Chapter 239: Sage Mode
"What?!"
"Whoa!"
"Such powerful magic?! The ground is shaking!"
"What on earth happened?!"
The tremor spread across the entirety of Tenrou Island. From the scorching camps in the east to the humid caves in the west, every member of Fairy Tail participating in the S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial froze. The air itself seemed to vibrate with a malicious, heavy magical power that made the skin crawl. It wasn't just a simple explosion; it was a cataclysmic discharge of energy that signaled a battle far beyond the level of a typical trial.
"That direction... it's where the Master is!" Erza Scarlet stopped in her tracks, her sword instantly appearing in her hand. Her sharp eyes narrowed as she looked toward the rising mushroom cloud of dark smoke.
"Let's go! Let's check it out!" Natsu Dragneel shouted, abandoning his search for the grave. "Gramps might be in trouble!"
Everyone had no mind to continue the exam at this moment. The ominous pressure descending upon the island told them that the peaceful days of the trial were over. War had arrived.
[The Center of the Blast Zone]
The dust settled slowly, revealing a crater that had obliterated a significant portion of the forest. The earth was scorched black, and the remnants of magical formulas flickered and faded in the air.
"As expected of Master Hades, his attack is truly terrifying."
Jose Porla stood on the edge of the crater, a cruel smile twisting his lips. He adjusted his dark coat, looking down at the destruction with admiration. It was his first time seeing someone whose strength completely surpassed his own. Even as a former Ten Wizard Saint, Jose felt dwarfed. This power... it was comparable to the Four Gods of Ishgar. No, perhaps even greater.
"With an attack like that, Makarov must have been annihilated. Not even Titan magic could withstand the bombardment of the Amaterasu Formula."
Bluenote Stinger, the Ace of Grimoire Heart, crossed his massive arms. His deep voice resonated like a bass drum. He believed that Makarov, despite his reputation, must have been taken out by such an overwhelming strike. Master Hades's command over the 'Abyss of Magic' was absolute.
"Hmm... it's truly a pity," Hades said, his single eye glowing in the shadows of his helmet. He stroked his long white beard, looking at the empty space where his old friend had stood. "Makarov was a brilliant light, but who told us to walk different paths? Fairy Tail obstructed me, blocking the way to the Grand Magic World. I can only bear the pain of completely eradicating them."
Hades spoke of regret, using flowery language about friendship and the past, but his tone was devoid of warmth. There was no hesitation in his heart, only the cold calculation of a mage who had fallen into darkness.
"Let's move! The head of the snake is cut," Hades commanded, turning his back on the crater. "Completely eliminate the rest of Fairy Tail..."
Suddenly!
A lazy, teasing voice rang out from the periphery, cutting through the heavy atmosphere like a sharp knife.
"Old man, you're not well. I told you to just watch from the side, but you insisted on showing off. You're not trying to use this opportunity to dump the Guild Master position on me early, are you? I'm telling you, that won't do. I'm not mentally prepared to be a Guild Master yet. Too much paperwork."
"What?!"
Hades, Jose, and Bluenote whipped their heads around.
Several people looked in the direction of the voice and saw two figures standing on a high rock formation about fifty meters away, completely unharmed.
It was Ren, standing casually with his hands in his pockets, and beside him sat a stunned, shrunken Makarov.
"B-Brat... what time is it, and you're still joking?" Makarov stammered, sweat pouring down his forehead. "Every one of our opponents is a formidable foe. That was Amaterasu Formula 100!"
Makarov was very surprised. Just moments ago, he had resigned himself to death. He had cast his strongest defensive magic, but under Hades's barrage, it had shattered like glass. Just as the annihilation magic was about to consume him, the world blurred.
He didn't see Ren move. He didn't feel himself being carried. One millisecond he was in the center of the blast, and the next, he was sitting on this rock, watching the explosion from a safe distance.
The speed of this teleportation was too fast. It defied the logic of speed magic.
"However..." Makarov's face darkened as he looked at his old friend Precht—now Hades. "I also understand from this blow that Hades's magic power might not be much different from my own in terms of quantity, but his mastery... he has touched the essence of magic. It is terrifying."
It was already difficult to defeat just one opponent of that caliber. But with the vengeful Jose Porla and the gravity monster Bluenote Stinger also present, the situation was desperate.
Ren grinned, patting the tiny Master on the head—a clear violation of hierarchy that Makarov was too shocked to scold him for. "Don't worry, old man! I'm not one to show off without a plan. Besides, someone has to clean up your messes."
The Grimoire Heart members were also very surprised, completely unaware of how Makarov and Ren had appeared there.
Hades narrowed his eye, staring at Ren. "Brat, you're the one who rescued Makarov? To move someone out of the Amaterasu Formula in that split second... Makarov really has trained some excellent children. As expected of the man I value, he supported the guild for 48 years, not for nothing."
"Hey, hey! Can you stop taking credit for yourself?" Ren interrupted, waving his hand with disdain. "You talk as if my strength is thanks to you. I got strong by eating well and sleeping plenty, thank you very much."
"Hmph! Brat, you're still too young; you don't understand the gap in our Realms," Hades said, his aura beginning to flare up again, turning the air purple. "Although your magic isn't weak—you defeated Jose, after all—in my eyes, it's like a toddler's babbling. Magic is deep. It is an abyss. When you reach my Realm, any magic can turn decay into wonder. Speed is meaningless before the Abyss."
"It's just that your magic power is a bit higher and you read a few more old books. Stop acting like a god," Ren retorted. "Alright, enough chitchat. It's time to deal with you all."
Ren raised his right hand. In his grip was a strange, three-pronged knife—a Kunai with a paper seal wrapped around the handle.
He flicked his wrist.
Whoosh!
The Kunai flew through the air, spinning towards Hades. It wasn't particularly fast, nor did it carry a massive amount of magic power.
Hades sneered dismissively when he saw it. "Using a hidden weapon? A physical projectile?" He shook his head in disappointment. "This clumsy magic... only those low-level Mages who cannot shape the ether would resort to ninja tools. True magic cannot be compared to those toys at all."
Hades didn't even bother to raise a barrier. He simply tilted his head slightly to the left. The Kunai sailed harmlessly past his ear, missing him by a few inches.
"You missed," Hades mocked.
"Did I?" Ren whispered.
Flash!
Space folded.
Hades's sensory warning screamed, but it was too late. The concept of "travel time" did not apply here.
Ren's figure instantly disappeared from the rock and reappeared in mid-air, his hand gripping the handle of the Kunai that was still flying past Hades's head.
[Flying Thunder God Technique: Second Step]
In his other palm, a swirling ball of compressed blue energy had already formed. It roared like a confined hurricane.
"Rasengan!"
"Not good!"
Hades's expression changed for the first time. He hadn't expected Ren's speed to be instantaneous. Even high-level Speed Magic or Instantaneous Movement usually had a "tell"—a buildup of magic, a distortion in the air—requiring at least 0.5 seconds of casting time.
But Ren appeared with zero casting time. It was less than 0.1 seconds.
Don't underestimate this difference of a few tenths of a second; in a battle between masters, that fraction of a moment decides life and death.
Ren twisted his body in the air, slamming the rotating sphere of chakra directly into Hades's unprotected back.
BOOM!
"Whoa!"
Hades let out a scream as the grinding force of the Rasengan twisted his armor and flesh. He was launched forward like a cannonball, crashing into the ground and tumbling violently across the dirt.
"Master Hades!"
"Impossible!"
The members of the Grimoire Heart guild—Ultear, Meredy, Rustyrose—were all startled by this sight. The invincible Master Hades had actually been injured in the first exchange.
"You dare touch Master Hades!"
Jose Porla roared, his hatred for Ren boiling over. He raised his hands, darkness gathering.
"Shade Nebula!"
Countless dark ghosts spiraled out, converging into a massive drill of negative energy aimed straight at Ren.
Boom—!
The location where Ren was standing exploded, throwing up a cloud of debris.
"Did I get him?" Jose wondered.
Swish!
"Too slow, Chairman Jose."
Ren's figure appeared beside Jose in a yellow flash. Before Jose could react, Ren raised his leg and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to Jose's ribs.
Crack!
Jose grunted, stumbling sideways.
"Gravity Fall!"
A voice like crumbling mountains echoed. Bluenote Stinger stepped in, his face grim. He didn't care about precision; he prioritized crushing the threat. He activated his magic, increasing the gravity of the atmosphere in a massive radius, completely disregarding whether Jose was also within the attack range.
CRUNCH.
The ground instantly sank two meters deep. The air became heavy as lead.
"Oh?" Ren felt the weight on his shoulders. "Gravity magic? Troublesome."
Whoosh—!
Ren's figure instantly disappeared again, teleporting back to one of his marked Kunai scattered around the perimeter.
"Brat, do you only know how to run?!" Bluenote roared, stepping out of the gravity field. "Didn't you say you wanted to defeat us? You can't defeat Grimoire Heart by just flitting around like a fly!"
Bluenote was utterly frustrated. His magic was absolute domination, but he couldn't crush what he couldn't catch. Ren's Flying Thunder God Technique was the natural enemy of area-of-effect heavy magic.
Ren stood on a high branch, shaking out his limbs. "Run? No, no. I just wanted to show off a bit and warm up. Now that I've warmed up, it's time to get serious."
He clasped his hands together in a prayer position. He stood perfectly still.
"What is he doing?" Hades picked himself up from the ground, wiping blood from his lip. "He stopped moving?"
"Is he surrendering?" Jose sneered.
Ren took a deep breath. In the world of Fairy Tail, the atmosphere was filled with Ethernano. It was dense, potent, and everywhere. In the Naruto world, gathering Natural Energy took time and focus. But here? The world was practically force-feeding him power.
"Sage Mode."
Ren quietly approached the threshold.
Orange pigmentation appeared around his eyes, extending down his cheeks. His pupils shifted, transforming into a horizontal bar—the eyes of a toad.
[Sage Mode: Active]
Sage Mode is a state that allows the user to blend their own Chakra with Natural Energy (Ethernano), creating Senjutsu Chakra. In this state, physical strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, and perception are drastically enhanced.
"Such powerful energy!"
Ren looked at his hands. This was the first time he had fully activated Sage Mode in this world. Previously, his internal reserves were too low to balance the potent Natural Energy of Earthland. If he had tried, he would have turned into a stone frog statue instantly.
But now, with his growth, he could feel it. The world around him wasn't just scenery; it was a living extension of his senses. He could feel Bluenote's heartbeat. He could feel the flow of magic in Hades's veins.
"The Natural Energy here is wilder," Ren thought, smiling. "But that just means the punches hit harder."
Bluenote saw Ren standing still and grinned savagely. "You stopped moving! A fatal mistake!"
Bluenote leaped high into the air, gravity condensing around his fist until it distorted the light.
"Break for me!"
Bluenote shouted loudly, descending like a meteor. He punched towards Ren, his fist imbued with terrifying Gravity Magic capable of crushing a black hole.
"Die!"
Ren didn't dodge. He looked up, his toad-like eyes calm. He clenched his fist. The natural energy wrapped around it, invisible to the naked eye but roaring with power.
Ren met him with an equally unafraid punch.
Boom—!!
Fist met fist.
A shockwave of compressed air and gravity exploded outward, flattening the surrounding forest instantly. A large area of the ground exploded and collapsed downwards, creating a crater even deeper than the one Hades had made.
Although Ren's body sank into the earth up to his knees from the impact, his figure remained unmoving. His arm didn't buckle.
"What?!"
Bluenote's eyes bulged. "He actually blocked my attack?! With physical strength alone?!"
Bluenote was shocked. He was the man who could manipulate gravity. No human could match his physical strikes when enhanced by infinite weight. Yet, this kid blocked it head-on.
"You seem surprised," Ren said, his voice echoing with a strange resonance.
Swish!
Ren's figure flashed. He didn't use the Flying Thunder God this time. This was pure physical speed enhanced by Sage Mode.
He appeared instantly in front of Bluenote's open guard.
"Frog Kata!"
Ren kicked towards Bluenote's chest.
Bluenote, reacting on instinct, raised his massive, armor-clad arm to block. He was confident. His defense was impenetrable.
But he didn't know about Frog Kata—the ability to extend the strike using the aura of Natural Energy surrounding the user.
Bang—!
The kick didn't just hit his arm; the invisible energy slammed through his guard and impacted his chest directly.
"Whoa!"
Boom—!!
Bluenote let out a cry of pain as his ribs cracked. He was kicked horizontally with the force of a speeding train. His body flew through the air, crashing into the rock wall of the collapsed cliffside.
Rumble...
Rocks buried him.
"I was actually... suppressed!"
Bluenote coughed blood, struggling to rise from the debris. He looked at the figure with orange eyeshadow standing amidst the dust. He was somewhat disbelieving that he, the monster of Grimoire Heart, had been suppressed by Ren in a direct confrontation of power.
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