Chapter 697: 697
"I can’t give it to you!" Kagura placed her hand firmly on her sword’s hilt, her brows knitting together. "That bouquet is for my brother!"
Suddenly, the air grew heavy. Gravity Magic burst forth, pressing down on everyone nearby. Erza, who had just leapt into the air, was forced back down, her armored boots sinking two deep craters into the floor.
"Gravity Magic?" Erza gasped, turning her head in surprise. Simon’s little sister... her strength was terrifying!
Simon: "..."
At once, he regretted letting Kagura join in this madness.
The moment Kagura unleashed her power, not only Erza but every girl nearby was dragged down.
Lisanna, Evergreen, and even Mickey’s poor bird Little blue, though they had just wriggled free from Aries’s wool, were smashed to the ground with a loud thud.
Little blue lay dazed and twitching from the impact, while Lisanna and Evergreen exchanged stunned glances, recalling another enemy who had once wielded crushing gravity on Tenrou Island.
The power wasn’t on the same level as that man’s... but still, the memory was enough to chill their blood.
Millianna, however, puffed out her chest proudly. "Kagura-chan hasn’t even gotten serious yet, meow!"
Clang!
A metal chain above snapped, and the massive chandelier hanging from the roof was yanked down by Kagura’s gravity. It plummeted with a deafening whoosh.
Lucy and Levy scrambled out of the way, hearts hammering, their hair standing on end as the chandelier smashed into the floor, shaking the entire cathedral.
Lucy pounded the ground with her fist, tears pricking her eyes. "This is too much! Isn’t this just supposed to be a bouquet toss? How did it turn into a life-or-death battle?!"
"There’s no way we can compete with monsters like this!"
Levy, however, huffed in reply. "Lucy-chan, you literally summoned one of the Twelve Zodiac Spirits just now. You don’t have the right to complain."
"Th-that was..." Lucy faltered, guilt spreading across her face. Then she froze, blinking in disbelief. "Wait. Did Levy just sass me back?!"
Amid the chaos, Kagura leapt through her own gravity field as if it were nothing. Her expression softened, and a rare smile touched her lips. "Got it."
The bouquet was right above her fingers.
"I won’t lose to Gravity Magic again!" Wendy suddenly roared, determination blazing in her eyes like a true Fairy Tail mage. "Sky Dragon’s Roar!"
She shoved aside the older girls pinning her down, straining against the crushing force, and released a whirlwind that blasted the bouquet even higher. The powerful gust sent Kagura flying past, her chance slipping away.
"You said you weren’t going to compete... You’re impossible." Carla sighed, but spread her wings anyway. "Fine, I’ll help."
She darted upward, talons reaching, yet somehow, she missed. The bouquet veered strangely in midair, as though it had a will of its own, and curved around her.
"What’s going on?!" Carla rubbed her eyes. A faint shimmer drifted in front of her, a translucent spirit clutching the bouquet, soaring through the air.
Her fur bristled. This was... Urban Legend Magic!
A name immediately came to mind. "Miss Chico?"
Indeed, a shy figure stood on the ground, smiling faintly as she stretched out her hands. "Spirits can fly, and they aren’t afraid of gravity. Now, come here, my little one..."
Chico was a guildmate so low-key she was often forgotten, but Carla recognized her instantly. Mostly because she and Wendy still owed Chico’s family rent.
"Too naïve, Chico!"
Kinana suddenly appeared right behind her, both hands raised above Chico’s head.
Before Chico could react, something unbelievably soft pressed against the back of her skull. She froze, eyes rolling back as waves of psychic damage overwhelmed her.
For a twenty-eight-year-old woman who prided herself on her maturity, being dragged into a game with Levy and Wendy was mortifying enough. To be taken out like this... it was devastating.
Perhaps part of Chico’s collapse was that she didn’t want to be reminded of painful memories.
Either way, in her distraction, the tiny spirit instantly vanished, and the bouquet, losing its support, plummeted, drifting off its original path.
Kinana had no idea how outrageous her sneak attack had been. She stumbled forward in a panic, trying to chase after the falling bouquet.
"Take Over: Machine Soul!"
A crimson blur streaked past her. Jenny Realight surged forward, intercepting the bouquet’s descent.
Her golden curls gleamed as she posed dramatically, clad in a revealing battle suit. Her arms and calves gleamed with mechanical plating, the rest of her body radiating elegance and confidence.
"To use my battle form on such an occasion... But Mirajane’s bouquet should belong to me, the other woman here who wields Take Over magic!"
"I won’t let you have it!" ×2
Erza and Juvia slammed into Jenny from both sides, shoulder-checking her like battering rams.
Crack!
Jenny’s armored plating shattered. She spun like a cannonball straight toward the stage, directly at Rhodes and Mira.
Since she was an invited guest and not an enemy, Rhodes instinctively tried to move and catch her. But Mira only smiled knowingly, hugged his waist, spun him half a step aside, and let Jenny go sailing past.
Bam!
Jenny hit the back wall and stuck there like a dart.
Rhodes stared blankly. ’What happened to sisterhood?!’
Mira soothed him with a wink. "Don’t worry. Jenny’s Machine Soul armor isn’t that fragile."
Rhodes glanced from Jenny, half-buried in the wall, back to Mira. "My dear Mrs. Rhodes, doesn’t your conscience sting even a little saying that?"
’The armor literally shattered!’
"Oh my, oh my~ You just have to trust Erza and Juvia to know their limits." Mira playfully tapped her cheek, utterly unbothered.
Rhodes sighed inwardly. ’Trusting Fairy Tail mages to "hold back" in a fight is like trusting a pig to climb a tree.’
Sure enough, Erza and Juvia were already red-eyed and deadly serious.
Erza had re-equipped into her freshly repaired Sea Empress Armor, her trident gleaming like a storm-tossed wave.
Juvia had fully liquefied, her entire body surging with water like a raging tide.
The green of Erza’s armor clashed with the deep blue of Juvia’s water-body, and their duel erupted in bursts of power that forced every other girl to back off immediately.
But Kagura did not retreat. She drew her great blade still in its sheath and waded into the fray. With sharp precision, she actually gained the upper hand for a brief moment against both Erza and Juvia.
"I absolutely must claim it!" Erza cried fiercely, her trident crackling with magic.
"You may be strong," Juvia shouted back, her water-surge slamming forward, "but for Gray-sama’s sake, Juvia will not lose!"
Kagura’s eyes narrowed like a hawk. "I’ve already decided... This bouquet will go to my brother!"
Simon, standing off to the side, rubbed his forehead and muttered weakly: "Honestly, I don’t want it that badly. You could just give it to Erza."
And so, the "battlefield" narrowed. With Erza, Juvia, and Kagura clashing like titans, no one else in the hall could even dream of intervening.
The clash of magic between the three shook the entire cathedral. The carpet along the flower path ripped apart in jagged lines, the floral arrangements on either side were blasted into petals, and tables and chairs far in the back toppled over as if caught in a storm.
Lucy and Levy clung to each other, trembling in fear. Evergreen and Laki threw up quick barriers to shield themselves from flying debris, while Wendy buried her face against Carla’s fur, the two of them cowering in a corner.
Jenny, who had only just pried herself out of the wall, stomped her heel in frustration. "Mira! Aren’t you going to stop them?!" She looked ready to dive back in, but even she wasn’t reckless enough to step into that whirlpool of chaos.
Boom!
The bouquet, battered but still intact, came spinning down toward the battlefield like a comet. The three rivals, Erza, Juvia, and Kagura, simultaneously surged with power, the ground beneath them cracking like a spiderweb as they leapt skyward one last time.
All three hands stretched desperately for the prize. For a heartbeat, their fingertips grazed the bouquet’s trailing ribbon, then an unseen shockwave burst outward. The three girls were blasted apart, flung in different directions.
Juvia and Kagura gasped, watching in horror as their hands slipped away, their goal torn from them at the last instant.
Only Erza’s iron grip remained. Her fingers closed around the bouquet’s ribbon, and her face lit up with uncharacteristic delight. For a moment, she could almost taste victory.
But the bouquet had been through too much abuse.
In Erza’s desperate gaze, the ribbon came undone. The neat bow unraveled, the wrappings burst apart, and the flowers scattered in every direction.