Evergreen, Freed, and Bickslow's bodies involuntarily trembled. They wanted to flee but found their bodies too heavy to lift their feet.
The terrifying pressure radiating from Ryoma solidified the air, making every breath they took accompanied by bone-chilling coldness.
"Run?"
Ryoma stepped forward, and frost instantly condensed on the ground, spreading toward the feet of the three members of the Thunder God Tribe.
"Do you think you can still escape now?"
Before he finished speaking, the frost had already wrapped around their ankles and was rapidly climbing upward, quickly freezing the bodily functions wherever it passed.
"Can't... can't move!" The dolls beside Bickslow screamed in panic.
Freed gritted his teeth, trying to break free, but found it impossible to escape the strange freezing.
Evergreen's face lost all color, and even the feathered fan in her hand dropped to the ground.
Ryoma was then ready to completely subdue the three of them and end this farce.
Boom!
An extremely dazzling golden lightning bolt pierced down from the ceiling of the guild hall without warning, smashing heavily onto the center of the stage.
The terrifying lightning energy instantly exploded, turning into a raging sea of plasma that engulfed the entire stage. The bright light and loud noise caused everyone present to instinctively close their eyes and raise their hands to shield themselves.
This sudden turn of events made Ryoma stop his movements. He squinted, forcing himself to adjust to the violent lightning.
This magical aura... it was too familiar.
'How is this possible?' His heart shook violently.
From within the lightning, an arrogant yet incredibly familiar voice quickly spread throughout the entire guild, and even out toward Magnolia Town.
"The game has begun, Fairies."
"The stage for battle is all of Magnolia. The rules are simple: defeat us. The final victor will become the new King of Fairy Tail."
"The Battle of Fairy Tail officially begins."
As the voice faded, the violent lightning abruptly retracted, finally dissipating completely.
The stage was empty. Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow had vanished without a trace along with the lightning bolt.
"Laxus!"
"It's Laxus's voice!"
The guild members cried out in alarm, and Erza and the others, who had just recovered from petrification, looked furious.
Ryoma ignored everyone's cries. The moment the voice sounded, he had already turned around and rushed into the guild interior at top speed, heading toward the room where Laxus was confined.
'I've been played!'
Only this thought remained in his mind.
The others in the guild also reacted, roaring as they rushed toward the guild doors.
"That bastard!"
"How dare he drag the entire city into this!"
They had to get out, they had to stop this ridiculous game.
Unprecedented fury erupted from Makarov's short body. His aged face was flushed red with anger, and his body trembled slightly.
"Laxus... that wretched brat!"
His hair stood on end, magic power surged, and he transformed into a streak of light, rushing toward the guild doors.
"To dare do such a thing! I... I will stop you myself!"
Yet, just as he was about to burst through the door.
Bang!
With a dull thud, Makarov seemed to hit an invisible transparent wall, and he was forcibly bounced back, falling to the ground.
Gray, who was running behind him, was startled and quickly reached out to help, but his hand passed through the doorway without any obstruction.
Gray tried to pull Makarov out of the doorway, but no matter how hard he pulled, Makarov could not step half a pace outside the guild doors.
"What's going on?"
"This is... a rune?" Erza immediately noticed the anomaly.
As her voice fell, faint purple magic characters slowly appeared in the air at the doorway, forming a clear rule.
[Entry and exit prohibited for people over 80 years old and stone statues]
It was Freed's Rune Barrier.
—
Ryoma had already kicked open the door to the confinement room at this moment.
The huge ice sculpture in the room still stood silently in the center, emitting cold air, but unlike before, the interior of the ice sculpture was empty.
The person who should have been sealed inside had disappeared, leaving only a human-shaped void, as if it had been a phantom from the start.
Ryoma stood rooted to the spot, his body stiff, his mind buzzing.
Time seemed to stretch out at this moment. In the silent room, he could clearly hear his heart pounding like a drum.
Slap!
A crisp, loud slap echoed in the empty room.
Ryoma raised his hand and fiercely slapped himself. The stinging pain came from his cheek, but it was far less intense than the overwhelming shame and anger churning in his heart.
'When did I... become so arrogant?'
He stared intently at the human-shaped void, feelings of self-mockery and regret nearly consuming him.
'Did I really think I was infallible? Did I think freezing one Laxus meant extinguishing all variables?'
He was wrong, ridiculously wrong.
He treated Laxus as the only threat, yet ignored the Thunder God Tribe, who were fiercely loyal to him and equally formidable.
He focused all his attention on the obvious trump card, only to be stabbed through by the knife the opponent kept hidden up their sleeve.
Ryoma quickly walked up to the ice sculpture and reached out. As his fingertips touched the cold surface, he could feel that the Space-Time Magic structure he had set up inside was still intact, with no signs of forced destruction.
'It wasn't forcibly broken... it was a substitution.'
'They used some unknown magic to secretly swap Laxus out without triggering my magic core.'
A surge of anger shot from his chest to the top of his head.
'Fine, you want to play dirty, huh?'
Ryoma's anger was completely ignited. He prepared to deactivate the magic before him with a thought.
However, in that instant, an indescribable, severe spasm suddenly gripped his heart.
"Ugh!"
Ryoma let out a muffled groan, stumbled forward uncontrollably, and fell to one knee.
He pressed his left hand tightly against his chest. The pain there was sharp and tyrannical, as if an invisible hand was trying to crush his heart.
As he abandoned the thought of dispelling the magic, the heartbreaking spasm slowly receded, but the lingering fear still made him feel cold all over, and a layer of fine cold sweat seeped onto his forehead.
'A trap...'
This room had been turned into a trap specifically aimed at him.
Ryoma gasped roughly, slowly stood up from the ground, and turned his attention to the door he had kicked open.
Sure enough, faint purple magic runes were slowly flowing in the air above the door frame, outlining lines of text.
It was Freed's Jutsu Shiki.
The first line of text clearly appeared.
[Entry and exit prohibited.]
Followed immediately by the second line.
[Use of any magic power prohibited.]
The two short rules formed a perfect yet malicious cage.
It prevented him from leaving while simultaneously stripping him of his ability to use magic. The moment he tried to use magic power, that previous sensation would immediately follow.
This meant he couldn't forcibly break the barrier using magic, nor could he leave via Teleportation.
They had not only calculated his arrogance and his magic, but they had also clearly calculated his reaction after being trapped.