401. Distraction

Acnologia looks angry now because of Larcade's indecent spell. Ben watches in amusement as Acnologia gets angry at the Spriggan. He doesn't want to bother them, so he gets away quite far and erases his presence.

Then, Acnologia dashes to attack Larcade, but then a big explosion happens on his face. Neinhart uses his Blast Magic to make the explosion in order to stop Acnologia. But obviously, it doesn't affect him because it's just normal magic.

Acnologia arrives in front of Larcade and sends a claw attack. But his attack is stopped by Irene's hand and Dimaria's sword. Irene's hand has a lot of scales now because she releases some of her Dragon Slayer power.

It makes Acnologia interested, but he is still targeting Larcade. The blonde man doesn't just stay silent though. He makes a bright white spear using his White Arts and shoots it toward Acnologia's face.

The spear hits Acnologia's face, or so they thought. He is actually catching it using his teeth and crushing it like a cracker while grinning. Then Acnologia opens his mouth and a bright blue light appears there.

"CAREFUL! IT'S HIS-," shouts Irene, but Acnologia already shoots his Dragon Roar before she finishes.

His Dragon Roar isn't as big as when he was in his Dragon Form. But it is still very powerful because after Larcade evades it narrowly, the beam hits Vistarion's wall and creates a massive explosion. It is very big that it decimates a very wide area and erases it forever.

Ben keeps observing Acnologia to know more about his power. Now that they are on a more equal level, Ben can judge Acnologia's power better than before. But he still hasn't seen much of Acnologia's power, so he needs to observe it more.

His observation time gets disturbed by another annoyance though. Ben suddenly catches a black orb full of death aura that flew at him. He catches it with a hand that has been covered by his Sun Dragon Slayer Magic because he doesn't want his hand to erode.

"What do you want, Zeref?" asks Ben annoyedly while crushing the black orb.

"I have a proposal, Ben. What if we work together for a while to defeat Acnologia? With our combined power, we can surely bring him down. We can finish our business after that," says Zeref.

Ben looks serious for a while and rubs his chin while thinking. Or so it seems because he suddenly laughs quite loudly, but not loud enough to take Acnologia's attention. He looks at Zeref with an expression of pity.

"It must be the joke of this century. You want us to work together? Hah, you must be high right now. Why should I work together with you of all people? Do you think I can't defeat Acnologia on my own? Don't put me at the same level as you who have been stagnant for 400 years," says Ben while grinning widely.

"Besides, I know you are planning to stab me in the back. So why should I join hands with someone who wants me dead? Be smarter, Zeref," says Ben while looking down at Zeref as they stand very close.

Ben is taller than Zeref, so he can literally look down on Zeref. He likes irritating his enemies and Zeref is no exception. Right now, the Emperor is looking at him with a calm face, but it is clear that he is pissed at Ben.

"If that's what you want, then let's settle this immediately. I've told them what to do so they will be able to hold on against Acnologia," says Zeref.

Zeref was the one planning this scenario to distract Acnologia from fighting the Spriggans. Larcade's magic affects one's feelings and even if it wasn't perfect, it has affected Acnologia. Zeref never won against Acnologia, but he surely knows the Black Dragon more than anyone else, and he knows how to make Acnologia angry.

He planned it to shift Acnologia's attention from Ben so that he can focus on fighting Ben. Right now, Ben is a bigger threat than Acnologia for Zeref because other than massive raw power, Ben has a big brain to be used. So he needs to face Ben when his power is still full.

Ben & Zeref stare at each other for a while before they suddenly disappear. Acnologia finally realizes their disappearance, but then he ignores it. He is now more interested in fighting Irene who he calls the Mother of Dragon Slayers.

"Is the first Dragon Slayer this weak? Come on, show me your true self or you will regret it," says Acnologia while transforming into a Dragon.

Irene sighs for a while before she suddenly transforms into her Dragon form. "Regret? It won't be me who regrets this. August, what are you waiting for? All of you too, it's time. We received the beating from that kid just for this," says Irene.

August suddenly transforms, activating his battle form. His skin becomes dark red, his hair flares upward, and some gold circles & lines appear on his body. August's massive reserve of magic power is fully released now.

Other than August, Dimaria also starts her transformation. She transforms into a God using her Take Over: God Soul. The God she transforms into is Chronos, the God of Time. That's why she has the power to stop time in an area.

Wall also transforms into his Assault Mode which makes him look more like a robot. He has many weapons on his body and full body armor. In this mode, he looks more menacing, although he will just make Ben wants to research his technology.

The others don't have any transformation, but they are releasing their full magic power that they've been saved. They almost went all out before when fighting Ben, but Zeref stopped them after he realized Ben was planning to call Acnologia here.

"I will take him head-on, you guys just need to keep attacking him. Remember, always use your strong magic attacks. He is not immune to magic, he just has very high resistance," says Irene before shooting a scarlet Dragon Roar at Acnologia.

Acnologia counters it using his own Dragon Roar, causing a massive impact upon contact. Their Dragon Roars are quite equal and after a while, they cancel each other. Irene has a strong attack and doesn't lose despite facing Acnologia.

Brandish tries to reduce Acnologia's size, but he doesn't get smaller even a single bit. She feels like she is trying to compress the hardest object in the world. So she stops and chooses to use the earth and air to attack Acnologia by compressing & expanding them which makes it looks like a big explosion.

The other Spriggans also start attacking Acnologia. They are bombarding him with attacks strong enough to destroy a mountain in a short time. But the one they attack can destroy a mountain even faster and he is much tougher than something like a mountain, so their attacks don't really affect him.

These attacks still annoy Acnologia though, so he attacks back by flapping his wings. Just a flap of his wings creates many sharp magic blades that fly toward the Spriggans at high speed. They can evade or even block the blades though, they are the Spriggans, after all, the ones chosen by Zeref.

Irene then attacks Acnologia directly and starts close combat with him. She is trying to make him occupied so that the Spriggans can find gaps to attack him. They know they can't do it alone, so they need to work together very well.

Zeref has told them that even fighting Acnologia together even with him won't guarantee them to win. Not to mention fighting him individually which is equal to suicide. According to Zeref, their chance to win is slim to none, that's why they need Ben, but Ben doesn't need them.

"Your chance to win against Acnologia is far slimmer than mine and you know that clearly. Not only do I have stronger power than you guys, but I also have an advantage in magic against Acnologia. I want to see how you'll handle him without me," says Ben who has teleported to a valley along with Zeref.

"It will be easy to defeat him if you have been defeated. But it won't be easy to defeat you if he hasn't been defeated," says Zeref.

Ben is confused for a while, but then he realizes Zeref's intention and laughs. "Hahaha, how funny. You want to use my Evil Dragon God Lacrima?"

"That is the best choice to win. Even if we can't make a beast like you instantly just by using that lacrima, I can just explode it next to Acnologia. It will surely kill him & me, so this is the best option to stop all of this," says Zeref.

Ben smirks and says, "What a madness. Sorry though, I don't plan to die until my kids grow up and make their own families. You are free to die, but don't count me in."

Ben knows Zeref must have a secret card to be used against him or Zeref won't be this confident. Zeref won't confront him without preparing anything. Especially after Zeref called him a bigger threat than Acnologia.

Either way, Ben needs to defeat both Acnologia and Zeref. He will welcome whoever comes to get a beating first and it seems Zeref is impatient. Well, that's fine for Ben because now the last boss will truly be last.

______________________________________________

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