Chapter 201: Lisanna
Natsu and the others weren't aware, but Ren knew clearly: the magic technology in this world was decent, but the inhabitants themselves were ordinary people without magic power.
The limits of ordinary people were fixed; no matter how powerful the Magic Tools they used, their combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced.
As for the numbers, while they posed a slight problem, it wasn't a major issue.
"You... you fellow are truly too arrogant!"
Lucy Ashley slammed her hand onto the table, her eyes narrowing sharply. The leather-clad woman stared daggers at the black-haired mage standing so casually before her. She had never met someone as arrogant as Ren; that was the invincible Royal Army he was dismissing so lightly, every single soldier of which was superbly equipped with Magic Weapons that could level buildings.
"Arrogant?" Ren chuckled softly, the sound low and composed amidst the tense atmosphere of the guildhall. "Perhaps. But it's also the truth. Dealing with them won't be as difficult as you imagine. So, all you need to do is tell me the location of the Royal Capital."
"Fine! Since you're seeking death yourself, I won't stop you," Edo-Lucy scoffed, crossing her arms and turning her head away, though her gaze lingered on them with a mix of irritation and grudging concern. "Just follow this direction all the way to the Royal Capital; it takes about five days on foot. Don't come crying back to us when you run into the Magic Warfare Units."
"It only takes five days on foot? That's quite close. Thank you," Ren nodded politely, his tone genuine.
Natsu, who had been vibrating with restless energy, punched his palm. "Great! Now that we know the destination, it'll be easy! All we have to do is reach the Royal Capital and we can rescue everyone!"
Wendy Marvell clasped her hands together, a bright smile breaking through her earlier anxiety. "That's right! We have a goal now!"
"Hey! Did you guys even understand what I said?!" Edo-Lucy shouted, her brow twitching in annoyance. "That's the Edolas Royal Capital! It's defended by a hundred thousand Royal Army soldiers armed to the teeth! There are magic vehicles, airships, and weapons you've never even seen! How can just a few of you possibly be a match for the entire Kingdom's military might?"
She looked at them as if they were lunatics. Had she failed to explain the situation clearly? Why were these Earth Land mages so hopelessly optimistic? Did they not understand the concept of being outnumbered ten thousand to one?
Natsu's expression shifted, the goofy grin vanishing to be replaced by a look of steely determination. The fire in his eyes burned brighter than any magic weapon. "We know. But they have our family. We will rescue our comrades no matter what stands in our way."
Carla flew up, crossing her small arms. "He's right. Sitting here won't solve anything. Let's hurry and leave! If we're too late, everyone might truly be turned into magic power."
"Alright!" Natsu shouted, turning towards the door. "Let's go, Happy, Wendy, Ren!"
They were impatient, fueled by the desperate need to save their guild. But just as they took the first step, a voice halted them.
"Wait a moment."
Ren didn't move. He stood rooted in the center of the guild hall, his gaze fixed not on the door, but on a figure standing quietly near the bar.
"What is it, Ren-nii?" Wendy asked, stopping and looking back in confusion. "Is there something else?"
Ren ignored the question, his eyes locked onto the short-haired girl with the familiar blue eyes. He took a step forward, his voice softening, stripping away the layer of combat readiness to reveal a profound gentleness.
"Lisanna."
The name hung in the air, heavy and significant.
Ren looked straight at her and said, "Lisanna, your sister Mira and your brother Elfman miss you very much. Do you want to come back with us?"
The silence that followed was deafening. It lasted only a second before the entire Edolas Fairy Tail Guild erupted.
"You guy, what are you talking about?!"
"Lisanna is our Lisanna!"
The guild members surged forward, forming a protective wall between Ren and the girl. Their faces were twisted with defensive anger. To them, this outsider was trying to steal one of their own, trying to take away a beloved sister and friend.
"If you want to find the Lisanna from your world, go look somewhere else!" Jet—or rather, the Edolas version of him—shouted, brandishing a magic pistol.
"Right! Don't even think about stealing our Lisanna!" Droy added, stepping in front of her.
Edo-Lucy pushed her way to the front, her whip uncoiled and ready. "Leave quickly! You are not welcome here! We tolerated you because you're Fairy Tail from another world, but if you try to take our family, we won't hold back!"
Natsu and the others were completely bewildered.
"Ren..." Natsu whispered, pulling at Ren's sleeve. "This is the Lisanna of this world, not the Lisanna we know. You... you joined the guild later, so maybe you don't know, but..."
Natsu's voice trailed off, pain flickering in his eyes. The memory of the grave, of the rainy day they lost her, was still a fresh wound in his heart.
Happy flew over, his ears drooping. "That's right, Ren. The Lisanna of our world... she died in that accident two years ago. We saw it."
"No," Ren stated firmly, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade. He didn't look at Natsu; he kept his eyes on the girl hiding behind Edo-Lucy. "She is the Lisanna of our world."
"You! Leave here immediately!"
"Get out!! Or don't blame us for being impolite!!"
The Edolas guild members had had enough. The click of safety catches being released echoed through the hall. Magic staves glowed, and swords were drawn. The atmosphere shifted from tense to volatile in a heartbeat. They were ready to attack, ready to defend their friend with violence if necessary.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly. "Hmph."
He let out a cold snort, low and vibrating with power.
Boom—!!
It wasn't an explosion of fire or lightning, but an eruption of pure, unadulterated presence.
Powerful magic power suddenly burst forth from Ren's body, expanding outward like a physical shockwave. The air in the guild hall instantly became heavy, as if gravity had increased tenfold. The wooden floorboards beneath Ren's feet groaned and cracked, spiderwebs of fissures spreading rapidly from where he stood.
His clothes billowed violently as if caught in a gale, and his black hair stood on end, dancing in the invisible torrent of energy.
"Woooaaahhhh!!"
Natsu stumbled back, his eyes widening in utter shock. He raised his arms to shield his face from the pressure.
Although Ren usually displayed great strength in physical combat and with his Take Over forms, he had almost never simply... released his magic power like this. It was raw. It was dense. It felt less like magic and more like a crushing ocean depth.
Many in the guild had assumed Ren was a physical fighter, someone whose magic power level was perhaps only slightly above average, relying on the specific abilities of his forms.
But this... this was different.
This guy is a monster! Natsu's instincts screamed.
Even without using Take Over Magic, Ren's magic power was top-tier. It washed over them, suffocating and immense. The only people in the Fairy Tail Guild Natsu had ever felt this kind of overwhelming pressure from were the Old Man—Master Makarov—and Gildarts Clive.
It was the pressure of a calamity.
"S-so strong... such powerful magic power!!" Wendy squeaked, holding onto a pillar to keep her footing. Her sensory magic was going haywire, overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the energy Ren was outputting.
"Brother Ren is amazing, just as expected!" Happy cried out, clinging to Natsu's vest, his tail bristling.
If the Earth Land mages were shocked, the people of Edolas Fairy Tail were terrified.
They were ordinary humans. They had no internal magic containers to buffer this pressure. To them, it felt like a dragon had suddenly materialized in the room. Their knees buckled. Weapons clattered to the floor as trembling hands lost their grip. They stared at Ren with wide, fearful eyes, their earlier bravado crushed under the weight of his existence.
They felt that Ren at this moment was not a human mage, but a terrifying monster wearing human skin.
Ren held the pressure for a few seconds—just long enough to make his point, just long enough to silence the room completely—and then, as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.
The oppressive weight lifted. The air returned to the room.
"Hah... hah..."
The members of Edolas Fairy Tail gasped for breath, clutching their chests, sweat beading on their foreheads. The silence that followed was one of absolute terror.
"W-what is this? Is it magic?! What's going on? You weren't carrying any magic items! How did you release magic?!"
Edo-Lucy stared at Ren, her legs shaking. She looked at his hands, his belt, searching for a Lacrima or a staff, but there was nothing. Everyone else shared her confusion; in this world, magic resided in objects, not people. To see someone generate such force from nothing was akin to seeing a ghost.
Ren smoothed his windblown hair back, his expression returning to its usual calm. He shook his head. "No, this is merely pure magic power. I haven't even cast a spell yet."
"Magic power?!?"
"How can you possess magic power?! And such powerful magic power at that?!"
"Their magic power is supplied by magic crystals! How can a human body hold that much energy without exploding?!"
The questions came rapidly, fueled by disbelief.
Carla stepped forward, her voice crisp and authoritative as she addressed the room. "The humans of Earth Land are different from the humans of Edolas. Humans there are born with magic power containers within their bodies. They can recover magic on their own when it is consumed, and they can grow stronger through cultivation and training. Ren is an extremely powerful Mage from that world."
She glanced at the trembling Edo-Lucy. "He alone could easily destroy a Mage Guild—and I don't mean a guild like yours that relies on tools. I mean a guild where every member possesses internal magic power."
Carla took the opportunity to threaten these people, telling them not to act rashly. It was a bluff—mostly—but it was necessary.
Of course, to Ren, it wasn't a lie. He truly could destroy a guild effortlessly by himself. Every member of the Oración Seis possessed the magic power to wipe out a minor guild, yet all those powerful individuals were taken down by Ren one by one.
The Edolas Kingdom is extremely powerful, but with Ren present, they might still have a chance to rescue their guild comrades.
The room remained silent, the hostility replaced by wary caution.
Happy tugged on Ren's pants leg, looking up with big, confused eyes. "Ren... why are you so certain that she is the Lisanna from our world? You haven't met her and don't know her, right? You joined after... after she was gone."
Natsu also looked at Ren, desperate hope warring with skepticism in his face. "Yeah, Ren. How can you know?"
Ren smiled, a confident, knowing smile. He looked past the crowd, directly at the girl with short white hair.
"It's very simple," Ren explained, his voice carrying clearly to every corner of the room. "The people of this world do not have magic power in their bodies. They are empty vessels, magically speaking. But she..." He pointed a finger at Lisanna. "...she possesses magic power."
Gasps rippled through the room again.
"Although it's not strong, it's not weak either—it's slightly stronger than most average Mages in our Guild back home. Therefore, I judged that she is not from this world. If she is not from this world, then naturally she is from ours."
Ren paused, letting the logic sink in. "Furthermore, I heard Mira mention the details of the accident. She said her sister disappeared after being struck away by an unconscious Elfman during a Beast Soul takeover. They found no body, only that she was gone. That is why she and Elfman believed their sister had died. But disappearance does not always mean death. Sometimes... it just means going somewhere else."
"What?!"
Natsu felt like he had been struck by lightning. He turned his gaze slowly, agonizingly, toward the girl.
Magic power... inside her body?
Mages possess magic power in their bodies, and Mages with keen senses can detect the magic power of others, thus knowing their location and judging their strength based on the sensed magic power. With Ren's strength—demonstrated so terrifyingly just seconds ago—it was impossible for him to be mistaken about something so fundamental.
If Ren said she had magic power, then she had magic power. And if she had magic power... she wasn't Edolas Lisanna.
Natsu and Happy were feeling both excited and nervous at this moment.
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