Chapter 40: The Phantom Reveals Itself (7)
Inside the collapsing guildhall—
The Grand Hall twisted and warped unnaturally, space itself distorted by the overwhelming force of illusion magic.
Even as the walls crumbled and explosions tore through the structure, Ciel and Jose's battle raged on.
"That sound…?"
"Kufufufu… That would be Natsu, demolishing the control room along with Gajeel."
"Heh… that reckless dragon child."
Jose's voice carried a veneer of amusement, but inwardly he was seething.
All his plans had been reduced to nothing.
With the control chamber destroyed, the building itself would soon collapse.
Phantom Lord's pride—the Element 4 and the Iron Dragon Gajeel—had already been defeated.
The guild's weaklings were no match for Fairy Tail. Even after toppling Makarov and besting Erza, an unforeseen variable had undone everything.
Natsu, Gray, Elfman—whom Jose had dismissed as brats.
And Ciel, whom he had intended to resurrect and enslave.
All of them were variables in his carefully laid plan.
So though Jose laughed, veins bulged on his forehead as he glared at Ciel.
Ciel, as if peering straight through his thoughts, only smiled in kind.
"Kufufufu… I see you failed to account for Natsu and the others' true strength. Natsu's power rivals, perhaps even surpasses Erza's. That boy holds limitless potential… He may one day grow stronger than me."
"Hmph, don't play humble, Phantom Demon King. You are remarkable. Even now, clinging to that crumbling body with what little magic remains, fighting me without relying on spells… I've never faced a wizard with such endurance."
"Perhaps it is you who are being modest, Master Jose."
"If you were truly alive… we might have had a worthy duel. Such strength…"
"Ciel! Watch out!"
Gray's shout rang out—he had seen Jose secretly gathering magic at his fingertips. But it was too late.
Jose unleashed his spell, stretching his magic like whips that lashed against Ciel's arms.
Ciel reinforced his body with the last of his mana, managing to block, but the result was devastating.
"Ciel!!"
"Hmph… That such powerful wizards exist within Makarov's guild… I find it detestable!"
Crack—!
Already fractured from head to toe, Ciel's body could not withstand it. His arms shattered to dust before their eyes.
Gray's face twisted in horror at the sight. With his arms gone, Ciel could no longer fight. Against Jose, victory seemed impossible.
"I took a heavy blow, it seems…"
"Do you know why I didn't finish off Makarov?"
"…Why?"
"To bring despair. Despair is what I wished to gift him."
"Ciel!!!"
"Kh… haaah…"
The warped space began to stabilize as Ciel's magic waned.
Seeing him utterly defenseless, Jose raised his hand and fired a small sphere of magic straight into Ciel's chest.
Unable to block without arms, and knowing any movement would make his broken body crumble, Ciel accepted the strike.
"And when he wakes to find his beloved guild and comrades annihilated… how will he feel? Kehahahaha! Such sorrow, such despair—it will break him!"
"…"
"I'll kill him only after he's tasted despair again and again. I won't grant him the mercy of an easy death—he will suffer until the end!"
"You… vile coward…"
Hearing Jose's twisted purpose, Gray spat his disgust aloud. This wasn't the conduct of a true rival guild, nor the master of one of Fiore's most powerful organizations.
It was the cruelty of a dark guild.
And yet, even as Jose ranted on, Ciel remained silent—simply listening.
"Phantom Lord was always supreme. The greatest magic, the finest wizards, the deepest coffers… But in recent years, Fairy Tail has grown too strong, too quickly."
Ciel said nothing, watching, waiting.
"'The Phantom Demon King, Ciel,' together with the names of Laxus, Erza, Mystogan, and even Gildarts, have spread far and wide—even to our own village. And the rumors about the Salamander? They've spread across the entire kingdom."
"Before we knew it, Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail had become the two guilds representing this nation. I can't stand it. You were nothing but a pathetic, weak little guild to begin with!"
"So this whole war… it's because of your childish jealousy?!"
"Jealousy? No. We simply want to settle once and for all who stands above the other. Your guild has always been a thorn in my side. The spark of this war was something trivial—a request to retrieve the daughter of the Heartfilia family."
"For something so petty…?!"
Gray spoke up in Ciel's stead, since Ciel remained silent.
Jose had wanted to see Ciel's vacant, broken expression, but since the spear that bound his spirit—the medium for his doll form—was completely destroyed, even that satisfaction was denied him.
The fact that Ciel's soul still lingered inside that body was nothing short of a miracle. So Jose was content to continue speaking, smugly savoring the sound of his own voice.
"One of the wealthiest heiresses in the kingdom, within Fairy Tail?! Just how big do you intend to grow? If you could bend the Heartfilia fortune to your will, you'd gain power surpassing ours—and that, I will never allow!"
"That's absurd! Lucy… Lucy ran away from home! What would she ever do with her family's money?!"
"…What did you say?"
"She rents a place for seventy thousand jewel, works jobs just like the rest of us, fights alongside us, laughs and cries with us—she's one of our comrades, a wizard of Fairy Tail!"
The fact that such a ridiculous reason had ignited a war filled Gray with white-hot fury. He glared at Jose, his words sharp and unrestrained.
As he spoke, the warped space returned to normal and his pounding headache subsided. Gray rose to his feet and charged straight at Jose.
"The trigger of this war? The Heartfilia girl? I don't care about any of that! What do you know about Lucy—about the tears she's shed?!"
Jose nimbly avoided Gray's ice magic and struck him down with overwhelming force.
"I'll come to know her well enough soon."
"Gahhh!"
"Did you think I'd hand her back to her father so easily? No… I'll keep her until every last coin of her family's fortune has been bled dry. The Heartfilia estate will be mine."
"You bastard!!"
"Don't waste your strength… it'll only hurt more."
Jose ground his heel into Gray's face, preparing to end him with one final blow.
But then—
"Kufufufu… kihaha… khahahahahahaha!"
"…What?!"
"Ciel…?"
The one who hadn't moved or spoken until now suddenly erupted in laughter.
It was not the gentle laugh Ciel usually wore alongside his warm smile.
This was madness—his face twisted, his body trembling as he howled with insane mirth.
It was the laughter of someone utterly broken.
Jose and Gray froze, staring wide-eyed at the spectacle of Ciel convulsing with manic laughter.
"Ahahahahahaha! Haaa… haaaa… khahahahahahaha!! Hehhh… kkhhhuhh… ahahahahahaha!!"
"What… what is this?"
"Kyahahahaha! …Hahahaha!"
"…The medium is gone—has his soul itself gone mad?"
As Jose and Gray muttered in shock, Ciel suddenly cut his laughter short. His twisted grin remained, but his voice rang out clear.
"No, I am more lucid than ever. It's just that you, Jose… the grotesque ugliness of your being, your soul so filthy and drowned in desire… it simply makes me laugh."
"Hoh… trying to anger me in your last moments, are you? A wraith about to shatter and return to the depths of hell, daring to spout nonsense."
"Did you just say… that I can do nothing?"
Jose was right—Ciel's arms were gone, his body crumbling to pieces. He shouldn't have been able to do anything.
Gray thought the same.
But—
"Gwaaaahh?!"
"W-what the hell is that?!"
Space behind Ciel suddenly cracked open, and from the fracture a massive azure arm shot out, seizing Jose before he could react.
Bound within its grip, Jose couldn't move a muscle.
Ciel's voice rang out.
"Master Jose… when the world called me Phantom King or Phantom Demon King, I was ashamed of the title."
"What… what are you babbling about?!"
"The world is not one. There are heavens, earths, underworlds… and beyond that, countless layers of parallel worlds."
As he spoke, Ciel no longer looked human at all. He was something terrifying, something that exuded madness and dread.
Even Gray trembled uncontrollably.
The shattered puppet, barely able to move, radiated such crushing fear that Gray couldn't even twitch.
"In those worlds dwell gods, angels, devils… and beings far beyond. The reason I once thought the title Phantom King unworthy of me…"
"Hiiiii!!!"
"Uwaaahhh!!!"
The fracture spread, ripping apart the entire hall. A different dimension unfolded, revealing the full form of the arm's owner.
Gray and Jose screamed at what they saw.
A demon. A colossal fiend, its skin like armored blue plates, horns curling from its skull. It was so massive that the Phantom Lord's entire building looked small in comparison. Compared to this being, even Deliora—Zeref's demon—seemed like a newborn infant.
"That is the title of my familiar."
"W-what?!"
"I-it can't be…"
"This is Lord Of Phantasms Raviel. A fragment of my soul bound to my past self."
"Aaaaghhh!!!"
Gray could hardly comprehend his words, but the sight of the colossal demon obeying Ciel made everything inside him freeze.
This was no longer within the realm of humanity.
What is Ciel?
As Gray collapsed in terror, Ciel smiled toward Jose.
"Master Jose… souls as pure in their greed as yours are exquisite gems. Black crystals of desire, treasures that embody the vilest depths of mankind. And I—love such things dearly."
"S-stop… don't come closer…!!"
Raviel's arm shifted. Jose thrashed wildly, shaking his head, but there was no escaping the hand of the true Lord Of Phantasms.
The demon's massive face drew close. Jose shrieked, mind on the verge of shattering.
"I-I yield! I lost! Fairy Tail has beaten me! I'll never… never threaten you again! Please, just spare me! I don't want to die!"
His desperate pleas rang through the collapsing hall.
To Ciel's ears, however, the wretched cry was like a beautiful song. His broken puppet's face twisted into a manic grin, splitting his lips ear to ear in laughter.
"Kill you? No, I never intended that. All I wish… is to collect the soul of Jose Porla."
"N-no… stop…! Aaaaaaaaghhh!!"
Raviel's maw opened. From Jose's body, a black smoke-like essence poured out, streaming into the demon's throat.
Jose thrashed desperately, but as the last of the black mist left him, his body went limp.
Ciel turned away as the fractured dimension healed, the great demon fading back into the void.
With Raviel gone, Jose's soulless body plummeted from the ceiling to the floor below.
"…Impossible. Jose… defeated like this…"
"Kufufufufu…"
Gray swallowed hard, staring at Ciel.
"Ciel… did you kill him?"
But Ciel only greeted him with his usual soft smile, as if nothing had happened.
"...I didn't kill him. That was merely an illusion—an enchantment of sorts. All I did was erase the seven desires of mankind from him."
"Desires…?"
"Without desire, humans are nothing more than breathing corpses. Now, stripped of every yearning, all that remains for him is endless, maddening fear. He will never awaken, condemned to a life of suffering within that abyss of terror."
As those words fell, cracks spread across Ciel's face. His body began to shatter.
At first, Gray had recoiled in fear, reluctant to approach him. But the man standing before him now was no phantom—it was the very comrade he remembered from Fairy Tail.
Ciel turned to Gray with a faint, gentle smile.
"It's over now. Everything is finished."
"What do you mean?"
"The medium sustaining this body has broken, and my magic is spent. This vessel… will soon vanish."
"What…?!"
Even as Ciel spoke, his legs crumbled into dust, falling like sand. Gray's chest tightened with turmoil.
This was the comrade who had once returned from the dead… The older brother-figure who had looked after Natsu, Erza, Cana, Levy, Jet, Droy—all of them. And now, once more, he was disappearing before their eyes.
The fear Gray had felt moments ago dissolved, replaced by hot tears streaming down his face.
Everything Ciel had done—every battle he fought—was for Fairy Tail. There was nothing in that to fear.
"Wait, Ciel! If you leave like this… what about Natsu, Erza, Cana, Mirajane?! They won't even get to see you in your final moment! I finally thought… finally… we could talk again! And now we're just throwing more burdens on you before sending you away! At the very least… at the very least—!"
"Gray," Ciel's voice was calm, but firm, "this is enough."
"Ciel!!"
"This body had already reached its limit. Even if Jose's attack hadn't struck, the spear that served as my medium was about to break. From the start… once this was over, I was destined to fade."
Gray clenched his fists, trembling. "But at least… at least Mirajane—her feelings—!"
"Gray… give my regards to everyone."
"Ciel—!"
Ciel's body continued to crumble, until only his face remained. Just then, a cry rang out behind Gray.
"Ciel!!!"
"Mira?!"
She rushed forward, desperation in her voice.
"No… no! Ciel! Wait… please wait…!"
"Hey—Ciel!!" Gray shouted, but Ciel's silence was final.
Mirajane pushed past Gray, stretching out her hand toward him.
And in that instant—Ciel completely scattered, dissolving into nothing.
He turned his back to her, wordless, and was gone.
"No! No!! Ciel! Ciel!! CIEL!!!"
Mirajane's voice broke as she thrashed at the empty air where he had stood, trying in vain to gather what was left. Her arms swung wildly until her balance gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.
"This can't be…! No… not like this! Ciel…! After all this time… finally, I could've seen you… and now, right before me… you're gone!!"
Sobbing, she clutched at the remnants of dust on the ground, as though she could hold him in her arms again.
They never truly reunited.
Even when he had been right before her eyes, she hadn't managed to say a single proper word.
Tormented by that truth, Mirajane wept bitterly, her cries breaking into desperate murmurs.
"Ciel… why…? You were right here. I just wanted to talk to you—just once… even a single word! At least a farewell… at least a goodbye…"
Gray stood in silence, unable to say anything as Mirajane wept over the vanished traces of her beloved.
From behind them, Makarov watched with a face contorted in anguish. His shoulders trembled as he lowered his head.
And in the ruined hall of the collapsed tower, only the sorrowful wails of a girl resounded—her grief echoing for the beloved she could not save, the one who had slipped away without even a final parting word.
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