A deathly silence fell.
At that mont, it was as if the entire forest had been robbed of sound by the azure light that had just erased everything in its path. There were no birds, no wind.
Even the most ordinary sound of breathing seed to have stopped under the weight of the shock.
Every eye stared blankly into the enormous circular crater.
That place had once been a grand eting hall, a symbol of authority among the great guilds.
Now, all that remained was a gigantic depression dozens of ters wide.
The soil at the bottom had been subjected to such extre heat and magical pressure that it had taken on a semi-transparent, glass-like texture, reflecting a cold, desolate gleam beneath the moonlight.
Just as the na Shane had called out suggested, it had truly beco a "stainless lake," smooth as a mirror.
And at the very center of that glassy "lakebed" lay a blackened figure.
Jose Porla.
This man, who stood at the peak of Fiore's magical world, who normally wore luxurious robes and carried himself with a sinister, arrogant air as one of the Ten Wizard Saints, was now sprawled on the ground like a ruined rag.
The ominous magic he had prided himself on had long since vanished. Even his beloved tall hat was nowhere to be seen. All that remained was his charred, tattered body.
"Cough… cough…"
A weak, ragged cough broke the silence.
Jose's cracked lips trembled as he tried to push himself up, but the mont he exerted any strength, a piercing agony tore through him, making his entire body convulse.
His eyes were bloodshot, his vision blurred, and his consciousness teetered on the edge of collapse.
"I lost? I… lost?"
"Not to Makarov, but to so brat from his guild I'd never even heard of?"
"How is that possible…? I'm one of the Ten Wizard Saints… I'm the master of Phantom Lord, the strongest guild in the kingdom!"
The thought had only just surfaced when the sheer absurdity of reality shattered it to pieces.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Light, deliberate footsteps echoed from the edge of the "lake."
The sound followed the smooth slope of the crater wall, descending one step at a ti toward the bottom.
asured, steady, rhythmic—and every step felt like a heavy drumbeat pounding directly onto Jose's already shattered heart.
Jose raised his head with difficulty and looked through blood-blurred eyes at the figure approaching from against the light.
The twin black spears in the boy's hands were gone now. The dark, monstrous dragon wings had been withdrawn as well.
His blue armor was slightly damaged, traces left from fighting through the sea of ghost soldiers earlier, but aside from that—
He was completely unscathed.
Shane stopped three steps in front of Jose.
He did not strike a victor's pose, nor laugh at him the way Jose had mocked him earlier.
He simply stood there, quietly looking down at the man who had once been so full of himself, his black eyes calm and still.
That calmness humiliated Jose more than any cruel taunt could have.
It was as if defeating one of the Ten Wizard Saints wasn't so glorious triumph worth celebrating at all, but rely the casual brushing away of dust.
"You…"
Jose's voice ca out like two pieces of coarse sandpaper grinding against each other.
In the end, he failed to complete the sentence.
His pride forced him to try to draw on what little magic he had left. Veins bulged along his skin as he tried to get back on his feet and continue fighting.
"Give it up. You can't stand."
Shane finally spoke, his tone flat.
"What nonsense are you talking about…? I haven't lost!"
Jose gritted his teeth and refused to admit defeat.
He tried to brace himself with his right hand. He tried to push with his right leg, desperate to prove to Shane that he still had strength left to fight.
But—
When his mind issued the command, all that answered was a hollow emptiness.
"?"
Jose froze.
He twisted his stiff neck downward.
In that instant, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
There was nothing there.
His right sleeve and right pant leg had gone limp and empty. There was… nothing left inside them.
At the smooth cuts, the flesh had been carbonized instantly by the heat. There wasn't even any blood.
"You lost."
Shane delivered the verdict calmly.
Just as he had said from the start, he had shown no rcy at all. He had taken one arm and one leg from the Wizard Saint.
"..."
Jose's voice died in his throat.
At last, his fractured mory returned.
He finally rembered what had happened.
At the final mont, he had realized the danger and tried to move. But that brief hesitation at the start had allowed Shane to lock onto him completely.
He had been forced to take that azure blow head-on.
And even though he had activated every defensive thod he had—
Against that overwhelming, indescribable force, everything had been as fragile as paper.
His right arm and right leg had only been brushed by the edge of that pillar of light, and they had been instantly erased.
"I… really lost?"
Jose muttered in disbelief, infinite regret rising in his heart.
Why had he underestimated him?
Why had he been so arrogant?
Why hadn't he moved the mont he felt danger?
If he had… would the outco have been different?
But there was no such thing as "if."
Regret coiled around his heart like a venomous snake. Jose's face went dark, and all the spirit drained out of him. He looked like a walking corpse.
Seeing that his opponent had completely lost the will to fight, Shane turned away.
He had no interest in taking Jose's life.
Yes, Jose had started it. But he still had an officially recognized identity—he was not only a guild master, but one of the Ten Wizard Saints.
Killing a mage who could no longer resist, in front of all those witnesses, was a scandalous burden. Even Makarov, protective as he was, wouldn't be able to carry that one for him.
Besides—
Shane glanced back once at the broken figure on the ground.
Losing an arm and a leg would cripple Jose's strength. Whether he could even keep his title as one of the Ten Wizard Saints was another matter entirely.
For soone as proud as Jose, soone who valued reputation above life itself, falling from the clouds into the mud would make every day of survival more painful than death.
That lesson would indeed stay with him for the rest of his life.
Shane had barely taken a few steps.
"Pfft—!"
A dull sound ca from behind him.
Overwheld by rage and the collapse of his injuries, Jose coughed up a mouthful of blood and went limp on the spot. The light in his eyes quickly faded as he fell into a deep coma brought on by magical backlash.
Only then—
From the slope in the distance, the guild masters who had witnessed the entire battle finally broke free from their petrified silence.
Gulp.
Soone swallowed hard, and the sound felt unnaturally loud in the quiet night.
"You've got to be kidding…"
"That was Jose… that Jose… the man who could command an army of ghost soldiers, the one even the kingdom feared…"
"And he just… got taken out?"
"And in a single blow…"
An older guild master leaned on the person beside him, his voice trembling.
"What kind of spell was that final attack? An ultimate spell?"
"It was like a heavenly lake collapsing… blue light falling from the sky… How beautiful…"
Soone was still dazed from the lingering afterimage of that light that had pierced heaven and earth, their expression drifting sowhere between awe and disbelief.
"Do you know who he is?"
"I think… he's Fairy Tail's newly promoted S-Class mage? They call him… 'Dragonwing' Shane, I think?"
Soone with slightly better information answered uncertainly.
"Dragonwing?"
One of the older masters looked at the figure standing beneath the moonlight and slowly shook his head.
"That na doesn't fit at all."
"Those silver-white, stainless locks shining like moonlight… and that clear azure magic, as though it could wash away every impurity in the world…"
Watching the boy as he slowly walked out of the crater, soone unconsciously murmured:
"Shane the Stainless Azurefall…"
A nickna never misses the mark, even when a given na does.
Sotis, more than one's actual na, a title born from shock and miracle better captures the soul and essence of a mage.
That na seed to carry a magic of its own as it spread quickly through the crowd.
"Stainless Azurefall…"
People repeated it under their breath, their eyes fixed on the boy's retreating figure.
In that mont, the old title of "Dragonwing" quietly vanished.
In its place, a new na rose into the night sky.
~~~
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