Chapter 269: Far Ahead
Ren pointed a finger, his expression bored, and the Magic Bullets around him changed direction, rushing towards the numerous Clones with terrifying precision.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
Explosions blossomed across the cityscape of the "Hidden" arena. The duplicate bodies, crafted from memory and magic, shattered into particles of light one by one.
[Rufus -10]
The score deduction flashed on the giant lacrima screens, a crimson stain on Sabertooth's perfect record.
Rufus's elegant expression suddenly froze on his face. The "Minstrel Who Sings to the Moon" tipped his hat, but his hand trembled slightly.
[What?! Rufus's magic attacked a large number of Clones, losing a huge amount of points instantly!]
Chapati Lola screamed into the microphone, his voice cracking. [He aimed for Ren, but Ren redirected the attack back at the decoys! It's a masterful counterplay!]
"How could this be?!"
Everyone in the audience was stunned. Sabertooth, the guild that had dominated Fiore for seven years, was being outplayed in the first minute.
"Hahahaha!"
"This is Ren! The monster of Fairy Tail is back!"
The cheers for the underdog began to swell, a roaring tide against the silence of the Sabertooth fans.
Whoosh!
The air cracked as space displaced.
The next moment, Ren appeared in front of Rufus. He didn't run; he didn't fly. He simply was there, as if the distance between them had never existed.
"What?!"
Rufus was startled, stepping back instinctively. "Teleportation? No... I didn't sense a magic circle!"
"To be honest, I didn't really want to make a move on you, but since you attacked me first, I should respond properly. It's only polite, right?"
Ren's voice was casual, light, almost friendly. But his eyes behind the blindfold—metaphorically speaking, as he wasn't wearing one, but channeling the essence of the Strongest Sorcerer—were cold voids.
"Memory-Make: Afterimage!"
Rufus chanted quickly, his body blurring as he attempted to create a false history of his location to evade the strike.
"You can't attack what isn't th—"
Slap!
The sound was crisp and humiliating.
Before Rufus could finish his sentence, Ren reached through the illusion, grabbing the "real" Rufus by the face. It was as if Ren could see the truth of the world, ignoring the falsehoods of magic.
Ren grabbed his face and pushed him downwards, slamming him into the cobblestone street.
Boom!
Dust billowed.
"Ugh!"
Rufus groaned, his elegant hat tumbling away. In a flash of light, the event's mechanics kicked in.
Rufus was teleported away, respawning elsewhere as a penalty for taking damage.
Ten seconds later, Rufus respawned near Nullpudding.
The small, imp-like mage from Raven Tail was currently lurking in the shadows, looking for an opportunity to cheat.
"You bastard!"
Nullpudding saw Rufus, who had just attacked him earlier in the melee, and immediately swung his massive, shapeshifting arm to attack. "I'll crush you for earlier!"
Whoosh!
Ren instantly appeared in front of Nullpudding.
"Target acquired," Ren whispered.
He kicked him in the chin with the force of a pile driver.
"Bastard..."
Nullpudding's head snapped back. He glared at Ren furiously, his eyes filled with the hatred characteristic of Raven Tail.
"Why... why are you targeting me?!"
Unwillingly, he was teleported away again, his points dropping to zero.
The game continued, but it was no longer a competition. It was a hunt.
Rufus, regaining his composure, decided to unleash his strongest wide-range spell.
"I recall... the heat of the scorching sun! Memory-Make: Burning Earth's Karma Fire!"
The temperature of the surrounding earth rapidly rose. The cobblestones glowed cherry-red, then liquefied.
A massive wave of Lava erupted from the ground, a tsunami of molten rock that surged forward and submerged Ren completely.
[Oh oh! What powerful magic! Ren is submerged by Lava! As expected of Rufus! He remembered the flames of a volcano!]
Chapati shouted. [Is this the end for the Fairy Tail ace?!]
"Wow! So cool!"
"Amazing! Lord Rufus!"
"Burn him to ash!"
The Sabertooth fans screamed, desperate for their champion to regain dominance.
Just as Rufus thought Ren had been teleported away by the damage system, a figure walked out of the Lava step by step.
He walked calmly, hands in his pockets. The searing magma parted around him, his clothes pristine, his hair unsinged. It was as if an invisible bubble separated him from the destruction.
"What?!"
Rufus was startled to see Ren completely unharmed. His eyes widened behind his mask. "That... that should be impossible! The heat alone..."
"What's going on? My magic already hit you, why are you fine?"
"Hmm, simply put, you missed."
Ren stopped a few meters away, the lava hissing and bubbling at his feet but never touching his shoes.
"Impossible, my attack just now had no blind spots, and you didn't dodge. I saw the flames engulf you!"
"You touched the infinity between you and me. Let me teach you, stretch out your hand."
Ren extended his own hand, palm open.
Rufus paused, suspicion warring with curiosity. Then, driven by the need to understand this anomaly, he stretched out his hand. He tried to touch Ren's palm.
But he couldn't.
He found that his palm stopped centimeters before it could touch Ren's skin. He pushed harder, pouring magic power into his arm, but the gap remained absolute.
"Can't touch it! My hand stopped! Is this a barrier?"
"It didn't stop," Ren corrected, his voice sounding like a lecturer explaining basic math to a toddler. "It's more like the closer you get to me, the slower you become. The space is divided infinitely. Half the distance, then half of that, ad infinitum. So slow that it's almost like stopping. This is my Limitless Cursed Technique."
"This is also why your magic and attacks simply cannot touch me. They travel through infinite space and never reach the destination."
"No... How could there be such magic?!"
Rufus stepped back, sweat pouring down his face. This wasn't magic as he knew it. This was cheating reality. "You... what are you?"
"What do you want to do? I can just hold your hand like this, you know." Ren chuckled, closing his fingers around the empty space where Rufus's hand was pushing, effectively trapping him in the paradox.
"Let go!"
"Don't be shy! After all, you just made a move on me again."
Ren's smile vanished.
"Not good!"
Rufus's expression changed to pure horror.
Before he could use Memory-Make to escape, Ren punched him in the abdomen. A simple, magic-reinforced punch, but backed by the weight of a S-Class mage.
"Ugh!"
Rufus cried out in pain, doubling over. His body flashed and was instantly transferred to a respawn point.
Up in the stands, the other participants watched with grim faces.
"That guy from Sabertooth really doesn't know what's good for him, daring to provoke that monster Ren."
Lyon Vastia of Lamia Scale shook his head, crossing his arms. He had avoided Ren from the start, focusing on picking off the weaker clones.
"Although I wanted to compete with Ren to prove myself better than Gray's guild... now was not the time. Competing with Ren at this moment would not be a wise choice. He's in a different league."
"This must be what they call ignorance is bliss!"
Ivan Dreyar, the Master of Raven Tail, grit his teeth in the shadows. He could only feel a twisted sympathy for Rufus's predicament, and rage at his own son, Nullpudding, being used as a punching bag.
"Who told him to provoke that monster? We need to change the plan. Ren... he's the biggest obstacle."
"Is that Ren? Wow! He's really super terrifying!"
Beth Vanderwood of Mermaid Heel shivered. Before appearing, Beth was specifically warned by her Guild member Millianna not to provoke Ren under any circumstances.
"She said that guy was simply not human. He's a demon in human skin. I thought she was exaggerating..."
"Sabertooth has been in first place for so many years, they've gotten a bit too arrogant!"
Yeager of Quatro Cerberus laughed nervously. He had seen the video of Ren fighting Jose Porla. Jose was one of the Ten Wizard Saints. When Ren became famous, Sabertooth was still a small Guild nobody cared about. "The old kings are back to reclaim the throne."
[Time's up!]
The gong sounded, signaling the end of the "Hidden" event.
[As expected of Ren! The man who could defeat a Ten Wizard Saint seven years ago! Seven years later, he is still the top Mage!]
[With a huge score, far ahead of second place!]
"So... so powerful!"
"Is Fairy Tail that strong?"
"They completely dominated!"
Everyone in the audience was stunned. The whispers of "Fairy Tail is dead" vanished instantly. Ren had truly shown them what it meant to dominate.
Throughout the match, Rufus of Sabertooth and Nullpudding of Raven Tail were completely suppressed by Ren. It wasn't a competition; it was bullying.
Whenever the two appeared, Ren would instantly teleport in front of them and attack. Both tried to counterattack—Rufus with elemental magic, Nullpudding with shape-shifting—but it had no effect on Ren. His "Infinity" was absolute.
Absolutely no power to resist!
The Rufus who used to wreak havoc in the Grand Magic Games, the genius of Memory-Make, was utterly powerless against Ren. Anyone could see that the gap was simply too vast. It was like an adult fighting a toddler.
The giant screen displayed the final results.
[Rankings]
Fairy Tail Team A - 10P (Ren)
Lamia Scale - 8P (Lyon)
Blue Pegasus - 6P (Eve)
Mermaid Heel - 4P (Beth)
Quatro Cerberus - 3P (Yeager)
Fairy Tail Team B - 2P (Nalpudding targeted them too, ironically)
Sabertooth - 1P (Rufus)
Raven Tail - 0P (Nullpudding)
"Hmm... not bad!"
Ooba Babasaama, the Guild Master of Lamia Scale, was uncharacteristically not critical this time. usually, she would be spinning around screaming, but she nodded solemnly. "It wasn't easy to win against a monster like Ren. Lyon did well to secure second place by avoiding the predator."
"Third place? That's not bad either!"
Ren looked at the rankings from the field; Eve Tearm had also performed quite well, using his Snow Magic to snipe points quietly.
Hibiki Lates, watching from the Blue Pegasus booth, nodded in agreement: "With that person around, there's no chance of getting first place. Ren-san is... an anomaly. We should focus on the other events."
"Fourth place? It's alright!"
Arania Webb of Mermaid Heel was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Out of eight teams in total, fourth place was right in the middle.
Risley Law laughed: "Ahaha! Beth tried her best. It's hard when there's a monster on the field."
In the Sabertooth dugout, the mood was heavy.
"Don't worry, Rufus, that guy is a monster who defeated a Ten Wizard Saint seven years ago. We'll get your revenge for you."
Sting Eucliffe patted Rufus on the shoulder and said, though his eyes were serious. The arrogance was cracked.
"Phew! It's nothing. After all, I provoked him first, so being targeted is normal."
Rufus adjusted his hat, his face pale but composed.
"I just didn't expect him to be so strong, far exceeding my expectations. I tried to memorize his magic, but... I couldn't. It was like trying to memorize the concept of 'nothingness'."
Rufus didn't seem too dejected externally, but internally he was shaken. His previous magic could naturally have avoided Ren if he played passively, but he chose to actively attack Ren, partly because he wanted to see how powerful this legendary man was. He wanted to add Ren's data to his memory.
However, what he didn't expect was that Ren's strength was far greater than rumored.
Just this defensive stance, without even displaying any powerful offensive magic like the Quake or Susanoo, had already left him almost completely defenseless.
It is said that Ren has many transformations, and the Whitebeard transformation from seven years ago was also very powerful. If he uses that...
Rufus clenched his fist.
"It won't be so easy to win the championship this time!"