A charred Serena falls into the sea as the very powerful explosion starts to disappear. Alex quickly swims to where Serena falls to save him. Even if he doesn't like the guy's character, it's true that Serena has risked his life fighting Acnologia so at least Alex needs to help him now.
Alex swims really fast with the help of his water magic in his mini Isobu form. He finds Serena very quickly and grabs the man. But when he grabs Serena, Alex's eyes widen seeing Serena's condition.
Serena's arms are torn, destroyed by Acnologia's powerful spells because he tried to block it with his arms. His legs are also shredded, making his flesh and bones visible. Even his head is broken in some parts like his upper skull that makes his brain visible.
There are more nasty damages all over his body, but his torso is still intact despite having some parts of the skin shredded and burnt. This is surely not a visual that can be shown in the anime because it's too gruesome.
But living in his world as a Mage whose job often involves killing, death, and more awful situations, Alex is already used to this. In fact, this is not the most gruesome sight he has ever seen. He has seen worse in his jobs.
"Tsk! He's dead."
Alex genuinely wants to save Serena from drowning. Even if the man's character is detestable and he will defect to Alvarez or any other country without a second thought to pursue his goal, it's still true that he is protecting Ishgar now.
Future problems can be handled in the future, but now Serena is protecting Ishgar, protecting Alex's friends and family from Acnologia. That's why he rushes to help Serena, but he isn't really troubled when he fails.
"Hmm? He's dead, but why do I still sense magic power from him."
Alex looks closer and realizes that he is sensing the magic power stored in the Dragon Lacrimas. After all, he senses 8 spots that emit magic power and it's not as strong as the one he felt from Serena before.
"Well, sorry about this, but you won't need them in the afterlife, right?"
Without hesitation, Alex uses his claws to rip out the Dragon Lacrimas out of Serena's chest. Serena's clothes have been destroyed by Acnologia's attack, so he doesn't need to remove them to get the Dragon Lacrimas.
He is now holding 8 small lacrima crystals of different colors in his hand. But now Alex doesn't know where to put them because he doesn't have any bag or pocket while he is in his mini Isobu form.
Suddenly, he senses some powerful magic power above the sea. As Isobu, he can see through the water very well. So he can see that the other Wizard Saints are attacking Acnologia now that Serena has been taken down.
They even use the airships' Jupiter Cannon along with the Wizard Saints' attacks. But obviously, none of them affect Acnologia. Even Serena's powerful Dragon Slayer Magic had little effects on Acnologia, not to mention these human magic spells.
Instead of hurting him, they only manage to piss him off. Alex sees Acnologia is taking a breath with his mouth, gathering the magic power from his surroundings to replenish his magic power. Then he is preparing his Dragon Roar that surely will destroy the airships.
Acnologia is preparing to shoot his Dragon Roar when a gigantic creature suddenly shoots out of the sea. Alex is transforming into a full size Isobu and propels himself out of the sea toward Acnologia using water magic to push him.
He shoots out of the water at a very high speed despite his gigantic size. Then he curls himself and rolls his body as he flies toward Acnologia, making him into a rotating gigantic spiky hard ball.
Acnologia doesn't even have time to dodge or do anything. So the rolling Isobu hits his body right from below. The sudden attack cancels Acnologia's Dragon Roar and the Dragon is now pushed away.
While being pushed, Alex is also grinding and scratching Acnologia's tough scales with Isobu's hard spikes as he rolls on Acnologia's body. Acnologia roars in pain as he tries to stop Alex, but he can't hold the rolling turtle.
This situation only lasts for a short time though because gravity is pulling Alex down again. But in that short time, Alex manages to push Acnologia back and even damages Acnologia's scales.
The scales on Acnologia's front body seems to be thinner and less durable than the ones on his back side. Alex's attack actually manages to cut through some parts of the scales. His spikes cut through those scales a little when he rolled.
"I see, physical attacks work well on him. Unlike Magic, he doesn't have immunity to physical attack. Even so, he has very tough and durable scales that aren't easy to damage. It can only cause that much damage on the thinner scales, the harder scales will be even harder to damage."
The cut wounds on Acnologia's front body aren't big and might as well be called scratches. But they are still damaged nonetheless, showing that physical attacks will work on Acnologia.
Alex is standing on the water while trying to devise a plan. Meanwhile, Acnologia seems excited again because he finally finds the 3-tailed giant creature that hurt him before fighting Zeref. Now that he takes a better look at it, he realizes that the 3-tailed giant isn't a Dragon.
But it doesn't matter to Acnologia now because even if the giant creature in front of him isn't a Dragon, it can still give him a fight. He went all the way back here because he wanted to fight this 3-tailed creature that could injure him.
"ALEX!" Makarov shouts, knowing that the giant 3-tailed turtle is Alex.
"Master, pull back with everyone. I will hold him back."
"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, ALEX! WE'LL FIGHT HIM TOO! EVEN GOD SERENA COULDN'T DO ANYTHING, SO WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER." It's Ur who shouts now.
"You can't even scratch him, so what will you guys do. Only I can damage him by using my physical power when I become a giant beast. Your magic will only strengthen him because he can eat all your spells if he wants."
Instead of helping Alex, their magic will help Acnologia instead because they'll just supply him with more magic power. It's the truth that they'll just be burdens instead of helping Alex if they fight Acnologia with him.
Without waiting for their answers, Alex transforms into the giant Chomei. The Black Dragon is surprised that the giant turtle transforms into a giant insect all of a sudden.
Then, Alex charges toward Acnologia at high speed. Their heads butt against each other, creating a shockwave that's as strong as powerful spell clashes.
As Chomei, Alex looks bigger than Acnologia. Though his body is actually at a similar size with Acnologia. It's because each of his 6 wings that actually are parts of his tails is bigger than Acnologia's wings, so he looks bigger.
They back off a bit before starting their close combat show. Acnologia swings his right claws, but Alex blocks it with his upper left claw. He can't dodge it because the energy blades created from Acnologia's claws will still hit him.
Then Alex swings his only tail that looks like a tail at Acnologia's stomach. But it's blocked by Acnologia's left leg. Acnologia blocks it while sending a left punch at Alex's chest which gets blocked by Alex's middle arms.
It was difficult for Alex to control 6 arms at the same time in the early times he could transform into Chomei. The hard part is controlling the middle arms because the upper arms are like his real arms while the lower arms are like his legs.
It took him a rather long time to adapt with his new limbs when he transformed into Chomei, but now it feels natural to control them. Though he still feels strange that even with 6 arms he still doesn't have any fingers as Chomei.
Alex and Acnologia continue their hand-to-hand combat in the sky. Both of them are really skillful in close combat. As giant creatures, their attacks are surely very powerful, but they are also very fast, which is very surprising to the onlookers.
"H-how can they move so fast when they are that big?" Wolfheim can't look away from the battle.
"Makarov, you really did a great job hiding such a powerful Mage. Seeing him, I don't have the confidence that I can defeat him even in my prime." Warrod smiles because he's happy seeing a younger generation of the Guild he formed has this much power and has a great character.
"N-no, I never tried to hide it. I don't even know that he is this strong." Even Makarov is surprised.
"What? You never saw him using this much power? How about you, Ur? I heard you are his teacher." Warrod is a little surprised by Makarov's answer.
"When he was a child, yes." Ur also has a shocked expression on her face.
"So you also don't know how strong he has become, huh? That means he hid his power really well." Hyberion also comments on it.
"Or he just never has the need to show his true power until now." Jura joins in.
Whatever the case is, everyone now agrees that Alex is a great asset for Ishgar's future, especially because the Gods of Ishgar are getting old and the strongest of them seem to have died.
So losing him will be a very great loss for Ishgar, but they can't even help him now because as Alex said, their magic will only strengthen Acnologia. They can only wish that even if Alex can't win, then he will stay alive, for the continent's future.
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Ch. 206. Gifts from Future