"Why is there another world in the sky…?"
"This is terrifying…"
Fear and despair spread rapidly through the exhausted crowd.
After everything they had already endured, the humans below no longer had the strength to resist what seemed like divine punishment descending upon them.
The ruined "world" overhead continued sinking, as though the sky itself were collapsing.
Bit by bit, it began overlapping with reality.
Dark violet light washed across the continent.
Wherever it passed, the real world started transforming into the devastated landscape reflected above.
Towering structures were the first to disappear, crumbling into nothing as the apocalyptic illusion steadily replaced reality itself.
Green mountains withered into barren wastelands.
Buildings, forests, and everything else around them began dissolving beneath that terrible power.
The mages could only clench their fists in frustration.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Natsu roared, pointing furiously at the sky. "Like hell I'm letting you destroy our world!"
He gathered everything he had left and blasted flames upward.
They accomplished nothing.
The descending apocalypse did not slow in the slightest.
Others followed, unleashing whatever magic they could still muster, but no matter how powerful the spell, none of it affected the enormous "world" sinking toward them.
Lucy watched violet light spread through everything around her, then slowly raised one trembling hand.
Her fingers were becoming translucent.
Mages with weaker Magic Power had already begun to be consumed by the phenomenon.
Their bodies were dissolving into shimmering violet light, and Lucy was now beginning to suffer the same fate.
"What… is happening…?"
She fought desperately against the tears gathering in her eyes, but the fear inside her refused to fade.
"Lucy…"
Erza moved beside her and tightly clasped Lucy's fading hand.
Her teeth dug so hard into her lower lip that blood nearly appeared.
Watching a companion slowly disappear before their eyes was a kind of torture none of them could endure calmly.
Mirajane stared blankly into the sky.
Then her expression suddenly changed.
She raised one trembling hand and pointed upward.
"Look… isn't that Ankh?"
Everyone on the battlefield immediately followed her finger.
Far above them, a violently blazing light was repeatedly charging toward the descending apocalypse.
The divine power radiating from it seemed powerful enough to tear the entire phenomenon apart.
Beneath that enormous phantom world, a tiny human figure flew straight toward something countless times larger than himself.
It looked hopelessly insignificant.
Like an insect trying to uproot an ancient tree.
Then, in the next instant, something even more shocking happened.
The tiny figure plunged directly into the apocalyptic vision.
All of Ankh's destructive power compressed into a single point—and erupted!
The power of death belonging to the very concept of the End exploded outward.
The enormous phantom world shuddered.
Then it began breaking apart.
Ankh's overwhelming Death Divine Power spread through the apocalyptic illusion like a boulder dropped into a perfectly still lake, sending violent waves across the entire phenomenon.
His God-Slaying Secret Art detonated from within like a colossal bomb.
The false world that had been threatening to reduce reality itself to a barren wasteland was erased piece by piece.
The suffocating force of death gradually replaced the power of destruction covering the heavens.
Above humanity's heads, the apocalyptic landscape began disappearing.
The erosion spreading across the real world stopped as well, then steadily receded.
Only after the last traces of Destruction Divine Power had been completely canceled did the lingering aura of death finally stop expanding.
Even then, it remained suspended in the sky for a long time before slowly fading away.
The apocalyptic phenomenon had lasted only a few minutes.
Ankh had destroyed it in seconds.
Yet those brief moments were enough to leave an unforgettable shadow over everyone who witnessed them.
Laxus stared intently at the distant figure releasing that violent power within the fading illusion.
Something felt wrong.
Then he saw it.
A faint, soul-like glow flickered around Ankh's body.
Laxus's expression immediately changed.
Ankh was in danger!
"Bastard! Someone attacked Ankh while he was dealing with that thing!"
With a furious growl, Laxus tore the Lightning Dragon Lacrima from around his neck.
Terrifying draconic pressure erupted from his body.
Golden lightning swallowed him as he transformed into a streak of thunder and shot toward the sky.
...
High above, Ankh had exhausted nearly everything he possessed.
His body fell helplessly toward the earth.
A thick mass of energy saturated with soul power clung to him, and a familiar voice emerged from the oppressive dark-green glow surrounding his body.
"Ankhseram, the moment you chose humanity over divinity, you lost the right to call yourself a god."
It was Sorda.
The God of Souls.
Ankh struggled desperately against the invading divine power, but his weakened body continued plummeting uncontrollably.
Even with his face pale from exhaustion, he managed a mocking smile.
"Still better than being the kind of god who waits until someone's exhausted before stabbing them in the back…"
The dark-green soul light became even colder.
Countless strands of spiritual energy pierced into Ankh like billions of invisible needles.
Pain finally twisted across his face.
Watching him suffer, even Sorda—who had refined his emotions down to little more than faint traces—felt something resembling relief.
From a human perspective, what Sorda was doing was unquestionably a shameless ambush.
There was a genuine possibility that Ankh might die here.
Sorda had once questioned Zous about exactly that possibility.
Zous had dismissed the concern.
According to him, the chain reaction caused by the God of Emotion had indeed made it possible for gods to fall.
But there were two exceptions.
Zous himself—and Ankhseram.
For those two, Zous claimed there was not even the slightest possibility of true death.
Sorda had never fully believed him.
So now, with Ankh exhausted and vulnerable, he intended to test whether that claim was actually true.
Judging from what he was seeing… perhaps Zous had simply overestimated what Ankhseram had become after living as a human.
"Cast aside the name of god and crawl back into the wasteland where you belong!"
Sorda's voice was cold and heavy, stripped of almost every trace of humanity.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!"
A thunderous dragon roar suddenly shook the sky.
A majestic dragon covered in golden scales came crashing toward them without the slightest concern for its own safety.
Sorda ignored Laxus's shout.
That proved to be a mistake.
Laxus swept in, caught the falling Ankh before Sorda's soul power could drive him any farther down, then whipped his head around before the god could even speak.
A roar erupted from his jaws.
Golden lightning tore across the entire sky.
The enormous blast looked like a brilliant golden horizon splitting the night in two as it completely engulfed Sorda.
Thunder rolled violently through the heavens.
Yet when Sorda emerged from the golden sea of lightning, his body was completely unharmed.
"Insignificant human…"
Unlike Acnologia, whose arrogance usually made him consider conversation with humans beneath him, Sorda enjoyed tormenting mortals precisely because he believed himself infinitely superior to them.
Nothing offended him more than a human challenging divine authority.
"I am the god who rules over your very souls!"
Dark-green light crashed toward Laxus.
Sorda's spiritual attack struck directly at his soul, instantly twisting the golden dragon's powerful face in agony.
Laxus nearly lost his grip on Ankh.
"Touch one of my friends and I don't care if you're a god—I'll still kick your ass!"
Natsu's furious voice thundered across the sky.
Two more dragons charged toward Sorda.
One was covered in crimson scales, flames raging around its body.
The other was clad from head to tail in iron armor.
Natsu and Gajeel rushed the God of Souls together—and both dragons drove a fist straight toward him.
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