A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

I love hearing that, especially the words "the strongest"!

"Who says that just because I'm the strongest I can't be afraid of dying?"

As Kira spoke, he walked towards the far right passage, which was pitch black inside. Fortunately, although he couldn't use fire to light his way like Natsu, he had a Light Crystal with him. He glanced back and saw Winter following behind him.

"The more you have, the more afraid you are of losing it; similarly, the stronger a person is, the more afraid they are of dying." Kira said, spouting nonsense he'd copied from somewhere, "Fear is one of the normal human emotions, and being afraid of death is not shameful."

"Truly remarkable people are those who dare to face their fears. To confront fear is to confront one's own weaknesses; to overcome fear is to overcome one's own weaknesses. Only in this way can one continuously improve and become stronger!"

Is this something the former chairman or Gildarts said? Kira can't quite put his finger on it, lacking that soul-stirring impact, but the meaning is there.

"If you're afraid of nothing like this, you'll die before anyone else!"

Winter seemed to understand but not quite: "Confront your fear?"

Feeling he had built up the emotions sufficiently, Kira asked again, "Now tell me, are you scared?"

“I’m not afraid!” Winter answered decisively.

Hey...girl, you're making it hard for me to respond...

After a two-second silence, Kira spoke again: "Ahem... Not bad, it seems you've already faced your fear and conquered it. You're a promising student!"

"Really?" Winter squinted and tilted his head, looking at Kira with suspicion, until Kira wondered if there was something on his face before he suddenly realized, "What you just said... weren't they... some cool lines?"

Doesn't asking that question imply that I wasn't handsome at all when I said it? This girl has absolutely no emotional intelligence! Humph!

Never mind, she's still just a child, and she grew up deep in the mountains, so it's normal that she doesn't understand...

Kira took a deep breath and forced a stiff smile: "No... it's not something cool. I'm a magic teacher at the orphanage in town. I occasionally go there to teach those kids. Those are just the words in the regular textbooks."

"Aren't you a mage? You're also a part-time teacher? Did you write these lines yourself?"

"No, it was originally said by some middle-aged man, and then a handsome teacher wrote them into a book."

……

At the end of the passage was a large ice chamber, completely covered in frost and chilling to the bone. Even Winter, a girl who had lived in the snow-capped mountains since childhood and was quite resistant to the cold, felt a bit cold.

"It's so cold here!"

Kira pressed his hands to his body and rubbed them up and down rapidly through his expensive clothes, trying to generate some heat to keep warm, showing no trace of the demeanor of an S-class mage.

In contrast, Winter was much more stable; although he was also trembling a bit, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

"Is this the lair of those demons?"

"Probably so..."

Kira entered the ice chamber and looked around, but found no one else there, only a huge ice sculpture.

With a fierce glint in his eyes, bulging muscles, bulging veins, and sharp fangs and claws, Kira was filled with a string of derogatory terms: big, ugly, fierce, and evil.

This is the sea monster they want to resurrect. Although it is a bit bigger, it looks about the same as Deliora on Galna Island!

No, we can't think like that. Deliora was only sealed for 10 years, while the Sea Demon King in front of us was sealed by Absolute Freeze for dozens of times longer than Deliora, not to mention that he was sealed by the Ice God for hundreds of years before that...

The difference in their strength is like heaven and earth! Compared to the evil aura emanating from the demon king before them, Deliora's magic is like the light of a firefly.

They explored the ice chamber one after the other, the ice blocks under their feet making a 'crackling' sound under gravity.

Weren't there supposed to be people in every passageway? Has Natsu's nose stopped working? Or...?

A strange sense of crisis welled up inside me...

"careful!"

Without time to think, Kira retreated swiftly as if he had some kind of Observation Haki that allowed him to foresee the future, and in doing so, he also grabbed Winter in his hand.

Click click click!

A series of ice spikes protruded, like Gray's Ice Spring, filling the entire floor of the ice chamber.

"I knew it! Don't you guys all use the same attack strategy?" Kira started his taunting mode. "Afraid to fight head-on and resort to sneak attacks? That's not good!"

On the ice surface, ice blocks rose up and slowly formed the shape of a middle-aged man. Judging from his appearance alone, he was the kind of demon who had maxed out magic but not strength or stamina, the same type as Kira.

Kira warily observed his opponent, who looked about the same age as Gildarts, but being a demon, Kira guessed that he was probably around the same age as the second generation.

"I am Kira, and you are the leader of these demons?"

"My name is Ace. You're the mage from Fairy Tail? You're the one who defeated Krowy?"

Ace, that name doesn't sound like someone who uses ice, but rather someone who uses fire or light.

"I did defeat her! So what? Want to avenge her?" Kira provoked again.

Perhaps it was this irritating attitude that worked, as Ice Demon Ace raised his aura higher and higher, bringing with it terrifying pressure. Winter was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and almost knelt down.

At that moment, she began to understand what Kira had just said: to face fear and overcome it.

At this moment, Kira was glad that he was facing him. This kind of magic power was already half as strong as Gildarts. If the other three had encountered him, they would not have been able to defeat him without using cheat codes. Moreover, it would take all three of them to fight together to achieve a draw.

Knowing that the enemy was difficult to deal with, Kira gathered his magic power in his hand, activated his Word of Power magic to the maximum, and stepped forward to shield Winter behind him.

How do we fight this? The opponent in front of us is an ice demon. Not only is its magic power high, but it can also transform into elements. It's practically equivalent to a Marine Admiral. Think about it, when has Aokiji ever suffered a defeat? He fought a magma monster for ten days and ten nights?

No way, the lava here isn't very dangerous. Even that weak old man from the Kingdom Knights can take a bath in it. Lava alone definitely won't be enough to beat this guy.

What should we use then? Gravity magic? Rock magic?

These are the two I'm most familiar with and use most often, but neither of them has much effect on ice. Even if earth counters water, it's not used this way. So, do I still have to use fire?

However, using fire is merely a matter of mutual restraint. After liquefying into water, the opponent still has the upper hand, and the opponent also has environmental advantages and a geographical advantage, which is very unfavorable to oneself.

Kira's mind raced as he considered ways to defeat his enemy. The elemental counteraction might not be effective enough, so he had to resort to rule-based magic.

When it comes to magic in this area, Kira's first thought is the Arc of Time. On Galna Island, Ultear used this to easily defeat Gray.

Although I can't achieve the level of the Arc of Time, I still know some basic time magic. I can use aging magic first, and then apply acceleration magic on top of it. Maybe that can achieve a similar effect.

"Ice Cannon!" "Ice Spear!" "Ice Falcon!" "Ice Monster!"

The opponent unleashed four ice spells in a row—not just in terms of appearance, but in a way that surpassed mere appearance!

Both the speed of casting spells and the stability of the formation are far superior to those of Gray and Leon.

As expected of a demon who has lived for a hundred years, judging from this one move alone, this guy's mastery of ice magic is far beyond what Gray can match.

But Kira wasn't one to be trifled with either, and he immediately unleashed his flames!

"Burn!" "Oxygen!" "Oil!" "Dry!"

Four spells returned in kind!

With the enhancement of magic, Word Magic has effects that surpass those of ordinary magic, and more importantly, they can be combined!

Scorching flames rise, and with the help of abundant oxygen and oil, the oncoming ice melts at a visible speed. At the same time, drying magic is used to dehumidify, creating advantageous terrain and seizing the ground advantage!

Chapter 78 Magma and Ice

Although we've decided to use time-like magic to deal with it, it's not the right time yet. Before that, we need to use fire magic to weaken the opponent's ice.

The intense collision between ice and fire generated a large amount of water vapor, gradually blurring the vision of both sides.

Suddenly! Dozens of sharp arrows pierced through the hazy veil from different directions at the same time!

"Fire Arrow"

The magic uses fire to create a wide-range arrow attack, inflicting attributes such as heat, speed, and destruction, and is highly lethal. The purpose is not to cause much damage, but to accurately locate the opponent in such an environment!

But the opponent was obviously not an idiot. In this situation, any mage with a little combat experience would know to use an area-of-effect attack, let alone a cunning and treacherous demon.

The floor of the Ice Chamber was filled with water from Kira's fire magic, but now, under the control of Ice Demon Ace, it has frozen back into spikes, filling the entire floor of the Ice Chamber!

That move again! Similar to Ice Spring, it's true that one trick can be all you need! It's effective for surprise attacks, though. If it were me, I might do the same thing.

The fire arrows falling from the sky collided with the ice that rose from the ground again in mid-air, making a 'sizzling' sound. The powerful flames continuously melted the ice, which also disappeared completely under the freezing of the ice.

Both attempts were evenly matched, but Kira wasn't in a hurry. As things stood, his fire magic was still competitive, so he decided to hold back for now.

Kira's fire magic and Natsu's fire magic are fundamentally different.

Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer Magic is a burning magic. He can use his own soul, emotions, and so on as fuel to burn everything to ashes. This magic even has an effect on the magic itself.

Simply put, it's a bit idealistic; to put it more bluntly, it means that cheating doesn't even need to consider its rationality.

Kira's flames, created using Word Magic, are magic that directly uses the "True Name of Fire," resulting in pure flames and extreme heat!

Compared to Kira, Kira's magic may be used less in actual combat, but it is much more popular. In other words, it loses in terms of applicability but wins in terms of popularity!

This situation is similar to that of Gray and the Winter General of the Twelve Shields; one has an ice form, while the other is pure ice magic.

In the setting, General Winter's ice is "capable of freezing everything," but Gray's method of defeating him is to "create ice of the same nature using the shape of ice," which is completely cheating.

However, as is well known in the Fairy Tail world, a Destroyer-type magic user can permanently acquire the status of another attribute once they have consumed magic of that attribute. Examples include Natsu's Lightning Flame Dragon Mode and Gajeel's Iron Shadow Dragon Mode. Therefore, it's not so difficult to accept that Gray used Ice Destroyer Magic to consume Winter General's ice and then created ice of the same attribute.

Returning to the present, although the wide-range magical attacks canceled each other out, they allowed both sides to sense the opponent's location. The next move would be an even more powerful single-target attack.

"Pillar of Fire"

"Ice Explosion"

boom!!!

Two powerful explosions of different properties instantly pierced through the solid mountain, and the immense destructive force shattered the ceiling of the ice chamber, revealing the icy and snowy landscape outside.

Fortunately, there was no snow or wind at this time, otherwise Kira's battle would have been even more difficult.

Winter, who was standing to the side, was completely dumbfounded. She had expected that the two of them would be very strong, but she did not expect them to be this strong.

As the two began their battle, she unhesitatingly accepted the soul of the water demon Walter, transforming herself into a half-demon.

In the two subsequent clashes between ice and fire, she barely managed to cast a water barrier on herself and was unable to intervene. Fortunately, with the blessing of the water demon, she was also able to barely transform into an elemental form, so although the water barrier was not very strong, she was basically unharmed.

"I can't believe I was just saying I wouldn't be a burden. I guess I was too confident."

Could she help? Ten minutes ago, she would have confidently said yes, but now, Winter was unsure.

Ultimately, although she wanted to end the responsibilities of the Esisny family, she also knew that she couldn't rush in recklessly at this time. It would be a minor issue if she couldn't help at all, but if she distracted Kira and caused a defeat, the problem would be much bigger.

The fire pillars and ice explosions did not achieve their intended purpose, but instead brought the battlefield outside, perhaps a testament to the unspoken understanding between the two.

Inside the ice chamber, neither fire nor ice can play a sufficient role.