Bzzzt-
High in the sky, thousands of meters up, a pillar of magical power as thick as a barrel landed on the massive form of the Cube monster.
At that moment, an incredibly dazzling light erupted between sky and land.
This light even surpassed the sunlight from the sky, submerging everything around it.
Simultaneously, the world fell into a deathly silence.
But behind this silence brewed destruction.
In the blink of an eye, a sky-shattering explosion resounded across the heavens.
Boom-
Accompanied by this terrifyingly loud explosion, a violent wave of air, mixed with terrifying high temperatures, spread out in all directions instantly like a rapidly expanding balloon.
The Cube monster at the explosion's epicenter dissolved at a visible rate, as if smoke stretched by the wind, and was finally shredded into countless tiny red liquid particles, spreading outwards with the terrifying air wave.
The demons of Tartaros who were on the Cube monster were thrown off the moment the explosion occurred.
For a moment, a large number of demons fell towards the ground below like rain.
But their falling speed was completely outpaced by the explosion's expansion.
In just an instant, a large number of demons were engulfed by the explosion.
"Silver!"
Just as the explosion was about to catch up with the Nine Demon Gates' members, the skeleton figure holding the demonic staff turned and called out to Silver beside him.
"Yare yare, do I have to step in again? What a hassle."
Silver, who was continuously falling, said lazily, then slowly raised his palm towards the spreading explosion.
"Absolute Zero: Silver World!"
At that moment, an endless cold air spread out from Silver.
In the next second, the terrifyingly loud explosion in the sky fell into silence.
Then, they saw the entire terrifying explosion frozen into an ice sculpture.
"This is…?"
Erza, Wendy, and Mirajane, standing on the steel dragon's back, were all shocked by the scene before them.
"It's the same ice from Sun Village!"
Wendy looked at the ice freezing the explosion and spoke.
At the same time, Erza turned her gaze to Silver, who had released the ice.
"I see. So this person is the one who froze Sun Village?"
While Wendy and Erza were speaking, the demons not consumed by the explosion all landed on the ground.
When those demon soldiers saw the Cube island they lived on had disappeared, their pupils contracted sharply.
"The island... is gone?"
"Is this the power of a dragon?"
"By the way, who are those guys standing on the dragon?"
As the demon soldiers were filled with shock and doubt, the Nine Demon Gates' members also gathered around the Underworld King.
"Damn dragon! It actually destroyed the Cube! How much money is that loss?"
The one-eyed demon looked at the steel dragon in the sky, gnashing his teeth in visible pain.
The Underworld King, who had been holding a book and focusing his gaze on the steel dragon, heard the one-eyed demon and said in a flat tone: "If the Cube is destroyed, we'll just build another one."
Having said that, a flash of killing intent suddenly appeared in the Underworld King's usually impassive eyes: "However, this dragon and those human mages standing on it must be punished!"
"Thorn Curse: Netherworld Tree!"
The Underworld King brought two fingers together, like a sharp sword, and slashed upwards fiercely towards the steel dragon in the sky.
Bzzzt-
In the next second, the earth began to tremble.
The scattered demons nearby, sensing the ground's vibration, all looked down.
"Something is coming out from underground!"
A demon shouted loudly.
Boom-
As soon as the demon finished speaking, thick, green thorny vines intertwined together, like a towering spear reaching for the sky, burst forth from the ground and swept towards the steel dragon in the sky.
"Such a huge tree!"
Wendy, standing on the steel dragon's back, looked at the thorny vines sweeping towards them like living creatures and exclaimed.
"This is the Underworld King's Netherworld Tree!"
Perhaps Wendy didn't recognize this tree, but Seilah did.
She knew this was the Underworld King's Netherworld Tree.
Seeing the Netherworld Tree sweeping over, she said to Kenichi: "The Netherworld Tree can devour everything. Even this dragon probably cannot…"
Seilah originally meant to say that even the steel dragon probably couldn't break free from the Netherworld Tree's bindings.
But before Seilah could finish her sentence, a crimson-red flame rose around Kenichi.
The moment this flame appeared, the temperature of the surrounding air rose sharply.
Then, flames covering the sky, like a flood dragon entering the sea, directly charged towards the sweeping Netherworld Tree below.
Bzzzt-
Soon, the crimson-red flames and the green Netherworld Tree collided.
In just an instant, the crimson-red flames ignited the entire massive Netherworld Tree.
In just a few seconds, the originally green towering tree turned to ash.
"He actually burned the Netherworld Tree... This flame…"
Seilah looked at the scene before her, her voice cutting off abruptly, her fair, pretty face full of astonishment.
Beside her, Erza, Wendy, and Mirajane watched all this calmly, as if it were all a matter of course.
"Oh? More capable than I imagined."
The Underworld King on the ground, holding his book, saw the Netherworld Tree instantly turn to ash, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
But the killing intent revealed within this surprise was even stronger than before.
"Mard Geer-sama, let me go kill these humans!"
Kyoka looked at Kenichi, Erza, and the others in the sky and spoke furiously.
"No, you go activate Face."
"Once Face is activated, whether it's human mages or dragons, everything will end!"
Thinking about how Face could erase all magic from the continent, the anger on Kyoka's face instantly vanished, replaced by a smile.
"I understand!"
With that, Kyoka left directly.
Although Kenichi, Erza, and the others were several thousand meters away from the ground, Kenichi, with his divine hearing, still heard the conversation between the Underworld King and Kyoka clearly.
"Erza, you go stop that demon!"
"That demon's strength is not weak. Be careful."
"Mhm!"
Erza looked at Kenichi, a curve of joy appeared at the corner of her mouth.