Chapter 361: All Cleared
Mard Geer Tartaros finally realized that something was horribly wrong. The Face pulse bombs were still being systematically destroyed across the continent, an anomaly that had baffled him from the very beginning.
The inherent nature of Face was its absolute anti-magic property. It was specifically designed to completely neutralize and erase human magic from the atmosphere.
In other words, any human spell striking a Face statue should have been instantly nullified. It was theoretically impossible for human mages to destroy the network.
"How is this happening? How on earth did you do it?!" Mard Geer roared, his aristocratic composure entirely shattered. "Humans shouldn't be able to destroy Face! Your magic is utterly ineffective against it!"
Ren simply smiled, his expression calm and unbothered. "It's quite simple, really. As long as what I use isn't magic, I can destroy them without issue."
"Not using magic? Aren't you a Mage?" Mard Geer scoffed, his eyes narrowing in bewilderment. "Don't tell me you're destroying them with raw physical strength?!"
The Underworld King could not comprehend Ren's logic. His demonic mind struggled to grasp how a human could wield power outside the established rules of Earth Land.
"I am using magic to catalyze my abilities, that much is true. It's Take Over Magic," Ren explained, his gaze locked onto the demon. "However, the entities I 'Take Over' are completely different from anything in this world."
He took a slow step forward, his magical aura thrumming with foreign energy. "The characters I channel aren't beasts or demons. They are Heroic Spirits from another dimension."
"From the exact moment I take them over, my magic power is forcibly converted into the energy of a completely otherworldly system," Ren concluded.
He finally understood why anime villains always loved monologuing to their opponents. What used to seem like a stupid, arrogant trope actually felt incredibly satisfying when it was his turn to deliver the crushing truth.
"An otherworldly power system..." Mard Geer muttered, his demonic eyes widening slightly.
He had anticipated human resistance, dragon interference, and even the meddling of other dark guilds. But he had never expected to face a human wielding the physics of an entirely different universe.
"The Face network is about to be completely eradicated," Ren declared, his gaze shifting to the holographic Super Archive magic crystal floating nearby.
In that very moment, a massive cluster of glowing light spots on the main core projection vanished into thin air. Only about a hundred targets remained active on the map. At this speed, it wouldn't be long before the entire pulse bomb grid was wiped out.
Mard Geer's gaze darted to the archive crystal, genuine panic finally bleeding into his voice.
"No! I will not let you ruin this!" the demon shrieked.
If the continent's magic power could not be eliminated, E.N.D. would never achieve Awakening. And if E.N.D. remained sealed, the Nine Demon Gates would be abandoned by Zeref forever, entirely unable to fulfill their singular purpose of returning to their creator's side.
A terrifying surge of Cursed Energy erupted from Mard Geer's body. The vile power transformed into a suffocating, dark purple mist that violently coiled around Ren's limbs.
Seeing his opponent firmly entangled in the demonic vapor, Mard Geer felt a dark wave of relief wash over him. With the human locked in place, he wouldn't be able to use that infuriating teleportation technique to escape.
"Fall into the deepest depths of purgatory. This is the ultimate Curse, created specifically for the sole purpose of destroying the immortal Zeref!" Mard Geer proclaimed, his voice echoing with absolute malice. "Remember death!"
"Memento Mori!!!"
[Akarin's Note: Memento Mori (Remember Death) is Mard Geer's ultimate, forbidden Curse. It does not deal physical damage, but rather completely erases the concepts of 'life' and 'death' from its target, forcefully reducing their very existence to absolute nothingness.]
The dark purple mist skyrocketed into the heavens like a catastrophic volcanic eruption. It was entirely saturated with a massive swarm of shrieking, ghost-like spirits that tore at the fabric of reality.
Any living creature, magical spell, or physical object the mist touched was instantly reduced to absolute nothingness. The surrounding bedrock continuously shattered and vaporized under the terrifying impact.
"To kill the immortal Zeref, one must completely break even the foundational concepts of life and death!" Mard Geer laughed maniacally as the vortex consumed the area.
"Those who endure this Curse will neither live nor die! They will simply dissipate from existence, turning into absolute 'nothingness' for all of eternity!"
The violent maelstrom of dark energy raged on, erasing everything within its epicenter. After a short while, the suffocating Curse gradually subsided, leaving behind a massive, perfectly smooth crater where reality itself had been hollowed out.
"It is finally complete," Mard Geer sneered, panting heavily from the exertion. "The ultimate Curse, Memento Mori, has claimed another victim. And soon, once E.N.D. is resurrected, he will be able to completely destroy you, Lord Zeref."
Just as the Underworld King began to turn away, the lingering purple mist slowly began to dissipate.
A brilliant, shimmering golden light violently pierced through the dark vapor. It illuminated the massive crater with an overwhelming, almost suffocating warmth.
"That is..." Mard Geer gasped, his confident expression instantly crumbling.
The dark mist leveled out and completely vanished, revealing Ren's figure standing perfectly still before the Underworld King.
At this moment, Ren's entire body seemed to be composed of blazing, ethereal golden particles. Intricate, ancient black patterns crawled across his glowing skin and golden cloak, making him look incredibly divine.
[Akarin's Note: Ren has transitioned into the 'Nine-Tails Chakra Mode' (specifically Kurama Link Mode). This state coats the user in a dense, blazing shroud of pure golden chakra marked by black magatama patterns, granting them god-like speed, immense durability, and overwhelming destructive power.]
"No... how is that even possible?!" Mard Geer shouted, his voice cracking in absolute disbelief. "This is the ultimate Curse I created to erase Zeref himself! Memento Mori!"
The demon stumbled backward, pointing a trembling finger at the glowing human. "You took my attack head-on! How can you be completely unharmed?! This is utterly impossible!!!"
His ultimate, reality-erasing Curse hadn't managed to leave a single scratch on his opponent.
"Not a bad attack, honestly!" Ren remarked, his voice echoing with a strange, layered resonance. "But your little game ends here."
Ren calmly raised his right hand into the air.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
A terrifyingly loud, high-pitched screech suddenly tore through the battlefield. In the blink of an eye, a massive, spinning sphere of highly compressed wind-natured chakra transformed into a giant, four-bladed shuriken above his right hand.
The high-speed rotating wind blades aggressively sliced through the surrounding air, emitting a piercing, mechanical roar that sounded like a thousand screaming birds.
"Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
Ren effortlessly drew his arm back and hurled the devastating Wind Release: Rasenshuriken directly toward the paralyzed Underworld King.
Seeing the massive vortex of microscopic wind blades hurtling toward him, Mard Geer immediately flared his Cursed Energy in a desperate bid for survival.
"Dea Yggdrasil!!!"
[Akarin's Note: Dea Yggdrasil (Underworld Tree) is an immense, towering wooden construct summoned by Mard Geer. It is incredibly durable and can be used for both devastating offensive strikes and impenetrable defense.]
A colossal, twisted netherworld tree violently erupted from the shattered ground to meet the incoming Rasenshuriken. The massive wooden construct was as hard as steel, designed to crush enemies and serve as an absolute shield.
The towering Dea Yggdrasil violently collided head-on with the spinning Rasenshuriken.
Swish————!!
The supposedly impenetrable netherworld tree was effortlessly sliced straight down the middle. Facing the densely compressed wind chakra of the Rasenshuriken, the demonic tree was like a mere twig meeting an industrial chainsaw. It couldn't resist the cutting power for even a fraction of a second.
Mard Geer Tartaros's face drained of all color the instant he saw his ultimate defense cleaved in two. Without a second thought, he rapidly spread his tattered demonic wings and turned to flee into the sky.
Boom——————!!
The Wind Release: Rasenshuriken reached the center of the battlefield and exploded with apocalyptic violence. A massive, expanding dome of glowing energy instantly engulfed the area, releasing billions of microscopic, invisible wind blades.
Although Mard Geer's reaction time was incredibly fast, he was still violently caught within the expanding vortex of destruction.
"Aaaauuughhh!!!"
Mard Geer Tartaros let out a bloodcurdling scream of pure, unadulterated agony. The invisible wind blades were far too sharp and dense for his demonic flesh to withstand.
The blades didn't just cut his skin; they systematically pierced every single cell in his body, entirely shredding his cellular structure and severing his curse network on a microscopic level.
After a short while, the blinding explosion finally subsided, leaving behind a super-massive, perfectly spherical crater. The surrounding bedrock was cut cleanly and polished smooth, looking exactly as if a giant had carved it out stroke by stroke with a chisel.
Mard Geer Tartaros lay broken at the bottom of the crater, completely motionless. His breathing was ragged, and he could literally feel his demonic life force rapidly slipping away into the void.
Boom————!
High above a different region of the continent, the members of the Blue Pegasus Guild ruthlessly bombarded the landscape. Piloting their prized magical bomber, Christina, they launched a relentless aerial assault on a fully unsealed Face pillar.
When the thick smoke of their bombardment finally cleared, the massive stone structure was completely unscathed.
"What on earth is that giant face?!" Eve Tearm shouted in horror, his hands gripping the control console tightly.
That entirely snow-white, towering pillar with a deeply unsettling, giant human face carved into the top was truly terrifying. The fact that this eerie monolith had erupted from the earth so abruptly made it all the more chilling.
Eve swallowed hard, sweat dripping down his brow. "Even a direct hit from the main cannon of our Pegasus's pride and joy couldn't put a single dent in it!"
The main cannon of their magical bomber Christina had recently been heavily modified. Its destructive power was formidable enough to wipe out entire mountains, yet it had done absolutely nothing.
"Master Ichiya, what should we do?!" Jenny Realight asked, her voice laced with a heavy hint of panic as she turned to the guild master.
Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki sat in the captain's seat, his normally confident posture sagging under the weight of the situation.
"More importantly, the ship's internal magic power is dropping rapidly! If this keeps up, we're going to fall out of the sky!" Hibiki Lates yelled, frantically tapping at the monitor screens.
The ship's magic power reserves were already sounding a blaring red alarm. This wasn't because the ship's primary magic crystal was low on physical power, but because the very concept of magic power in the surrounding atmosphere was being forcibly erased.
"Is this really the end...?" Ichiya closed his eyes, dramatically hanging his head. He truly felt that their beautiful journey had reached its final curtain call.
Just then, a sharp metallic sound echoed through the tension-filled bridge.
Ding!
A strange, three-pronged kunai violently embedded itself into Christina's exterior deck right outside the main bridge window. A split second later, a figure suddenly materialized out of thin air, crouching gracefully upon the ship's hull.
"Who is it?!" Eve shouted, stumbling backward in surprise.
The group quickly peered through the glass. They saw the back of a pristine white cloak with red flame patterns along the hem, adorned with the bold kanji for 'Fourth Hokage'.
As Ren stood up and glanced over his shoulder, the Blue Pegasus crew suddenly realized who had just boarded their vessel.
They had all seen this exact figure before, and it had left an indelible, awe-inspiring impression on every single one of them. It was on the terrifying night the Grand Magic Games ended, when seven ancient dragons had crossed through the Eclipse Gate to ravage the capital.
It was this very figure who had effortlessly flashed across the battlefield, single-handedly defeating the giant dragons and saving them all from complete annihilation.
"Mr. Ren!!"
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