Chapter 208: True Celestial Magic
"Oh, Erza, whom I once deeply loved, offer your body for the sake of my ideals!"
No one knew when, but Jellal had already appeared in the sky above the large ship.
Erza instantly summoned two magical swords and charged straight at him.
"Jellal, you damned bastard, get down here!"
"This magical power… it's even stronger than Jose's! Definitely on the level of a Saint Wizard!"
George's brow furrowed immediately. He had expected Jellal to be powerful, but he hadn't anticipated him being stronger than Jose, whom they fought last time.
Back then, it took the combined effort of the entire guild's wizards to defeat Jose, and even then, they only won thanks to Natsu consuming Laxus's flame, which had heavily depleted Jose's magic power.
"All together now!"
There was no way Erza could handle this alone, so George instantly unfurled his wings and charged forward, followed closely by Natsu, Gray, and Juvia.
Simon and the others were injured and unable to help, while Lucy pulled out her Celestial Spirit Key of Aquarius.
"Just the likes of you?"
Jellal's face showed a trace of disdain, and in a flash, his body vanished from sight.
"Meteor!"
"He didn't disappear—he's just too fast."
With his extraordinary visual tracking ability, George caught sight of Jellal enveloped in starlight, his speed boosted to meteoric levels.
First, he dodged Erza's ultimate sword technique meant to annihilate Ikaruga, then landed a kick on both Natsu and Gray, sending them flying.
However, when he tried to attack Juvia, she managed to evade it by transforming her body into water just in time.
"Seven Stars Sword!"
Seven stars appeared behind Jellal, striking down with thunderous force toward Juvia in her water form. Though she avoided the physical attack, the magical force of it slammed her directly into the sea.
"Railgun!"
A coin carrying a massive electric current shot toward Jellal's back.
George struck the moment he clearly saw Jellal's movements.
"This kind of attack won't harm me."
Jellal turned around and struck the Railgun with a starlight-wrapped fist, shattering it instantly, then transformed into a stream of light and lunged at George.
"A Level 4 Railgun is still too weak against a Saint Wizard."
If it had been Misaka Mikoto's triple-supersonic Railgun, Jellal wouldn't have dared to catch it with his fist.
"Transform!"
Jellal was simply too fast. Aside from the Railgun, other spells would likely miss. So George activated a magic circle from his body and transformed from a palm-sized golden kitten into a colossal ten-meter-tall feline beast.
"Electric Stimulation!"
Not stopping there, he surged 200 million volts of electricity through his body, stimulating every cell and greatly increasing his physical strength and speed.
"Out of my way!"
With thunder crackling, his massive paw slammed fiercely toward the incoming Jellal.
When their fist and paw collided, George's strength won out, sending Jellal flying.
"Go!"
At the same time, George sent a barrage of blades hurtling after the airborne Jellal.
Against a Saint Wizard, one could not hold back—not even slightly. Victory required full strength.
"Open, Gate of Aquarius, Aquarius!"
On the sea below, Lucy plunged her Celestial Spirit Key into the ocean.
A blue magic circle arose, and the mermaid Aquarius, holding her magic urn, roared with bulging veins:
"You brat! Disturbing my date again! Go die, all of you!"
Her terrifying magic power, on par with a standard S-Class wizard, exploded. A massive tsunami formed as the water from her magic urn merged with seawater and surged toward the falling Jellal.
"Ah, crap..."
But the horrifying tsunami didn't just sweep Jellal—it also engulfed Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Lucy, and the ship they were on.
It was truly a wide-range, indiscriminate attack.
"Armor of the Giant! Spear of Purification!"
Erza, whose attack had been dodged by Jellal, switched into her most powerful Giant Armor and hurled a long spear capable of purging all evil directly at the water-ensnared Jellal.
"Interesting... Then let me play with you all for a while."
Faced with these deadly multi-pronged attacks—fatal for any typical S-Class wizard—Jellal showed no sign of panic.
He crossed his hands, and a black magic circle instantly rose.
"Fall into endless darkness—Dark Paradise!"
A black hole that seemed capable of devouring everything appeared in an instant. Countless sharp blades, the surging seawater, Erza's giant spear—everything was swallowed up and then exploded with a deafening blast.
The powerful shockwave knocked George, Erza, Aquarius, Lucy, and everyone else away.
"Ice Make: Grand Platform!"
A white magic circle lit up in the sea, and a massive ice platform spread out to catch everyone who had been blasted away—Gray had recovered and used his ice magic just in time.
"Goddamn, he's strong as hell."
George returned to his normal size and landed on the ice, unable to suppress a curse.
Even with this many S-Class wizards teaming up to beat him down, Jellal had wiped it all out with a single spell—far more terrifying than Jose had been.
"Let me share a little secret that'll crush your hopes. That time you all barely managed to defeat Guild Master Jose with your entire guild? Well, in the Saint Ten rankings, he doesn't even match up to one of my thought projections.
Oh, and I forgot to mention—The Magic Council only launched Etherion because I split off a thought projection and took on the alias 'Siegrain.' You've heard of that name, haven't you?"
"Siegrain!"
George's pupils contracted.
Of course he knew the name—one of the famed Ten Wizard Saints, the youngest among them, and also a member of the Magic Council. But no one had ever seen a photo of him.
He never expected that Siegrain was merely a thought projection of Jellal.
Thought projections are extremely advanced magic, impossible for anyone below the highest S-Class level to learn. They're incredibly difficult but extremely practical.
They create a real duplicate that can possess up to half the user's strength and can be recalled across any distance at will.
And if a thought projection with only half his power already outranked Jose, then Jellal in his full power… There was no need to imagine how terrifying he was.
"Don't forget—people can grow stronger!"
Taking advantage of Jellal falling into the classic villain monologue trap, George used telepathy to signal Natsu and began force-feeding him Laxus's flames.
Since the Phantom Lord battle, everyone had gotten stronger, especially Natsu. With enough flame intake, something inside him had awakened, and his body could now endure the intense fire far better than before.
"Oh, growth? Then I'll show you what a true gap in strength looks like!"
Standing atop a floating celestial magic circle, Jellal let out a maniacal laugh. His magic surged wildly, warping the air around him.
"True Celestial Magic — Star Destruction!"
A massive magic circle rose above his head, and a gigantic meteor wreathed in endless flames descended from the heavens, aimed straight at everyone below.
If it landed, the entire city would be reduced to ashes in a single strike.
(End of this chapter)