Chapter 336: Calamity
The newcomer let out a 'shoo' sound from his mouth.
Boom—!
A violent gust of wind suddenly appeared, and the terrifying Storm instantly destroyed the restaurant.
"What—?!"
Freed and the other two were also caught off guard by this sudden situation.
Just moments ago, the 8-Island restaurant had been a haven of peace. They had been enjoying a quiet afternoon meal, laughing and exchanging stories over Yajima's famous cooking. Now, the roof was completely ripped off, and heavy oak tables were splintering into matchsticks under the sheer, unnatural atmospheric pressure.
"Who is this guy?!" Bickslow yelled, his floating Seith Magic dolls spinning erratically as they tried to stabilize themselves in the violent gale.
"Shoo!"
The newcomer made the strange sound again, his body literally turning into a swirling Storm as he charged directly at Yajima.
Evergreen shouted: "Mr. Yajima!"
Realizing the target was the elderly chef, Freed and Bickslow immediately blocked the way in front of him. Freed drew his elegant rapier with lightning speed, his eyes narrowing as he attempted to write defensive Jutsu Shiki runes in the air.
Two massive, gale-force palms emerged from the center of the Storm, pressing heavily against the two Mages.
"Thud, thud!"
Boom—!
A violent impact sent Freed and Bickslow flying back. The kinetic force was absolutely overwhelming, completely ignoring Freed's hastily drawn magical barriers and swatting them away like annoying flies.
"Aaaagh!"
"Waaagh!"
Freed and Bickslow cried out in pain as their bodies violently crashed through the remaining brick walls of the kitchen. They tumbled across the rubble, their fine clothes torn and their bodies bruised by the impact.
"Damn fellow! How dare you destroy my shop!"
Yajima angrily launched an attack at the intruder. Although he was old and currently wore a simple chef's uniform, his eyes burned with a fierce light. He had been a formidable Mage and a high-ranking member of the Magic Council in his youth, and he refused to cower in his own establishment.
"Boom!"
The newcomer made a low, guttural sound, and instantly released a massive amount of black and crimson flames. The spoken word had literally manifested into a blazing inferno that engulfed the entire front counter.
[Akarin's Note: Tempester utilizes the Calamity Curse. Unlike standard magic, his Curse allows him to manifest devastating natural disasters simply by mimicking the sound of the element he wishes to control.]
"Ugh, aaaaaah!!!"
Yajima screamed in agony as he was scorched by the unnatural flames. His chef's uniform caught fire, and he collapsed to his knees, his ancient body unable to withstand the blistering heat of a demonic curse.
"Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!"
Evergreen reacted with pure fury, spreading her fairy wings as she hovered above the debris. She released a massive barrage of needle-like explosive magical bombs from her fingertips, aiming mercilessly at the cloaked figure's blind spots to avenge the old man.
"Shoo!"
Boom—!
The newcomer made the 'shoo' sound once again. A devastating Storm materialized out of thin air, acting as an impenetrable wall of wind. It effortlessly scattered Evergreen's needle magic into nothingness while violently sweeping her and the recovering men up into the air, tossing them aside like ragdolls and leaving them lying on the ground covered in deep, bleeding wounds.
The newcomer slowly walked through the settling dust and stood before Yajima.
The old man gritted his teeth, suppressing a groan of pain, and asked, "Who the hell are you!"
"I have no name. I am one of the Nine Demon Gates. Humans call me Tempester. Tartaros has been opened, and we shall deliver judgment upon humanity."
His voice was entirely devoid of emotion, echoing with a chilling, robotic absolute. As the newcomer spoke, his large, pale hand clamped ruthlessly onto Yajima's fragile neck and lifted him up into the air. A swirling, razor-sharp gale appeared on his arm, threatening to decapitate the old man.
Freed, struggling to push a heavy wooden beam off his chest, widened his eyes in absolute horror.
"Tartaros... the guys who attacked the Magic Council headquarters."
"Could it be that these guys' goal isn't just to kill the current Council Members, but even the former ones? What exactly is your objective?" Freed demanded, coughing up a small amount of blood as he glared at the demon.
"Fall into the underworld."
Tempester ignored the question entirely. The gale on the newcomer's arm intensified, the wind pressure shrieking like a banshee, completely poised to execute Yajima.
"Stop it!!"
The three members of the Thunder God Tribe shouted loudly in sheer desperation. They desperately tried to crawl forward, their fingers digging into the ruined floorboards, but they were too injured to reach their friend in time.
Suddenly!!
Crack—!!
A blinding bolt of pure, golden lightning fell directly from the clear sky above. It struck the opponent's arm with the force of a meteor, violently blasting away the concentrated gale and forcing the demon to release his deadly grip on Yajima.
"I might have lost my way, but when it comes to taking you down, I won't lose my way."
Laxus Dreyar appeared amidst the lingering sparks, his massive frame radiating an oppressive, overwhelming electrical aura. His heavy coat draped over his broad shoulders, and his piercing blue eyes were locked onto the demon with unadulterated, lethal fury.
"Phew! Saved!"
Yajima breathed a heavy sigh of relief upon seeing Laxus, rubbing his bruised neck as he gasped for fresh air. Laxus was entirely different from other standard Mages; his physical and magical strength was absurdly powerful. As long as Laxus had arrived, they knew the situation was under control.
Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow were also incredibly excited, tears of profound relief welling up in their eyes as they looked at their beloved guildmate and leader.
"Who is this guy?"
Laxus asked with a deep, menacing frown. The air around him crackled with static electricity, causing the very debris on the ground to levitate slightly from the magnetic charge.
Evergreen forced herself to sit up and said, "It's Tartaros. He wants to kill Mr. Yajima-san."
"Tartaros?"
Laxus's brow twitched dangerously. He knew of Tartaros, the final, most elusive pillar of the Balam Alliance and one of the strongest Dark Guilds in the world. They were usually very mysterious; he had heard dark whispers of them over the years but had never actually encountered a member in the flesh.
Rip—!!
The newcomer suddenly reached up and tore his heavy cloak into shreds, finally revealing his true, horrifying face to the Fairy Tail mages.
"What?!"
His appearance startled everyone slightly. He looked exactly like a creature straight out of a nightmare. He had unusual, dark, muscular skin, sharp elongated claws, and a beast-like face complete with a canine snout and animalistic ears. He was clearly not human; he was a pure Etherious demon.
"Shoo!"
Tempester made the wind sound again, his demonic body wreathed in a hyper-concentrated Storm as he charged rapidly at Laxus. The sheer speed of his assault tore deep trenches into the cobblestone street beneath his feet.
Zzt—!
Laxus didn't even blink. His entire body turned into a flash of golden lightning, shifting his physical coordinates instantly and causing Tempester's devastating attack to hit nothing but empty air.
Tempester quickly turned on his heels and charged at Laxus again, but Laxus had already reappeared behind him as a bolt of golden lightning. With terrifying physical might, Laxus delivered a brutal, electrical kick directly to the demon's broad back.
Boom—!
Tempester's body was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing violently into the remaining ruins of the 8-Island restaurant and completely leveling the structure into dust.
"This guy..."
Tempester's expression turned grim as he pulled himself out of the deep crater. He looked up toward Laxus's previous position, but his demonic instincts screamed in warning as he immediately found Laxus standing right behind him again.
"You picked the wrong opponent." Laxus growled, his voice vibrating with lethal electrical resonance.
"Raging Bolt!!"
Laxus clasped his large hands together, fingers interlaced tightly, and slammed down on Tempester's head with lightning-wreathed fists. The heavens roared in agreement as a colossal, blinding pillar of golden electricity descended from the sky, striking the exact spot with the force of divine judgment.
Boom—!!
A massive, scorched crater appeared in the ground, the intense heat instantly turning the surrounding soil into smooth glass. Tempester lay at the very bottom of the pit, completely incapacitated. His eyes were rolled back into his head as he lost consciousness, dark smoke rising from his heavily charred body.
"As expected of Laxus!"
"That's great!"
"Truly a real man!"
Freed and the other two praised him enthusiastically, their spirits lifted. They had been brutally beaten by the opponent without any chance to fight back, yet Laxus had easily taken the monster out in a matter of seconds as soon as he appeared.
"Old man Yajima, how should we handle this guy?"
Laxus asked Yajima, his tone entirely casual as he glanced down at the smoking demon with a look of utter disgust.
"The Council has already lost its ability to function." Yajima sighed deeply, leaning heavily against a piece of broken debris.
"Even if the headquarters was destroyed, there must be many branches, right?" Laxus countered, crossing his arms.
There was indeed a small branch of the Magic Council in a remote area not far from the Fairy Tail Guild. The old man often went there to get scolded by the rigid Council Members regarding Fairy Tail's constant collateral damage.
Freed stepped forward, holding his injured side, and suggested: "We should take him back to Fairy Tail for a proper, thorough interrogation. These guys didn't just kill the current Council Members; now they're actively hunting down former ones. They definitely have some sinister ulterior motive."
Counting on the surviving, scattered Council Members was completely out of the question during this unprecedented crisis.
"Ah! I just love this kind of work."
Evergreen was eager to try, a vindictive smirk playing on her lips. She wanted to exact a heavy toll for the destruction of her favorite dress and the injuries to her friends.
"Fairy Tail?"
At that exact moment, Tempester, lying seemingly unconscious on the ground, spoke up, instantly drawing everyone's tense attention. His voice was incredibly weak, but laced with a chilling, fanatic resolve.
"I didn't expect a human with such absurd magical power to appear. It far exceeds my calculated expectations. This is an unexpected loss; it seems I'll have to die once first."
Laxus frowned deeply, golden sparks flaring from his teeth in irritation. "Die once? What the hell are you talking about, monster?"
"You also picked the wrong opponent. That's how it is, human."
Bang—!!
Tempester's body suddenly self-destructed in a sickening display. Instead of blood and gore, his physical form rapidly dissolved into a terrifying burst of thick, dark energy that scattered across the immediate area.
"Self-destruction?!"
The group couldn't help but be deeply shocked. Why would a powerful demon choose to obliterate itself so easily after a single defeat?
Immediately after, a large amount of thick, ominous black mist appeared from his remains and began to spread continuously outward. The dark fog swallowed the ambient sunlight, plunging the ruined street into a suffocating, unnatural darkness.
"What is this black mist?!" Bickslow shouted, his eyes watering violently as the fog rolled over his boots.
They instinctively covered their noses and mouths, coughing violently as the toxic air began to burn their throats like inhaled acid.
Tempester's disembodied, mocking voice rang out from within the swirling darkness: "Humans cannot defeat true calamity. These are Magical Barrier Particles. They can forcefully destroy the Ethernano in the air and permanently contaminate it."
[Akarin's Note: Magical Barrier Particles (also known as Bane Particles) are deadly to Mages. They violently attack and destroy Ethernano, the source of magical power inside a Mage's body, causing fatal illness.]
"This substance causes Magic Deficiency Disease, which is universally fatal to Mages. The only downside is that it forces me to return to Tartaros headquarters to regenerate my body. See you in the underworld, dead men!"
Freed warned, his face turning deathly pale as he recognized the symptoms: "Don't inhale the black mist!!"
Evergreen covered her mouth and nose tightly, trembling in fear. But humans must breathe after all, and she couldn't stop it entirely. Her lungs burned fiercely with every microscopic inhalation. "If this continues, the whole town will be contaminated! Innocent citizens will die!"
"In any case, everyone escape first! Go somewhere without the mist."
As soon as Yajima finished speaking, his strength failed him and he collapsed to the ground.
Then Evergreen and Bickslow also fell one after another.
"Mr. Yajima, Evergreen, Bickslow!! Pull yourselves together!!"
Freed was extremely anxious.
Laxus looked at his fallen comrades, his heart also filled with anxiety. If this continued, they would all die.
"I won't let you die."
[Akarin Note:
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