Chapter 145: The Etherion Gambit
"Jellal, you..."
Erza trembled, her mind reeling in disbelief. The man on the floor, who just a second ago was a broken, weeping victim, was now standing, brushing himself off, a cold, furious sneer on his face. The kick to her stomach had been real, powerful, and filled with malice.
"He... he lied to me... again?" she whispered, the realization a cold stone in her stomach.
Jellal, seeing the dawning horror and betrayal on her face, suddenly clutched his head, his expression twisting back into one of agony. "No!... It's not me... Erza... help me! It's Zeref... Zeref controlled my body!"
Just as Erza's heart, against all logic, began to flicker with a desperate, foolish pity, a triumphant, mocking smile appeared on Jellal's face. "I lied to you! Hahahaha!"
"Jellal! You... you lied to me...!" Erza couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe anyone could be this cruel, to toy with her deepest trauma for sport.
"That's right! I was lying to you!" Jellal said triumphantly, his voice dripping with condescension.
"But, oh, Erza... you're really just too easy to fool," he tsked, as if scolding a child. "And just... so cute when you're confused. Sure enough, women swayed by love are all idiots. I can just say some blatant, contradictory lies, and you'll believe them every single time."
"I'll... kill you!"
Her pity and confusion were finally incinerated by a white-hot, pure rage. "Requip!"
Erza summoned a massive greatsword from her weapon space, intending to rush over and chop Jellal to pieces.
But as she tensed, a black, snake-like sigil appeared on her armor. In an instant, dark, ethereal chains erupted from the mark and wrapped around her body, binding her arms and legs, freezing her in place.
"Ugh! What's going on?! My body... I can't move!! What is this?!"
"Binding Snake," Jellal said, admiring his handiwork. He held up his hand, the one that had "trembled" as it reached for her. "A little trap I set. I left it on you when I 'reached out' for help just now. A simple, delayed-activation curse."
"Why are you so angry, Erza?" he mocked, walking slowly toward her, his face a mask of false sympathy. "It's the fault of the person who was deceived. It's because the person who was deceived was too stupid that I could fool them."
"You... bastard!" Erza struggled with all her might, her magic flaring, but the dark chains held fast.
"Ah, ah... I really can't stand it anymore. You even lie to women."
Ren's voice, dripping with genuine disdain, cut through the tension. He was still leaning against the windowsill, his arms crossed.
When Ren saw Jellal's disgusting posture, he was well and truly displeased. Erza was his companion and his friend. Jellal was just a character from an anime he'd watched in a past life, and now, he was an enemy. To so wantonly trample on Erza's feelings, to toy with her trauma for his own amusement... Ren's casual indifference toward Jellal finally crystallized into a cold, hard killing intent.
Jellal, sensing the shift in the air, stopped his advance on Erza. He turned to Ren, his smile fading slightly.
"I advise you not to make a move, Ren," Jellal said, his confidence returning. "Erza, haven't you always been curious where the 2.7 billion Edeas of magic power was going to come from?"
Erza, still bound, looked at Jellal. She was indeed very curious.
Jellal's lips curved into a magnificent, triumphant smile. He raised his index finger and pointed to the sky.
Buzz—----!
At this moment, the sky changed. A massive, impossibly complex magic circle, larger than the entire island, began to slowly unfold in the heavens, stirring the clouds like a giant, ethereal vortex. A terrifying, world-ending pressure descended upon them.
"That's... that's the Council's satellite magic array!" Erza gasped, recognizing the formation. "Etherion?! Is the Council really going to launch Etherion?!"
The changes above the Tower of Paradise immediately attracted everyone's attention.
"Etherion... could it be?!" An unbelievable, horrifying guess formed in Erza's mind.
Jellal confirmed Erza's guess. "That's right! It's Etherion!"
"The Tower of Heaven itself is a giant receiving and converting device! It's a colossal, 8-year-long project to build a single piece of lacrima, designed to absorb and store magical energy!" he monologued, his voice ecstatic. "As long as it successfully receives and converts the Etherion strike, then the 2.7 billion Edeas of magic power will be gathered! The R-System... can be completely finished!"
"Now... there's less than a minute until Etherion falls! You all will witness this historic moment with me—----! Hahahaha!"
Jellal spread his arms and laughed madly.
"You... you're a lunatic!" Erza screamed, her blood running cold. She couldn't believe it. Jellal was insane. Receiving Etherion? That was the ultimate weapon of the Magic Council, a magic that could destroy an entire country with a single shot. One wrong move, one miscalculation, and everything... everything... would be lost.
"What does that matter, for the sake of achieving my ideals?!" Jellal roared.
Just then, the magic circle in the sky became clearer, a brilliant, terrifying light beginning to form at its center.
"Ren, run—----!"
Erza was filled with a soul-crushing regret. She shouldn't have involved her guild companions in her own dark past. If her friends... if Ren... were to die here because of her, she would blame herself even in death.
Jellal laughed at her despair. "It's useless! The strike range of Etherion is enough to wipe out an entire country. You'd better pray that the R-System succeeds, so you might still have a chance to live! If it fails... then dying together in a flash of divine light, isn't that also a blessing? Hahahaha!"
At this moment, Ren's calm voice rang out.
"No. Actually, there's a third option: the R-System plan fails, and we're still alive."
"Ren?!" Erza looked at Ren in confusion.
Ren, who had been leaning against the windowsill, finally pushed himself off. He stretched, as if waking from a nap.
"Full-Body Take Over: Minato Namikaze!"
Ren's hair began to turn from black to a spiky, sun-yellow. His eyes from black to a sharp, intelligent blue. Then came the forehead protector, engraved with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf Village. His clothes followed: a blue shinobi uniform, a green flak jacket, and finally, manifesting in a swirl of chakra, the iconic white Hokage robe, with "Fourth Hokage" (Yondaime Hokage) written vertically in red, and red flame patterns at the bottom.
"This is..."
Erza and Jellal had never seen Ren in this form before.
Clearly, this form, like the previous Gojo Satoru, was a new character Ren had received.
Whoosh—----!
In an instant—not a blur, but an instant—Ren vanished from the windowsill and reappeared, standing horizontally, his feet planted firmly on a crystal pillar at the very top of the tower's open roof.
Seeing Ren's impossible movement, Jellal couldn't help but sneer, though a seed of doubt had been planted. "No matter what you do, it's useless! Etherion is something no human can contend with!"
Magic Council Headquarters, Era.
"Etherion final launch preparation complete."
"Satellite Magic Circle, deploy!"
"Pray!"
"Pray—----!"
Everyone in the control room closed their eyes and prayed. After all, with this one attack, who knew how many lives—innocent or otherwise—within that tall tower would perish.
"Pray to the Holy Light!"
"Etherion, release!"
Whoosh—----!
A super-massive magic bullet, like a small, furious sun, appeared out of thin air high above the Tower of Paradise, emitting a light so dazzling it turned the night sky to day. This was the pinnacle of their magic: by fusing different attributes of magic, its power was increased exponentially. Then, through the satellite transmission magic circle, it could be sent to any corner of the Ishgar continent for a precise, devastating strike. It was the ultimate weapon of the Magic Council, capable of destroying a country—Etherion.
Whoosh—----!
The small sun of Etherion began to fall, accelerating rapidly towards the Tower of Paradise below.
On the tower, Ren, as Minato, looked up. Excitement flickered in his blue eyes. "Come on! Let me see... can the ultimate weapon of the Magic Council kill me?!"
Ren's hands blurred, forming seals that Erza and Jellal couldn't even recognize. Dark, complex Fūinjutsu (Sealing Technique) markings began to spread across the empty air in front of him, creating an invisible, complex barrier.
[Akarin's Note: Fūinjutsu, or Sealing Techniques, are a specialty of Minato Namikaze from the Naruto series. He is using an advanced space-time barrier technique here.]
"Ren—----!"
Erza shouted at Ren, tears of regret streaming down her face. She shouldn't have come here. She shouldn't have involved her guild. If she had just killed Jellal from the very beginning...
It was all because of her softheartedness that her companion was about to die. This was all her fault.
She closed her eyes, unable to bear witnessing the tragedy.
Jellal laughed, his arms wide to receive his "gift." "IT'S HERE! MY IDEAL!"
The massive Etherion was about to touch Ren. It was seconds from impact.
But then, it braked.
The dark sealing-curses in the air manifested, forming a massive, swirling black vortex in front of Ren.
The Etherion, the light that could destroy a country, plunged into the vortex... and was continuously devoured. In the blink of an eye, the Etherion that seemed capable of destroying the world... vanished.
The sky was dark. The tower was silent.
"Wh-What—----?!"
Jellal's laugh died in his throat. His arms were still raised, his face a mask of utter, complete disbelief.
Erza, feeling no impact, opened her eyes. She, too, stared at the empty sky, her mind unable to comprehend what she had just seen.
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