Wearing his comical pumpkin outfit, the king gave a solemn explanation of the rules to the eight contestants participating in Pandemonium.
As King Pumpkin raised a hand and pointed upward, a massive black magic circle suddenly appeared in the sky, large enough to cover the entire arena.
From within that intricate, mysterious formation, an eerie-looking temple slowly descended.
When the enormous structure landed, its sprawling buildings extended outward in a chaotic maze of uneven heights.
The sheer presence of it—along with the magic power pouring from it—was downright terrifying.
"This," King Pumpkin declared, "is the temple where evil monsters gather—Pandemonium!"
Hibiki had already activated his Archive to analyze it, while Orga frowned and asked.
"Monsters?"
"That's right. More or less, that's the setting," King Pumpkin explained. "Inside this temple are one hundred powerful monsters. Of course, they're all magical constructs created by us, so they will absolutely not harm the audience."
"Within Pandemonium, there are fifty D-Class monsters, thirty C-Class monsters, fifteen B-Class monsters, four A-Class monsters, and one S-Class monster. Naturally, each rank is stronger than the last!"
"According to our setup, every time a monster goes up one rank, its combat power increases exponentially!"
To heighten the atmosphere, King Pumpkin deliberately lowered his voice and said in a grave tone.
"As for the S-Class monster, in theory, it possesses terrifying strength—enough to defeat multiple S-Class Wizards. Even a Wizard Saint would have difficulty defeating it."
"Heh…"
Ankh accidentally let out a laugh.
King Pumpkin, who had gotten a bit carried away, quickly coughed twice and hurriedly added in a lower voice.
"Of course, that's only in theory. As for its actual strength… you'll see for yourselves!"
King Pumpkin brought out a lot box and continued, "Each of you will draw to determine the order in which you choose how many monsters to challenge. We call this your challenge quota."
"For example, if a challenger chooses three, then three monsters of unknown rank will appear at random inside Pandemonium. If the challenger defeats them, they earn three points. If they fail, they earn no points for that attempt, and the turn passes immediately to the next contestant. This continues until all one hundred monsters have been cleared!"
The cat girl, Millianna, tilted her head and said thoughtfully, "Sounds kind of like a game of grabbing numbers."
Running his fingers through his blond hair, Hibiki mused, "So the strategy is to avoid running into the S-Class monster, while also not getting too greedy and taking on too many monsters, right?"
Orga shot him a sideways glance and replied flatly, "If it's random, what strategy is there to make?"
"Heh. By observing the appearance rates of the monsters chosen by the contestants before us and recording them in my Archive," Hibiki said with a confident smile, "you can still come up with a basic strategy."
...
In the stands, Happy said with a troubled look, "If you challenge too many, you might run into powerful monsters. But if you challenge too few, other people can catch up. This is hard…"
Panther Lily frowned. "That's right. You also have to take into account how much Magic Power you'll recover before the next round."
"So it's a battle of strategy and self-regulation…" Makarov muttered with his arms folded.
Mavis said nothing but smile glimmered in her vast black eyes as she lightly spoke.
"It actually isn't that hard… at least, not for those two."
"Oh?"
…
"Now then, contestants, please draw to determine your challenge order."
King Pumpkin lifted the lot box. Ankh and Erza stepped forward and reached in at the same time.
Ankh raised his stick and looked at the number on it—8.
He immediately curled his lips.
"Unlucky."
Erza looked at the 1 in her hand and smiled faintly. "Not bad. My luck's pretty good."
"L-Luck?"
King Pumpkin was still helping the other contestants draw lots, but after hearing the siblings' exchange, he froze for a moment.
"Um… in this event, more than luck, the key should be self-adjustment and strategy, shouldn't it?"
Putting away his lot, Ankh silently stepped back and said calmly,
"That rule is already irrelevant."
"Huh?"
Ignoring the stunned reactions around them, Erza turned back and met Ankh's gaze.
He understood the question in her eyes and replied,
"I'm eighth. Don't worry about me. Just shut everyone else out first."
"Understood."
Holding the number one lot, Erza slowly stepped forward.
She lifted her head and stared at the towering structure of Pandemonium before her, her voice turning firm and solemn.
"All one hundred monsters… I'll take them myself."
"My challenge quota is—one hundred!!"
"Haaah—?!"
The moment Erza's cold, decisive declaration rang out, the entire venue erupted into chaos.
The arena was instantly swallowed by a storm of noise and disbelief.
It wasn't just the audience.
The observing contestants from the other guilds all sucked in a sharp breath. Even Fairy Tail's own members were utterly stunned by Erza's choice.
Makarov's jaw nearly hit the floor.
Beside him, even Mavis widened her eyes slightly in surprise.
But very quickly, she understood Erza's reasoning.
At first, Mavis had thought the optimal move would be to challenge fifty-one monsters.
That alone would be enough to guarantee first place.
But if Erza did that, then Ankh—who was set to challenge eighth in Group B—would have almost no chance of taking second.
'So they must have communicated and decided it on the spot…'
'What decisiveness.'
'What confidence.'
Watching Erza on the field, radiating absolute dominance, Mavis felt a surge of delight and emotion.
She could have thought of the same plan herself, but… seeing someone actually do it was still profoundly shocking.
Underneath his costume, King Pumpkin felt like he was sweating buckets.
He hurriedly tried to persuade her.
"U-Um… we never designed this event for one person to challenge all the monsters! It's extremely dangerous!"
"Doesn't matter."
Erza smiled faintly, one hand on her hip, sword in the other, and strode steadily into Pandemonium.
"W-Wait, wait…"
King Pumpkin flailed in panic, but he couldn't openly stop a contestant from making her choice.
After all, the entire arena had already exploded with excitement.
Even Chapati and the others at the announcers' table could no longer control the crowd.
Everyone was waiting for a miracle.
They were all waiting to see what kind of spectacle this woman—who had boldly declared she would challenge all one hundred monsters—would bring them.
When you follow the rules and only challenge one or two monsters, the audience wants to see whether you'll fail.
But when you cast the rules aside and fight with overwhelming force, everyone wants to see you win.
"What a crazy decision…"
"As expected of Erza!"
Millianna and Eve exclaimed in admiration at the same time, while Oblra and Orga, visibly displeased, said nothing.
Jura looked at the calm, composed Ankh standing beside him and asked,
"Ankh-dono, aren't you worried about Erza?"
"Worried?"
Ankh lifted the corner of his mouth and looked up at the giant screen in the sky, watching Erza step into the great hall.
His voice was full of confidence as he answered:
"Why would I be worried, Jura?"
"Because right now… there's only one monster inside that hall."
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