— — — — — —
At the designated meeting place for the guild alliance, made by the Magic Council.
Blue Pegasus had sent several handsome playboy-type mages, plus Ichiya himself. It was fair to say they were taking this seriously.
Lamia Scale had gone even further, dispatching Jura, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, along with Lyon and Sherria. That, too, showed real commitment.
As for Cait Shelter, they had sent only Wendy.
Well, Wendy… and a cat. Her name was Carla.
"Blue Pegasus sends a bunch of pretty boys with no substance, and Cait Shelter sends a little girl," Lyon scoffed as Wendy finished her introduction. "Isn't this a bit too half-hearted?"
"At this point, why even bother with an alliance? We might as well just handle everything ourselves!"
"Hey, get lost," one of the Blue Pegasus pretty boys snapped back. "We don't need you here. We only welcome beautiful ladies. Guys like you should stay far away."
The Blue Pegasus group all looked at Lyon with open disdain.
"P-please don't fight… don't fight…" Wendy waved her hands anxiously, trying to calm them down, but her voice was too soft. No one listened.
"Fairy Tail still hasn't arrived," Jura said, glancing around with a frown. "At this hour, and not a single one of them is here yet?"
He had heard plenty about Fairy Tail being a guild full of troublemakers, but he hadn't expected them to be late on their very first joint operation.
"Let's give them a little more time," Ichiya said, stepping in to smooth things over. "They may have been delayed."
Blue Pegasus' guild master was friends with Makarov, and the relationship between the two guilds was fairly good.
"I think they're just scared and don't dare to show up," Lyon said arrogantly. "Jura, in my opinion, there's no need to wait. We can just go deal with it ourselves."
"Whether they're here or not won't make much difference."
"Let's wait a bit longer," Jura replied after some thought. "This is the first joint guild operation. It's better not to fall out right from the start."
So they waited.
---
Deep within the forest.
"The Six Demon Generals. One, two, three, four, five, six. All here," Kazuma said calmly as he stepped out of the shadows and walked toward them. "Saves me the trouble of hunting you down one by one."
"Hm."
Brain, their leader, frowned as Kazuma appeared. Information about him instantly surfaced in his mind.
"A Fairy Tail mage of tremendous strength. He defeated Jose of Phantom Lord, a Wizard Saint-level mage."
"Recently, he even took over as Fairy Tail's guild master from Makarov. Some have already started calling him the strongest man on the continent."
As Brain spoke, the others quietly prepared for battle.
"The strongest on the continent?" Racer grinned. "Then let the fastest man in the world defeat him!"
"For fairness' sake, I'll even tell you my magic," he said smugly. "It's simple. Speed. So fast you won't even be able to react."
Wearing his high-speed combat suit, Racer lunged at Kazuma in an instant.
He was lying.
His magic wasn't speed magic at all. It was Slow Magic that changed the way its targets perceive time.
If everyone else slowed down, he naturally became faster.
Bang!
"Idiot," Kazuma said flatly. "You really thought a lie like that would fool me?"
As Racer rushed straight into his range, Yin–Yang Release condensed into pitch-black Truth-Seeking Orbs.
They reshaped themselves into a blade and sliced cleanly through Racer's neck, erasing everything below his head in an instant.
"Five left."
Kazuma raised his hand. Behind him, a dense swarm of Truth-Seeking Orbs appeared.
Unlike the ones from the ninja world, these orbs contained no chakra at all.
What filled them was natural energy, an energy that assimilated and devoured all other forms of power.
They were black because even light was swallowed whole.
"Everyone, get behind me!" Hoteye shouted, stepping forward and raising thick layers of earth with his magic. Seeing Racer die so effortlessly had made him tense up.
"The sound's wrong. Move!" Cobra, the Poison Dragon Slayer with extraordinary hearing, reacted instantly.
He leapt backward without hesitation. The others followed suit just as fast.
Only Hoteye remained.
"What's going on? I can't move?" Hoteye asked, turning his head in confusion.
The expression froze on his face. The Truth-Seeking Orbs devoured the earth magic in their path, swelling even larger. Two of them brushed past Hoteye's body.
In the blink of an eye, his body disintegrated, leaving only his head intact.
"Four left."
Kazuma walked over, casually grabbed Hoteye's head, and with a thought, dismissed the orbs.
"Reflector!"
Midnight, who had been sleeping until now, jolted awake under the immense pressure radiating from Kazuma.
The instant the Truth-Seeking Orbs emerged from the shadows to strike him, he activated his magic, trying to reflect them back.
But it didn't work.
"How… how is that possible?" Midnight stared in horror as his magic melted away like ice thrown into fire.
It evaporated instantly. His magical power was completely devoured by the black sphere.
He tried to dodge, but the orbs moved far too fast. Worse, they emitted a terrifying pull.
His body was dragged against his will. The moment he touched them, he disintegrated as well, leaving behind only a head.
"Three left."
Kazuma waved his hand again. The remaining Truth-Seeking Orbs shot into the sky and merged together, forming an enormous black dome.
"Black Sky."
As his palm fell, the massive black canopy enveloped the entire area, beginning to consume and decompose everything within it except Kazuma himself.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
"Leader! What magic is he using? How do we counter it?!"
Cobra's fear exploded in the darkness. He had always believed himself to be a hunter lurking in the shadows.
But now he realized that before true darkness, he was nothing more than a weak, helpless snake.
Watching his companions die one after another, he felt no sorrow.
Only fear.
Fear of Kazuma.
That monstrous existence had appeared out of nowhere, killing them as casually as if he were testing new spells.
Three of them had already been erased in an instant.
And the remaining three were nothing more than fish on a cutting board. Waiting to be slaughtered.
.
.
.