"He showed mercy..."
Erza exhaled a long, trembling breath, her knees feeling dangerously weak. She was infinitely grateful Natsu hadn't been cut down. She knew exactly what a fully committed sword strike looked like, and if Finn hadn't deliberately shifted the trajectory of that attack, Natsu would have been erased from existence.
"He showed mercy..." Lucy repeated, utterly speechless.
She stared up at the sky. The clouds were perfectly split in two, and a violent, residual thunderstorm crackled in the upper atmosphere—the mere atmospheric aftermath of Finn's swing. She gulped, her throat incredibly dry, and looked back down at the arena. Natsu was kneeling in the dirt, completely paralyzed in a daze, unable to process his own defeat.
"Natsu..."
Lucy's heart ached for him. They had been inseparable since the day he invited her to join Fairy Tail. She had absolute, unwavering faith in his explosive power, and she had genuinely prayed from the bottom of her heart that he would win. But witnessing Finn's absolute, god-like swordsmanship violently erased that hope. The cruel, undeniable reality was laid bare: Natsu winning was a literal impossibility.
"What the hell is he?" Gray muttered, a cold sweat drenching his back. He felt a deep, suffocating sense of helplessness. Even if he sacrificed his own life to cast Iced Shell, he was entirely certain Finn would just casually cut the conceptual sealing magic into pieces before it could even freeze him.
"Is he... beyond the level of the Ten Wizard Saints?" Makarov wondered aloud, his voice trembling as he leaned heavily on the railing.
The Ten Wizard Saints. The ten absolute strongest mages on the continent of Ishgar.
Makarov was one. Jura Neekis of Lamia Scale was another. Yet, even among the Saints, there were vast differences in power. Makarov honestly wasn't sure if he could even survive a clash with Finn. Unlike Makarov's Giant Magic, which relied on overwhelming blunt-force trauma, Finn's blade was absolute.
It couldn't be blocked. Natsu's Dragon Slayer flames, the reinforced stone of the arena, the very sky itself—Finn had cleaved through all of it effortlessly. Makarov had a terrifying suspicion that if Finn truly exerted himself, he could literally sever the fabric of space.
"I wonder... how are we supposed to repair the stage?" Mato murmured from the VIP balcony, staring down at the bottomless, crescent-shaped chasm dissecting the Domus Flau. Despite the catastrophic structural damage, the King was deeply satisfied to have witnessed the absolute apex of martial power.
But the reality of that power cast a long, inescapable shadow over the rest of the tournament. Every single guild, spectator, and official present realized the undeniable truth: Finn was the absolute strongest.
Even the members of Sabertooth, the undefeated champions of Fiore, knew deep down they were no match for the masked man.
"Yeah, this year's champion is going to be Heavenly Blue."
The murmur rippled through the stadium. There was no longer any doubt.
Yet, as Finn walked away, completely ignoring the awestruck whispers of the crowd, he didn't care about the title of "Champion." Being the winner of a sports festival held very little actual value. What Finn truly sought was the aftermath of the Grand Magic Games. The looming crisis was his perfect opportunity to seize absolute political control over the Kingdom of Fiore while simultaneously erasing the criminal records of Sorano and his Oración Seis subordinates.
"Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!"
Natsu suddenly slammed his good fist into the dirt, sobbing in absolute, crushing frustration. He cursed his own weakness.
"Natsu-san..."
Up on the Sabertooth balcony, Sting and Rogue stared in shock. The man they had spent years idolizing, the Dragon Slayer they had sworn to surpass, had just been effortlessly swatted aside. Looking at the sheer, apocalyptic destruction caused by Finn's blade, they wondered if they even stood a chance in this tournament.
However, amidst their shock, the four Dragon Slayers in the stadium—Natsu, Gajeel, Sting, and Rogue—all independently noticed something strange. A faint, ancient, overwhelmingly predatory scent lingered in the air where Finn had been standing. It was a scent that made their draconic instincts scream in primal terror.
Back in the Heavenly Blue dugout, Ultear looked at Finn in sheer disbelief. "Was that... genuinely just a sword technique?"
"It was," Finn nodded smoothly.
He was incredibly satisfied with his choice of Take Over target. Absorbing the soul of Kurnugi, the Sword Saint Dragon, had been a brilliant move. Unlike the elemental Dragon Slayers, who relied heavily on fluctuating magical reserves to generate fire, iron, or lightning, Finn's draconic aspect was rooted in pure, absolute physical mastery and martial arts.
Finn had never underestimated Natsu or the others. He knew they possessed immense willpower. But he also knew they were deeply limited by their own lack of creativity and intelligence. They relied on trial and error, taking years to develop a single new technique.
Finn, however, was not alone.
He was constantly sharing knowledge and combat data across a multiverse neural network with his alternate selves. More importantly, he possessed the Manager. If Finn conceptualized a new sword technique, he didn't need to spend years practicing it. The Manager would instantly run millions of combat simulations in his mind, calculating the absolute optimal biomechanics to execute the move flawlessly on the very first try.
Should I hunt more dragons? Finn mused quietly.
Initially, he had planned to focus exclusively on mastering Kurnugi's power, preferring a specialized, cautious approach to avoid drawing the attention of Acnologia or the Dragon Gods.
But he recalled a specific character from the original Fairy Tail lore—God Serena. The man had implanted eight different Dragon Slayer Lacrima into his own body. While God Serena was ultimately a jobber who got one-shot by Acnologia, the fact remained that possessing multiple dragon elements had allowed him to effortlessly slaughter the top Wizard Saints.
Unlike God Serena, Finn was confident he wouldn't be violently murdered by the Black Dragon.
"Hmm...."
"What's wrong?" Meredy asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Let's head back," Finn ordered, adjusting his coat.
"Already getting impatient, are we?" Meredy offered a sly, knowing smirk. Truthfully, the adrenaline of watching him effortlessly dominate the entire stadium had her own body running hot.
"...."
Finn sweatdropped. "No. There is a specific place I need to visit first."
"Fairy Tail?" Sorano immediately narrowed her eyes, slipping a daring hand down toward his thigh. "You already have all of us waiting for you at the hotel. Why do you need them?"
"Actually, I think acquiring Fairy Tail's female members is a good thing," Flare chimed in, her tone entirely serious. "They possess amazing abilities, after all."
Flare didn't possess an ounce of jealousy. Her entire existence was devoted to Finn's absolute supremacy. If conquering Erza, Mirajane, and Lucy exponentially increased Finn's political and magical power, Flare fully supported it.
"In fact, Finn-sama, you should probably acquire the top female mages from Mermaid Heel, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Sabertooth as well," Flare suggested, her eyes gleaming with absolute, fanatical devotion. "Fairy Tail alone isn't enough."
Flare practically wanted him to impregnate the entire top-tier magical population of the continent!
"....."
Finn stared at Flare, absolutely speechless.
Who does she think I am? Zeus?!
The idea of sleeping his way across Fiore to establish a continent-spanning, magically overpowered bloodline to help him rule the world was utterly absurd.
...Although it's not that bad, Finn thought in wonder. If I plant the seeds now, in twenty years I'd have a loyal army of S-Class demigods...
What the hell am I thinking?!
Finn banished the ridiculous thoughts from his mind.
"I have a location I need to investigate," Finn stated firmly, ignoring Flare's empire-building suggestions. "It's better to increase my strength than to impregnate others. Let's go."
"Hmmm?"
The women were slightly confused but deeply curious. They fell in line behind him, completely ignoring the awestruck, terrified stares of the remaining organizers and guards, who didn't dare breathe a word to stop them.
The second day of the Grand Magic Games had officially concluded. The entire Kingdom of Fiore now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Heavenly Blue was the best of all.
"Bastard..."
Up in the Sabertooth balcony, Jiemma Orland gripped the stone railing so hard it cracked. Watching Finn walk away so casually filled him with a suffocating, helpless hatred. The undefeated record of Sabertooth had been completely and utterly eclipsed.
For the rest of the kingdom, the day's events were over. But for Finn, the sun was just beginning to set, and the true hunt was about to begin.
Before he returned to the hotel, he needed to acquire more power.
---
By the way, after this, it will be the world of JJK, okay? Look foward to it since it has been a while.