Chapter 141: Black Flash
The four teams split off, racing into the dark, crystalline corridors of the tower. The air inside was cold and stale, carrying the faint, metallic smell of magic and the sea.
Ren and Millianna were assigned the highest floors, from 37 to 48, which would lead them directly to Jellal's throne room.
Millianna, her cat-like instincts on high alert, trotted nervously ahead to guide him, though she kept glancing back at Ren with a mixture of terror and awe. She was still trembling from the incident at the casino, where she had been helpless, and she couldn't believe she was now paired with the very monster who had nearly crushed her.
"Th-this way, Ren-san!" she squeaked, pointing a gloved, cat-pawed hand down a long, dark hallway. "The main staircase to the 37th floor is just ahead!"
As they arrived, the chamber opened up. It was a vast, circular room, the walls lined with dozens of prison cells. In the center, a huge, spiraling staircase led upwards. And waiting for them were at least fifty armed guards.
"So many people!" Millianna yelped, her fur standing on end.
The guards, seeing only a regular-sized man and a small, cat-themed girl, let out boisterous, mocking laughs.
"Hah! Is this it? Jellal-sama was worried about this?"
"That's one of the traitors, Millianna! Get her!"
"Kill the man, and we can have fun with the cat-girl!"
"Jellal-sama said that if we kill the man, we'll get 100 million Jewel!"
"100 million J..." a guard licked his lips, his eyes wild with greed. "Charge! Kill him and split the money!"
The entire horde of guards, all members of various Dark Guilds Jellal had secretly cultivated, rushed directly towards Ren.
Millianna prepared her cat-like binding tubes, but she knew her magic was useless here. It was designed for one-on-one capture, not a small-scale war. She was about to be overrun.
"Stand back," Ren said, his voice bored.
He stepped in front of her. He didn't even look stressed. He simply raised his hand as the first sword-wielding mercenary reached him.
"Full-Body Take Over: Ace."
There was no grand explosion of magic. Instead, a wave of shimmering heat radiated from Ren's body. His clothes and hair seemed to dissolve, replaced by a bare, muscular torso, black shorts, a familiar orange hat with two smiley-face emblems, and a string of red beads around his neck. But the most shocking part was that his entire body was now composed of fire.
"Fire... Fist!!"
Ren's arm transformed, his fist swelling to the size of a carriage, a giant, blazing comet of pure, high-temperature flame. He didn't just punch. He unleashed the flame, sweeping it across the chamber in a massive, horizontal arc.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Waaah!"
The guards at the front didn't even have time to scream; they were instantly incinerated, their armor melting, and were sent flying, unconscious, into the guards behind them. The wave of fire slammed into the far wall with the force of a cannon, shaking the entire floor.
In the blink of an eye, the numerous, battle-hardened guards on the 37th floor were cleared out, left groaning in a scorched, smoking pile.
"So... so powerful!!"
Millianna stared, her mouth wide open. She had witnessed Ren's power on the beach, the power to shake the world, but seeing this... this casual, overwhelming control... he'd defeated fifty men as easily as breathing.
Ren's body, still wreathed in flickering flames, showed no signs of strain. He walked past the groaning guards, his boots not even making a sound, and approached the large iron cages at the back of the room.
He raised his hand, and the scorching flames from his palm melted the heavy iron lock instantly.
"Millianna?!"
"What's going on?!"
"Jellal! Why did Jellal lock us up?!"
The people in the iron cage, all former slaves, were in a panic. Upon seeing their acquaintance Millianna, they quickly crowded the opening.
Millianna, shaking off her awe, ran forward. "Everyone! Listen to me! Everyone has been deceived by Jellal! Eight years ago, it was Jellal who betrayed us, not Erza! He was the one possessed by darkness!"
"Now that the Tower of Heaven has been built," Millianna said, her voice cracking, "Jellal wants to eliminate the evidence... so he intends to kill all of us."
"What?!"
"He... he lied to us?"
"How could this be?!"
Everyone present couldn't believe Millianna's words. For eight years, they had toiled, believing they were working for their own freedom, for Jellal, the "savior" who had "stopped" Erza's betrayal. But the facts were already before their eyes. They were in cages.
"Damn it! That bastard! What was all that we did for him these past years?!" one man roared, punching the wall.
"Alright," Ren's fiery voice cut through the noise. "The reunion is over. Hurry up and leave. This tower is very dangerous. Go down to the beach; there's a boat there."
Everyone knew that staying there wouldn't help and would only be a burden. They quickly said goodbye and "thank you" to Millianna and scrambled down the stairs.
At this time, similar scenes were happening on the other floors. Natsu was blasting his way through, complaining about the "no breaking stuff" rule. Gray and Juvia were a perfect combination of ice and water, and Erza and Lucy were methodically clearing their own sections. Compared to strangers like Ren, the hostages on other floors were more willing to believe familiar faces like Simon and Sho, and they too were evacuated.
Ren and Millianna moved to the next floor.
"This way, Ren-san! Floor 38!"
This time, the guards were wearing magic-resistant armor.
"Hiken! (Fire Gun!)" Ren simply pointed his fingers like a pistol, and a "bullet" of fire shot through the lead guard's chest plate, melting it instantly. The rest surrendered.
On the 39th floor, they had mages.
"Enkai: Hibashira! (Flame Commandment: Fire Pillar!)" Ren slammed his flaming fist into the ground, and a swirling pillar of fire erupted beneath the mage platoon, sending them flying.
Ren quickly swept through half of the floors he was responsible for. He also noticed that the higher they went, the stronger the guards became. They were no longer just thugs; they were skilled dark mages. It made him spend a little more effort.
After clearing the 42nd floor, Ren, still in his Ace form, suddenly stopped at the entrance to the 43rd.
"Hey! Have you seen enough?"
Suddenly, Ren spoke, his voice echoing in the empty, crystal-walled corridor.
"What?" Millianna, who had been pointing the way, looked around, confused. "What did you say, Ren-san? There's no one here..."
"Hoot," a voice chuckled.
Ren's eyes narrowed, looking at a dark corner near the ceiling. "You've been following us for several floors now, hooting like a lost bird. Aren't you going to make a move?"
A portly monster with a giant owl's head and a human body, wearing a strange jetpack, emerged from the corner.
"Hoot hoot! As expected of a legendary figure, Ren! Your notoriety has already reached our guild, hoot!" The owl-man, Fukuro, landed with a soft thud. "The warrior of justice, Fukuro, will eliminate evil today!!"
"Just obediently die," Fukuro said, his voice turning serious.
He crouched down, and the magic tool on his back, which looked like a rocket launcher, began to spray fire.
"Jet, oh oh oh aoo!"
Fukuro's body, propelled by his jetpack, shot forward like a missile, blurring as he rushed towards Ren.
Ren, still in his Ace form, didn't flinch. He raised his palm calmly. "Mirror Flame!"
Whoosh—!
Ren's palm suddenly spewed out a large, solid sheet of flame, forming a huge wall of fire to intercept the attack.
Upon seeing this, Fukuro hooted. He was surprisingly agile. He quickly changed direction, ascending ninety degrees directly into the air, avoiding the wall of fire. He then rocketed towards Ren from above, raising his foot for a devastating dive kick.
As Ren dodged to the side, his body, still made of fire, rapidly spun, and he lashed out with a kick of his own, aimed at Fukuro's face.
"Oh oh!"
Fukuro was kicked away but quickly stabilized himself in mid-air with his jets.
"Huh! He's got something," Ren noted, still in Ace's voice.
Ace's physical stats weren't top-tier, but they were still superhuman. He didn't expect that after one kick, the opponent would act as if nothing happened.
"Hoot hoot! A mere kick is nothing!" Fukuro crowed, hovering. "Ren, I clearly know your weakness! Your transformation is very powerful, hoot! You even once defeated Jose of the Ten Wizard Saints! But the stronger your transformation, the more magic power it consumes. So your biggest weakness is... magic power!"
"Your transformation consumes magic power every moment. Those previous battles must have already consumed a lot of your magic power, hoot! How much longer can you last now? I just need to keep stalling you, making you consume magic power! And when your magic power is depleted and you're at your weakest, I'll attack! That way, I, the warrior of justice, will achieve ultimate victory!!" Fukuro looked as if he had victory in his grasp.
Ren, who had been listening to this, raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Oh? You've investigated quite thoroughly, haven't you! But... do you really think you can last that long?"
Fukuro puffed out his chest. "The warrior of justice, Fukuro, will never be defeated by evil, hoot!"
"I see," Ren sighed. The flames around him died down. "You're annoying. And you're wasting my time."
"Full-Body Take Over: Gojo Satoru!"
Ren's body began to rapidly change. The fire vanished, replaced by a tall, lean figure in a dark uniform. In the blink of an eye, Ren transformed into Gojo Satoru, complete with the black blindfold and spiky white hair.
"Have you seen this form before?" Ren asked, his voice now laced with Gojo's casual, infuriating confidence.
"Oh oh, is it a new form?" Fukuro hooted, slightly unnerved by the sudden change. "As expected of an evil guy! The warrior of justice, Fukuro, won't allow you to use a new identity to do evil!"
"Missiles, oh oh oh!!"
The two rocket launchers on Fukuro's back detached and flew straight at Ren.
Ren didn't move. He just stood there, hands in his pockets.
The two rocket launchers screamed through the air... and then stopped, dead, an inch from his blindfold.
"What's going on?!"
Fukuro was startled. He immediately controlled the magic tool to increase firepower, the flames from the rockets burning furiously, but it was no use. No matter how he urged them, the rocket launchers simply couldn't get any closer to Ren.
"This is 'Infinity'," Ren explained, as if to a child. "The closer you get, the slower you go. It's an honor. You're the first person in this world to see it."
Ren raised his hand. "Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue!"
He raised his hand and touched the two rocket launchers. The next instant, the two rockets were grabbed by an invisible, crushing force. They rapidly twisted, folded, and imploded, transforming into a hyper-compressed iron ball that fell to the ground with a heavy THUD.
"What?!"
The rocket launchers turning into an iron ball stunned Fukuro for a moment.
Bang!
Almost the instant the iron ball landed, Ren appeared directly in front of Fukuro, his movement so fast it was like teleportation.
"Not good!" Fukuro's expression changed drastically. He tried to fire his jets, to retreat, but it was already too late.
Ren's fist, crackling with a strange, dark energy, struck towards Fukuro's soft, feathery abdomen.
"Black Flash!!"
[Akarin's Note: "Black Flash" is a Cursed Technique from Jujutsu Kaisen. It is a critical hit that applies Cursed Energy within 0.000001 seconds of a physical strike, distorting space and amplifying the attack to the power of 2.5.]
Bang!!
Crack crack!
A flash of black and red lightning erupted at the point of impact.
"Uwaaaah!!"
Fukuro felt an intense, world-ending pain in his abdomen. His body arched like a perfectly cooked shrimp, blood and feathers exploded from his mouth, and he was sent flying backward.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Fukuro's body smashed through wall after wall, a feathery cannonball of justice. He blasted through the outer wall of the tower, finally plummeting, unconscious, into the churning sea far, far below.
Ren, adjusting his blindfold, looked at the multiple, owl-shaped holes in the walls. He said disdainfully, "So long-winded... I was just trying to save some energy, and now every Tom, Dick, and Harry dares to try and pick a fight."
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