Fairy Tail: The Uncrowned King of Magic

Chapter 149: Chapter 149

Marshall and Lucy split up.

Lucy’s group headed toward the island’s only settlement, the so-called Demon Village, while Marshall remained within the Moon Drip ruins to examine Deliora.

The demon was enormous.

Even frozen solid, its body towered dozens of meters high, radiating an intimidating presence.

No matter the world, sheer size carried weight.

Makarov’s favored Giant Magic was famous precisely because transforming into a giant could produce overwhelming destructive power.

For reasons of his own, Marshall had quietly raised his Transformation Magic—or more accurately, his body-manipulation branch of it—to Level Two.

He could now freely alter his overall size.

At maximum, he could transform into a small giant roughly ten meters tall. At minimum, he could shrink himself down to about the size of a Guga.

If he wanted to enlarge or shrink individual parts of his body with precise control, however, he would probably need Level Three.

Marshall wasn’t in any hurry.

He had no intention of wasting Inspiration points on it, so he had simply been practicing the spell slowly whenever he had time.

In any case, even at his largest, he still couldn’t approach Deliora’s size.

The demon’s reputation clearly wasn’t exaggerated.

According to Ultear, her mother Ur had once been an exceptionally powerful Mage, nearly comparable to a Wizard Saint, yet even she had failed to defeat Deliora directly.

Marshall estimated that Ur’s magic power back then had probably been somewhere around his current level—perhaps eighty to ninety thousand.

Unfortunately, Ice-Make was a poor matchup against something like Deliora, whose strength obviously centered around an extraordinarily powerful physical body.

Ur might have attacked for hours without properly breaking through its defenses.

Thinking about it that way...

Ultear and Lyon were quite a pair.

Neither of them was even as strong as Ur had been back then, yet they had cheerfully spent years trying to release the exact demon she had sacrificed herself to seal.

One had to admire their complete lack of fear for their own lives.

If Natsu and Gray were a pair of reckless idiots, then Ultear and Lyon certainly weren’t losing by much.

Without Marshall here to cover for them, he estimated the chances of this entire group getting wiped out at roughly ninety-nine percent.

Marshall sighed internally.

’I really am far too kind.’

He made a decision.

If he didn’t obtain enough worthwhile research material from this trip, he was at least going to make Sherry promise to visit Fairy Tail someday as compensation.

Then his attention returned to the frozen demon.

"There’s something else sealed inside this ice."

Marshall withdrew his hand from the enormous block containing Deliora.

Lyon immediately looked over.

"Something else? What do you mean?"

"I can sense magical traces that are different from Ice Magic."

Marshall studied the frozen mass.

"Demons use Curses, not ordinary Magic, so that magical presence shouldn’t belong to Deliora."

"There may be something else hidden inside the ice."

Lyon’s pupils contracted.

He suddenly became agitated.

"Could it be... Ur?"

Ultear also raised her head.

Behind Zalty’s mask, something complicated flashed through her eyes.

"I don’t think so."

Marshall shook his head.

"If Ur somehow still exists, then she should already be this entire mass of ice."

"Iced Shell converts the caster’s own body into ice. In other words, this ice itself is Ur."

"That part shouldn’t be in doubt."

Lyon clenched his fists.

He said nothing more, but Marshall could easily hear what he was thinking.

[Even so... then at least we should give Ur her freedom.]

[She shouldn’t remain sealed together with this damned demon forever.]

Marshall’s opinion of Lyon improved slightly.

At least the kid had some loyalty toward his teacher.

In that respect, he had more courage than Gray, who had spent years running from his past.

His only real problem was a severe lack of self-awareness regarding his own strength.

"All right."

Marshall stepped away from the ice.

"Whatever is hidden inside, we won’t know until Moon Drip completely removes the seal."

"Judging from your progress, you might not even finish tonight."

"It’ll be tonight or tomorrow," Lyon replied. "There shouldn’t be much longer to wait."

"Then I’m going to rest."

Marshall waved lazily.

"There’s no point standing here staring at ice."

"Call me when the seal is actually broken."

By now, Lyon completely believed that Marshall shared their goal and had developed considerable respect for this mysterious powerhouse who had appeared out of nowhere.

He turned toward Sherry.

"Sherry, escort Aitei-sama."

"For the time being, follow whatever orders he gives you."

"Of course."

Sherry nodded.

"It’s all for love..."

Despite her words, a hint of disappointment appeared in her eyes.

She had always admired Lyon.

Unfortunately, Lyon had never shown any interest in her beyond treating her as a trusted subordinate.

Sherry had spent years talking about love...

Yet she still had no idea where her own love was supposed to lead.

Marshall, meanwhile, casually took her hand.... right in front of Ultear.

"Perfect."

"I’m quite interested in your Doll Play Magic, Sherry."

He smiled.

"Would you mind discussing it with me in more detail?"

Sherry’s eyes brightened immediately.

"Of course, Aitei-sama~"

The two walked away together.

Behind them, Ultear’s breathing became noticeably heavier.

For a moment, she looked as though her hair might stand on end.

’Sherry...’

’Why are you getting so friendly with my master?!’

Lyon noticed Zalty staring after Marshall with unmistakable hostility and immediately frowned.

"Zalty."

"What exactly are you planning?"

Ultear slowly turned toward him.

"You should show Aitei-sama more respect."

Lyon’s voice grew colder.

"Aitei-sama may be generous enough to tolerate your suspicious behavior, but I know you’re hiding something."

"If I discover that you mean him any harm, don’t expect me to treat you as an ally."

Ultear stared at him from behind the mask.

’Lyon, you absolute fuc—’

Her thoughts immediately dissolved into a string of profanity.

She was so angry she nearly faint!

And the worst part was that she couldn’t even openly compete for Marshall’s attention while disguised as Zalty.

Ultear made a silent vow.

She was never using this ridiculous male disguise again!

...

Meanwhile, Marshall was listening to Sherry talk about her past.

Both of her parents had been killed by Deliora.

Of her immediate family, only Sherry and a younger cousin had survived.

Her desire for revenge eventually led her to Lyon’s group.

She understood that she lacked the strength to defeat Deliora personally, so she had placed her hopes in Lyon and believed he might one day avenge everyone they had lost.

She certainly hadn’t expected someone like Marshall to suddenly appear.

Now that an overwhelmingly powerful Mage had joined them, Sherry felt more confident than ever that Deliora would finally die.

Her Magic was called Doll Play, a branch of Manipulation Magic.

Her mastery was considerably higher than Marshall’s.

Marshall himself possessed only: [Manipulation Magic LV1]

It was one of those abilities he had unlocked long ago and then barely touched because it contributed very little to his own combat strength.

Sherry, on the other hand, appeared to have reached roughly Level Three.

At that stage, she could control a wide variety of nonhuman targets—animals, plants, elemental constructs, and similar beings.

There actually wasn’t that much for Marshall and Sherry to discuss academically.

He was mostly chatting with her because she was pleasant company and her Magic interested him.

Besides, she had spent much of her life consumed by revenge and following Lyon around.

Letting her relax and talk about something she genuinely enjoyed wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

Marshall had never pretended he didn’t appreciate attractive or interesting people.

As far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with enjoying someone’s company.

While the two continued their friendly discussion, a huge rat wearing an apron suddenly came running toward them.

It was Sherry’s companion, Angelica.

"Aitei-sama!"

Sherry turned toward the giant rat.

"My partner Angelica seems to have found some outsiders in the forest."

"Should we...?"

Marshall paused.

’Already?’

Had Natsu and the others started moving this quickly?

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