Virgo's warning came just a little too late. Maybe even she hadn't expected Jose to be so ruthless, to bring down his own guild just to trap Fairy Tail.
By unleashing that last attack, he had slammed the final straw onto an already crumbling tower.
The Phantom Lord guild collapsed like a house of cards.
Not only did the ground give way beneath Jose, but the entire floor beneath Rhodes and the others disappeared out from under their feet.
They didn't dare fly.
They were only on the second floor, after all, and falling from here was safer than risking an upward blast that might launch them into the collapsing structure itself.
Virgo, who had popped halfway out of a wall just moments ago, plummeted with the shattered debris. But before she hit the ground, her body shimmered with golden light and vanished—returning to the Celestial Spirit World.
"Whaaat?!" Natsu shouted as he fell. "The gorilla maid bailed on us! That's betrayal!"
Happy tumbled like a startled kitten. "Aye! I'm gonna get crushed! This is the end!"
Gray briefly considered forming an ice dome*, —either to cushion the blow or freeze whatever might land on his head.
Erza and Mira had already mapped out a counterstrike plan in their minds. They'd either blast the debris above or smash it into dust after landing, but the issue was the battlefield below. If too much rubble rained down, it could harm their allies outside.
Rhodes had a simpler plan: if flying wasn't an option, they'd burrow.
He could summon the Mountain Dragon here... but he didn't dare.
One strange thing had nagged at him throughout this entire battle—something he hadn't spoken aloud. Where were the rest of Phantom Lord's forces?
Unlike Fairy Tail, which was a single guild, Phantom had more than thirty branches. If even twenty people came from each, that was over 600 wizards.
Six hundred mages showing up would turn the whole battlefield into chaos, no matter how weak they were individually.
And yet... no reinforcements had come. Which was strange.
If Rhodes summoned the dragon now, he'd have to withdraw from the fight himself. If Jose proved too powerful for even the dragon to hold back, or if the summoning drained too much magic, the voidmites would vanish too.
And then if those Phantom reinforcements did arrive...
It would be disastrous.
Better to solve things the conservative way.
Just as everyone hit the ground, Krugs forth from the earth beneath them. Two of Rhode's ancient Krugs split into smaller ones, and together they grabbed Rhodes, Natsu, Gray, Mira, Erza, and even Happy, and quickly pulled them underground.
They disappeared into the earth just as the thunder of destruction echoed above.
As Erza and Mira had feared, the outside fighters were immediately affected by the collapse.
Phantom Lord's headquarters had been built using reinforced stone and rare magical metals. Add in the complex internal systems, devices, and lacrima crystals used to power its movement and transformation... and the whole structure went up like a chain reaction.
Flames exploded across the battlefield.
Stone debris flew in all directions.
Shockwaves rippled outward.
What had moments ago been a mighty castle was now reduced to a smoldering heap of shattered ruin.
In the blink of an eye... Phantom Lord's stronghold had fallen.
A significant number of the voidmites that participated in the destruction vanished, either crushed beneath the collapse or wiped out in the resulting explosion. But the rest kept moving.
Even the disappearance of their kin didn't seem to affect their hunger or enthusiasm. They simply scattered in all directions, jumping and chewing into whatever rubble remained.
Fairy Tail members and Phantom mages alike were staggered by the aftershocks, struggling to keep their footing.
Only the Phantom Soldiers pressed on, unfazed by the destruction. Their movements were slightly hindered, but they charged ahead relentlessly, weapons raised, ready to cut down anyone in their path.
Several Fairy Tail mages were on the verge of being overwhelmed—until two streaks of smoke split through the air.
One bullet scattered mid-flight into seven separate projectiles, each one homing in on a Phantom Soldier with pinpoint precision. The other curved through the battlefield in a zigzag motion, piercing through one Phantom Soldier after another.
Alzack's Gun Magic: Split Bullet.
Bisca's Sniper Magic: Auto-Tracking Round.
Bisca's voice rang out across the battlefield through telepathic link:
"The assault team and mobile squad did their job. Now it's your turn! Show me the firepower of the general attack team!"
Macao raised his fist. "She's right! Let's finish off these punks!"
"Ohhh!!!" came the thunderous roar of their comrades.
Some in the ranks still worried for those who had been inside the collapsing Phantom headquarters. But then again, those specific Fairy Tail mages had a reputation.
After all, who exactly had fallen in with the rubble? Mira. Erza. Natsu. Gray. And Rhodes.
Nobody was panicking. Those five weren't the type to go down easily.
With newfound morale, Fairy Tail's attack surged forward. Wave after wave of magic tore through the remaining Phantom Soldiers. Their numbers began to drop rapidly, it was clear now. Phantom Lord was on the ropes.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a powerful explosion blasted outward from the center of the collapsed guild hall.
Chunks of masonry, steel, magical lacrima, and debris burst into the sky like fireworks, along with a few unlucky blue-purple voidmites who were launched alongside the rubble.
And then, rising atop the highest pile of ruin... was Jose.
The Phantom Lord Guild Master.
He looked furious.
Though not physically injured, his expression twisted with shame and rage.
One of the Ten Wizard Saints, buried alive by a swarm of insects and a collapsing guildhall.
The humiliation Jose felt wasn't from his guild being demolished, it was from the shame of being buried alive by a bunch of upstart mages.
Buildings could be rebuilt. Once he acquired the Heartfilia fortune, he'd construct a new guild far grander than before. But losing face like this? That was unacceptable.
To turn this around, he needed to crush every last Fairy Tail mage here and now, then go deal with Makarov wherever that old fool was hiding.
Jose's magic erupted in full. The oppressive force of a Wizard Saint flooded the battlefield, sending a chilling wave through the air. The Fairy Tail mages froze mid-fight, glancing toward the source of the suffocating pressure.
Macao's eyes widened. "That's... Jose. The guildmaster of Phantom Lord!"
Wakaba scanned the area in alarm. "Where are Erza and Mira?!"
Lucy covered her mouth, struggling to breathe. "It's not just strong... this magic feels rotten. Like it's alive. Like it wants to tear us apart."
But the voidmites were undeterred. The blue-purple swarm didn't hesitate. As Jose swept aside rubble and stomped across the ruins, the worms surged forward, eager to devour this new intruder.
Jose flicked his wrist. Inky purple arrows of magic streaked through the air, riddling the worms mid-leap. Explosions bloomed as their bodies burst apart. Stone and dust flew from the craters left behind. It wasn't even a spell, it was just a gesture.
"A Wizard Saint... that's the power of the Ten Holy Mages!" someone cried.
Jose sneered. "Power?" He turned toward the battered Phantom mages cowering behind Fairy Tail's ranks.
"Master Jose, help us!" the Phantom grunts shouted in desperation.
But Jose only looked at them with disdain. "Pathetic insects. If you've lost, then die with the fairies. A guildmaster isn't here to babysit failures."
He raised his palm. Ghostly energy surged into a sphere of writhing purple. A complex magic circle formed beneath his feet, then the energy launched outward in a spiraling wave of destruction.
The ground was shredded beneath the blast. Stone was pulverized, earth was ripped away, and a storm of debris rocketed across the battlefield. The spiral gouged deep furrows into the soil, drawing closer and closer to Fairy Tail's front line.
The shockwave hadn't even reached them yet, and already the winds were too strong to see through. The pressure in the air made it impossible to breathe.
The remaining Phantom mages turned pale.
Jose's spell didn't discriminate. He'd destroy friend and foe alike.
The sniper team tried to intervene. Magic bullets shrieked from the distance, Alzack's Split Shot, Bisca's guided rounds, but they were swallowed by the spiral blast as if they were nothing.
Then a blur shot out from beneath the rubble.
Erza burst from the collapsing ruins, clad head-to-toe in her heaviest set of armor. Gleaming plates of black and silver covered her body, and two massive shields merged into a singular barrier before her.
A golden defense circle formed just as Jose's attack arrived.
"ERZA!!!"
...
Bonus @400
40 chapters 👉patreon.com/Keepsmiling818