FT: The Phantom Dragon Slayer Chapter 93: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons vs. Phantom Dragon (3)

Chapter 93: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons vs. Phantom Dragon (3)

"『Reverence Art: Hundred Blossoms in Turmoil!!』"

From the shattered wall, Edolas Ciel reappeared—his outfit and weapon morphing once again.

The transformation resembled my own The Knight magic, but the texture of it—its very essence—was utterly different.

He wasn’t just enhancing his equipment; he was wielding a completely separate force as if it were his own body.

Behind him bloomed thousands of weapons–swords, spears, halberds—radiating blue flame like a garden of steel flowers.

“A thousand blades rain from the sky!『Reverence Cannon — Meteoric Dominion!』”

“Wh–what the hell is that?!”

The weapons on his back shot upward toward the ceiling, glowing blue, before cascading down like a storm of blazing meteors.

Countless blades fell like rain, impossible to count or dodge.

Ciel calmly infused magic into his spear and gestured toward the man standing beside him.

“『Phantom Dragon — Reverse Scale!』”

In the midst of the storm, Ciel spun his spear.

A swirl of indigo mist burst outward, deflecting the rain of weapons with invisible gusts.

At the same time, the man he’d conjured through Materialized Illusion moved faster than the eye could follow—cutting through the barrage and smashing his fist into Edolas Ciel’s face.

But it was only another illusion.

For an instant, I thought the attack had failed again—until a voice rang out.

“Right here.”

“Gaaaaahhh!!”

The man suddenly twisted his body and delivered a flaming punch, erupting into crimson fire.

Edolas Ciel, who had been invisible just a moment ago, was struck squarely and hurled into the floor with a scream.

Seeing that, Ciel chuckled softly.

“Kufufu… I told you already, didn’t I? Your ‘Mirror Flower, Water Moon’ is broken.”

“….”

“Ahh… so you’re using that man’s Ultra Instinct, aren’t you?”

“Ultra… instinct?”

Even with his face scorched, Edolas Ciel stood unfazed, brushing off the dust.

As I listened quietly, I recalled what I had just seen.

From behind Ciel, I’d witnessed it—Edolas Ciel’s fatal strike, one that should have been unavoidable.

When his enormous blade descended, I thought it was over.

But then, beside him, mist coalesced into the form of a young man in a black coat—his pressure immense, his movements minimal yet perfect, his calm eyes seeing through everything.

Ciel had called that phenomenon Materialized Illusion.

How many such powerful beings could he manifest into reality?

As I pondered, Ciel answered before I could ask, pointing his spear toward his other self.

“『Ultra Instinct』—one of the special abilities usable only by the entity I manifested through Materialized Illusion. It allows him to sense not just what’s about to happen, but the essence of what is—and respond with instinct that surpasses thought itself.”

“So that means…”

“Yes. Even if Nightwalker conceals his presence, that instinct can still pinpoint his location effortlessly.”

Ciel’s expression was different from before—almost exhilarated.

Since summoning that illusionary warrior, he looked… alive again.

A nostalgic smile, faint tremor in his hands—like someone meeting a long-lost friend in battle.

“Kuh…!”

“Now then—why don’t you try hiding yourself again, Nightwalker?”

“Ugh…!”

“Two against one… isn’t that a bit unfair?”

“From the man who knows our fighting style? That’s a pretty weak excuse.”

“Uwooooooaaaahhhh!!”

The battlefield erupted once more—the Reverence of Edolas clashing with the Illusion of Earthland—a storm of blades, fire, and pure instinct colliding beneath the shattering heavens.

I wanted to help Ciel in his fight.

But their battle was on a level far beyond anything I could hope to step into.

Even though it was technically two against one, Edolas Ciel never backed down.

He met both Ciel and the manifested man’s strikes head-on—trading blows with precision, power, and terrifying focus.

From the ground, Ciel’s spear carved arcs of mist-infused energy, while above him, the other man soared through the air—his fists blazing, launching consecutive fiery strikes that tore through the space around them.

“Is there… even a human alive who could stop those monsters…?”

All I could do was watch—tongue-tied, awestruck—as the battle between monsters raged on.

....

Meanwhile…

“Ehhh?! A theme park?! For real?!”

“Hey… is this king even sane?”

“Looking at your face, I’d say you’d get along great with him.”

Just as Ciel had asked, we split up—each heading out to stop ETD and to convince the Exceeds.

Wendy and Charle went to Extalia, since they were the calmest of us and least likely to start a fight.

Happy left to help Gajeel.

That left the three of us—Natsu, Gray, and me**—climbing through the castle’s upper floors.

Eventually, we came face to face with something none of us had expected:

a massive amusement park built inside the royal fortress itself.

I had joked earlier that the castle was big enough to have one…

but I hadn’t expected it to actually exist.

“Mmm~ how fun~.”

“...”

“Ahh, truly delightful~. Mmm~.”

Inside the park, just past the gate, we spotted a slick-looking man riding a carousel horse, humming as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

We froze, dumbfounded at the ridiculous sight—

and then, out of nowhere, a gigantic ship swung down toward us.

“Kyaa!”

“Whoa—!”

Thankfully, a safety barrier stopped the ship just before it could crush us.

And perched atop its mast stood a boy—roughly our age—staring down with a cold glare.

“This magnificent magic power… will soon disappear from this world.”

“What…?”

“Do you even understand that feeling?”

“We’re going to claim eternal magic, no matter what it takes.”

“We’re desperate—and we won’t let anyone stand in our way.”

At his words, the man on the carousel stopped laughing and glared at us, his face twisting into something feral.

Both of them radiated killing intent.

Natsu, Gray, and I tightened our stances, ready to fight.

“Mmm~ So, will you go back to your prison? Or die right here?”

“Sugarboy, they don’t need a choice.”

“Mmm~?”

“The extraction of dragon slayer magic is complete. Once Code ETD succeeds, we won’t need you anymore. Earthland trash who don’t understand the value of magic… we’ll erase you here and now.”

“Wha—?! The ship!!”

The boy swung his staff in the air.

In response, the massive ship rose weightlessly, hovering—and then came crashing down toward us.

But just in time, Gray slammed his hands to the floor, conjuring a massive ice wall.

The ship struck it with a deafening crash, shards of frost exploding outward—but thanks to him, we all survived.

We almost died right there.

“An ice shield?!”

“We—we’re alive.”

“So this is Earthland’s magic…”

“Truly… they fight without using tools? Mmm~, this is my first time seeing something like that.”

“Huh?! His feet are on fire?!”

The enemies were visibly shaken, their eyes darting between Gray’s ice and Natsu’s flames, utterly confused.

Taking the chance, Natsu leapt high toward the boy standing on the ship’s deck, his fist blazing.

“Yaaahh!!”

“Kuhh—!!”

“Give us back our friends!”

“Your comrades will merge with Extalia’s magic and become eternal power!”

“Natsu, behind you—! …Eh?!”

A roaring sound came from behind him—a roller coaster was speeding straight toward Natsu at incredible velocity.

Before I could warn him properly, the ground beneath Gray and me suddenly began to sink, as if it had turned into a swamp.

“Wha—what the hell?!”

“The ground—!”

“Uwaaaahhh!!”

“Natsu!”

“The Hell’s Coaster runs ten times faster than a normal one thanks to magic power. Anyone who rides it for five minutes will—wait! It hasn’t even been ten seconds!!”

The boy smirked as Natsu, weak against vehicles, hung limp and dizzy on the track, the ride tossing him around.

Their mocking laughter echoed while Gray and I kept sinking deeper into the soft, sucking ground.

I stretched my hand toward solid floor—but the surface melted like mud, swallowing me even faster.

“Damn it! The more I move, the deeper I go. We’ve got to save Natsu and take those two down if we ever want to get back up there—”

“Take them down…?”

Gray’s words lit a spark in my head.

There was one way—something I’d been saving.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a silver key, etched with a pattern of phoenix feathers.

“This should do it!”

“W-wait, Lucy! Y-you—you can’t possibly—! That’s—!”

It was the key Ciel had given me right before we were separated.

A Celestial Spirit key—one he had temporarily transferred to me, just for a day, “in case you ever want to truly fight.”

Gray’s face went pale as he flailed his hands, trying desperately to stop me, but this was our only option now.

“Open! Gate of the Phoenix—Hepsiel!!”

“Lucy, noooooo!!”

The moment I called its name, the ground that had been sucking us in burst open—black rose petals spiraled upward like a storm, and Gray and I were suddenly thrown free, popping out from the pit.

The two enemies, who had been laughing at Natsu, turned their heads sharply toward us, their expressions twisting in shock as the roses kept erupting from the ground, their stems wrapped in mysterious violet light that pulsed like a heartbeat.

“W-what is this?!”

“Mmm~… Is this another kind of Earthland magic~?”

They couldn’t even move. The entire battlefield had changed—and from the center of the swirling petals, a deep, resonant cry echoed like the song of a reborn flame:

"—Rise, Hepsiel, the Phoenix of Sealing Fire."

“They’re just petals—nothing special… ugh—?!!”

“Hmm~?!!!”

The two men sneered at first when only petals flew up, but in the next instant their faces drained of color and their eyes bulged as Hepsiel’s true form appeared.

They trembled violently.

“Love & Peace~!! ♥”

“It… it came out!”

“W—whoaaaaaah!!!”

“What the hell is that?!”

“A mon—monster! No… an angel?! Is that an Earthland angel?!”

“That’s my~ policy~!! ♥”

“Hepsiel!”

“Oh my~ ♥ Today’s the cute lady’s turn to be owner~ ♥”

Hepsiel appeared in a still sleazy pose with that same oily grin, and everyone there practically screamed at the sight as if they were about to vomit.

“As your one-day owner, I command you — punish those two!”

“Aah~ ♥ Don’t use such scary words~. ♥”

“Ugh…!!”

“But those young gentlemen over there… I suddenly want to share some wonderful ‘love’ with them~~ ♡”

“D—don’t come any closer!”

....

“…..!”

“Guhhh—?!!”

“Not yet!”

“Graaah!!”

Nightwalker kept getting beat senseless by the barrage unleashed through the Materialized Illusion.

He continued countering by using Demon Enshroudment to wrap himself in new monstrous power, but it was pointless — he’d already been knocked down once before.

With Mirror Flower, Water Moon broken, he was nothing more than a stress-relief puppet to me.

“Now then, show me a real attack.”

“Waaaaaaah!”

“If you insist on only defending, then we’ll finish this in one blow.”

Nightwalker crumpled helplessly.

The fun was over. All that remained was to take his head.

Through the blazing inferno, the other “me” vanished without even a scream—and I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Guhhh…!!”

“Hm…?”

From within the massive flames of X-Burner, seven tails erupted, slicing through the air.

They speared through the illusionary projection’s head and body in a single instant.

It was too sudden—so fast that not even super-intuition could react.

The illusionary figure shattered, impaled from head to toe, and vanished into embers.

As the vast blue fire faded, a new figure stepped forth—Nightwalker, clad in black from head to toe, half his hair and face darkened like ash.

Over his shoulder hung a fox pelt, and from it spread seven golden-black tails that swayed with ominous grace.

“You took that legendary flame full on… the one that once dominated an era—yet you still stand.”

Demon Enshroudment — [Golden-Black General, Nue-Kirimaru].

“The supreme form of Kiten—the one that even the Yokai King we defeated never revealed.”

“Kh…!”

Seven tails lashed out like whips.

I barely dodged the fatal strike, but they cut into my shoulder and knee, searing pain spreading through.

Nightwalker strode forward, his blackened eyes fixed on me, his presence grim and heavy.

“Using Materialized Illusion to create that man and disrupt my wave—that was clever. But illusions have fatal weaknesses.”

I stayed silent.

“First—though an illusion, it has a body, and thus can be struck. Second—you can never create one stronger than its real counterpart. Third—if the illusion’s mind exceeds the caster’s, both are weakened. You know this, don’t you?”

“You seem very familiar with the flaws of Materialized Illusion.”

“I am you. Your power once belonged to me. I know every crack in it. But no matter how much you struggle—it’s still human power. Against the might that stands atop the inhuman, it’s meaningless. If you can’t erase your presence from my perception, I’ll just crush you head-on.”

Raising his blackened blade, Nightwalker pointed it at me.

“Stand up. I’ll use no cheap tricks. Throw everything you have at me—and die shriveled and broken.”

“Kufufufu… to think a ‘half-self’ would still have this much left in him… fine. Let’s fight seriously, then.”

His sword flashed.

I conjured a staff of mist in my left hand and met the blow—but his strength was monstrous.

This was no longer the same Kiten I had faced before.

The pressure was suffocating, a madness that threatened to consume even the abyss itself.

My knees buckled as the force drove me down.

But I refused to yield.

I raised my staff to the sky and opened the Three Gates.

“To think you’d rely on the strength of mere demons…

Fine then—face it directl

y! Behold the terror of the Three Phantom Demons!”

Three massive gates appeared in midair, tearing open the very fabric of space as my greatest familiars surged forth.

My power—commanding bound familiars—and his—wearing the bound power of devoured beings clashed at full force.

The collision shook the heavens, and the royal castle crumbled under the might of our unleashed forces.