turned into a high-collared, long-sleeved white coat with a black base. Below, he wore white hakama tied with a wide black sash, a Zanpakuto thrust through it, black socks and white shoes.
His skin paled slightly, his eyes turned green with green tear-marks beneath them, and a white horned helmet covered the left half of his head.
"Hmm… the magic level did drop a lot, but taking in Ulquiorra is still doable."
Ren could sense the strange restriction placed upon him. Doriate's Law of Retrogression was a bizarre, conceptual magic that forcefully reverted a target to a weaker state, effectively shrinking their magic container. He could feel that casting his usual large-scale spells would be a little harder now.
Yet, his core power hadn't vanished; the other party simply wasn't capable of erasing it entirely. They had merely narrowed the outlet. His own magic was still bubbling intensely just beneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed.
Furthermore, by equipping the Ulquiorra Cifer template, Ren wasn't just relying on Fiore's atmospheric ethernano anymore. He was tapping into raw, dense Spiritual Pressure—Reiatsu. It was a cold, hollow, and desolate power that Doriate's magic struggled to fully comprehend or suppress.
"You can still use magic? Even if you can, under the effect of the Degeneration Spell, its power will plummet!"
Doriate charged at Ren, hurling a massive, magically-reinforced punch. The dark mage was absolutely confident. In his mind, an opponent affected by his spell was nothing more than a helpless child waiting to be slaughtered.
Smack!
Ren simply raised a single, pale hand and caught the fist dead in its tracks. The resulting shockwave blew the surrounding snow away, but Ren's arm didn't budge a single millimeter.
"What?! How could you possibly block my attack?!"
Doriate was shocked, his eyes widening to the size of saucers. The physical feedback from his punch felt like he had just slammed his knuckles into a mountain of solid steel.
Ren stared at him with unblinking, emerald-green eyes. He asked back, his voice completely devoid of emotion, "Why would you think I couldn't?"
"Your defensive power should have been slashed! You should be weak!" Doriate yelled, trying desperately to pull his fist back, only to find it locked in an iron grip.
"I see. My defense has indeed fallen quite a bit," Ren admitted calmly.
He could feel that his usual durability was somewhat compromised by the magical debuff. However, the Ulquiorra template granted him Hierro—a hardened skin unique to the Arrancar, forged from condensed spiritual power.
[Akarin's Note: Hierro (Iron Skin) is an Arrancar ability in Bleach where they condense their spiritual power into their skin, making it as hard as diamond. This acts as a passive, absolute defense that doesn't rely on active magic shields.]
"But that doesn't mean you've gotten any stronger," Ren continued, his cold gaze piercing right through Doriate. "Your attacks aren't strong. Not just weak; they're downright feeble."
"Feeble?! You call my attacks feeble?!"
Doriate trembled with absolute rage. The veins on his forehead bulged, pulsing with a sickening, dark purple hue. As a member of Succubus Eye, a guild subservient to the dark underworld, being looked down upon by a 'weakened' human was the ultimate insult.
"Aaaaargh!! I'll kill you!!"
He roared and forcefully wrenched his hand free, rushing at Ren again with wild, uncoordinated swings. Dark magic flared around his fists, intending to crush the white-clad man into a bloody pulp.
"Idiot."
Ren flashed in front of him before the dark mage could even process the movement. The sound of static filled the air as Ren utilized Sonído, moving at a speed that completely bypassed human perception.
He drove a pale fist directly into Doriate's gut. The impact was pinpoint and devastating.
"Gah!!"
Howling in agony, spit and blood flying from his mouth, Doriate blindly swung a desperate backhand at Ren's head.
Ren casually tapped the frozen ground and sprang up. His movements were elegant, almost ghostly. He evaded the clumsy strike effortlessly and delivered a devastating spinning kick at the same time.
Doriate's body folded around Ren's foot, flying sideways like a cannonball.
Boom!!
He slammed violently into a solid wall of enchanted ice, shattering it into thousands of glittering fragments. A thick cloud of frost and debris plumed into the air, obscuring the battlefield.
Crash, crash!
The sound of shifting rubble echoed from the crater. Doriate rose again, but his form was drastically changing.
He was now gigantic, his muscles bulging grotesquely beneath his torn clothes. Huge, razor-sharp claws sprouted from his hands and feet. Massive, beastly fangs jutted from his elongated mouth. He had completely discarded his human appearance, transforming into a hulking, mindless demon of pure violence.
"Roooaaar—!"
The monster charged Ren, his heavy footsteps causing the very bedrock of the frozen village to quake.
"Lost your mind?"
Ren could easily see that the man's sanity had snapped. The dark magic had consumed whatever rational thought Doriate had left, trading it for raw, uncontrollable physical power.
Doriate swung a fist down, aiming to flatten Ren like an insect. The sheer wind pressure from the strike cracked the ice beneath Ren's feet.
Smack!
Ren lifted a single hand and stopped it easily once again. The ground around him cratered deeply from the kinetic transfer, but his pale arm remained perfectly straight.
Even without access to his full magic reserves, Haki, or his other broken system stats, Ulquiorra's body possessed the toughest defense among the Espada. A mindless brute swinging with brute force was never going to break through.
"Stronger, but still limited." Ren analyzed coldly, brushing off the frost from his white sleeve.
"Roooaaar—!"
Enraged by the casual dismissal, Doriate swung his other fist in a sweeping hook. Ren didn't even bother to step back; he merely raised his forearm and blocked again, the sound of bone meeting Hierro echoing sharply.
Without missing a beat, Ren smoothly chambered his leg and kicked the monstrous beast directly in the abdomen. The concentrated force of the blow compressed the air itself.
Doriate shot backward, unable to resist the overwhelming kinetic force.
Boom—!
Crack, crack!
The huge, demonic body crashed into a towering iceberg at the edge of the village. The impact was so severe that the entire ice structure webbed with deep fissures before collapsing on top of him.
Before Doriate could even attempt to rise from the frozen rubble, Ren used Sonído to appear directly before him. The Arrancar looked down at the broken demon, his green eyes devoid of any pity or hesitation.
He casually raised his hand and tapped a single, pale index finger against Doriate's broad chest. A dense, terrifying sphere of spiritual energy gathered at the fingertip, glowing with a malevolent, emerald-green light.
"Cero."
Whooosh—!
The emerald Cero blasted straight through him. The beam of highly concentrated spiritual pressure was so intense that it vaporized everything in its path, releasing a shrill, shrieking sound that drowned out the howling wind.
Boom—!
A huge, perfectly cylindrical hole was torn entirely through the iceberg behind them. The residual heat from the blast caused the surrounding enchanted ice to hiss and steam violently.
Ren never showed mercy to such foes. Once they crossed his bottom line and were marked as an enemy, they were finished. There was no room for second chances or redemption arcs for those who aligned with the dark.
"Cough… you… you dared strike someone from Tartaros…"
Doriate coughed up a thick puddle of black blood, his demonic form rapidly shrinking back to his human size. His chest was completely hollowed out by the Cero, his life force fading by the second.
"You've opened the gates of Hell… I'll be waiting for you in the underworld…"
With that final, venomous curse escaping his lips, Doriate's eyes rolled back, and he died. His body slumped lifelessly against the scorching, melted ice.
"Tartaros, huh? Forgotten bits of the plot—deal with it when it shows up."
Ren wasn't worried in the slightest, turning his back on the corpse.
To most of Ishgar, Tartaros was a terrifying, mythical Dark Guild. It was an organization whose members were actual demons from Zeref's darkest books, creatures that had once brought untold disaster to the continent centuries ago. The mere mention of the Nine Demon Gates was usually enough to make grown mages tremble in terror.
To Ren, however, they were nothing special. Based on his system's scaling, the average demon of Tartaros was only about on par with an average Ten Wizard Saint.
The absolute strongest among them might barely rival the lower tier of The Four Gods of Ishgar, but that still didn't impress him. He possessed multiple templates that could easily shatter mountains and vaporize seas.
If Tartaros stayed hidden in their underworld, that was fine. But if they appeared and stood in his way, he wouldn't mind casually erasing their entire guild from the map.
High above the frozen battlefield, hidden amidst the heavy storm clouds, Minerva Orland stood on the back of a one-eyed monstrous bird, watching the entire exchange.
"Fool Doriate, actually daring to fight Ren head-on—it was suicide."
She looked down scornfully at the smoking corpse below. Doriate's magic had been peculiar and incredibly dangerous to most normal mages, yet Ren had crushed him effortlessly with sheer, overwhelming physical might.
Minerva gripped her arms, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead. How many forms did this man have? How deep was his well of power? She didn't know, but she understood one terrifying truth: with her current strength, she was absolutely no match for this monster. Her only option was to stay as far away as possible.
"I'd better leave. If that thing notices me, I'm finished."
She urged the giant bird away, pulling sharply on its reins. As a newly recruited member of a Dark Guild now, and no longer protected by the rules of the Grand Magic Games as a contestant, she highly doubted Ren would spare her life if they met face-to-face.
Down below, Ren casually glanced skyward. Ulquiorra's keen spiritual senses had easily caught the faint magic fluctuations of the bird above. But since the intruder was fleeing and didn't dare to descend, he couldn't be bothered to chase them down. He had a frozen village to unthaw.
Elsewhere, in another section of the Sun Village, the situation was decidedly less grim and far more chaotic.
Natsu Dragneel, wrapped in his signature scarf, found that the three treasure hunters from Sylph Labyrinth, though not traditional Mages, were no pushovers. They moved with incredible agility, using specialized magic tools and weapons that caught the Fairy Tail mages completely off guard.
[Akarin's Note: Sylph Labyrinth is a Treasure Hunter Guild. They specialize in using magical items rather than casting spells themselves. The raw text referred to them as 'Labyrinth of the Wind Spirit', but the official name is Sylph Labyrinth.]
Natsu deflected a sniper shot and exclaimed, "You guys are this strong without even using your own magic?!"
The swordsman, Hiroshi, puffed out his chest and boasted proudly. "Hey, don't lump Sylph Labyrinth with those common, run-of-the-mill treasure-hunter guilds! We're not some amateurs!"
He pointed his blade dramatically at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. "We're the undisputed champs who took the top prize at the Grand Treasure Tourney! We're the ones that decide Fiore's number-one treasure hunters!"
"Boom—!"
Happy blinked, hovering in the air with his green backpack. "So treasure hunters actually have their own version of the Grand Magic Games! That's so weird!"
"C-congratulations…"
Lucy Heartfilia sweatdropped, offering a weak, polite clap. She wasn't entirely sure how to react to such a bizarrely specific flex in the middle of a life-or-death battle.
Natsu, however, was easily impressed. He grinned widely, slamming his fists together. "Wow, that's amazing! You guys must be super tough!"
The hulking, hammer-wielding Lala sneered, resting his massive weapon over his shoulder. "If you understand how great we are, then get lost! Ordinary Mages can't beat us, boom—!"
Natsu's grin widened into a fierce, toothy smirk. Flames spontaneously ignited around his knuckles, melting the snow falling around him.
"No can do," Natsu declared confidently, his magical aura flaring to life. "You guys might be the champs of the Grand Treasure Tourney, Sylph Labyrinth, but we're the champs of the Grand Magic Games—Fairy Tail. Let's settle right here and now who's stronger. I'm all fired up!"
The three treasure hunters froze, their arrogant expressions instantly shattering.
The three were stunned.
"Grand Magic Games…"
"Winning guild… Fairy Tail?!"
"Boom—!!"
Only then did they notice the distinct guild crest proudly displayed on Natsu's shoulder and Lucy's hand.
"It really is Fairy Tail!!!"
[Akarin Note:
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