Chapter 205: The Tyrant Balding Curse

Chapter 205: The Tyrant Balding Curse

Unfortunately, before the guitar mage could even strum his instrument, a red beam of light had already shot toward him from behind.

"Disarm!"

It was George. After firing the railgun, he immediately circled behind the guitar mage and used a Disarming Charm to knock the magical instrument that he was about to cast with out of his hands.

"So you were behind me—go to hell!"

Having his guitar forcibly knocked away made the guitar mage even more furious, but his reaction was swift. He cast his unique hair magic, causing his hair to grow rapidly and surge toward George like a waterfall.

He knew the ambushing mage could turn invisible, but that previous attack had already revealed his location.

"Rapid Shedding!"

However, facing the frenzied onslaught of hair, George merely raised his wand and casually cast a Balding Curse.

As the name suggests, the Balding Curse causes hair to fall off instantly. George had another name for it: the Tyrant Balding Curse.

This curse, like the Dancing Curse, the Tickling Curse, or the Snot Curse, belonged to the category of prank-like spells that don't cause any actual harm.

But in this moment, it was perfectly timed.

As expected, the rampaging hair froze for a few seconds midair after being hit by the curse and then drooped lifelessly to the ground.

As for the top of the guitar mage's head, it transformed from flowing locks into a gleaming, shiny bald dome.

"M-my hair... How could such a vicious spell exist in this world..."

For the guitar mage, who treated his hair as life itself, touching his bald head made him feel like his entire world had collapsed.

"Aaaahhhh..."

Before the guitar mage could even recover from the shock of losing his hair, his body was enveloped in high-voltage electricity and he was stunned unconscious.

"Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus!"

Revealing his true form, George hit the guitar mage with two more spells before sealing him inside a box and tossing it into the Wardrobe System space.

A magic that used music to control others like puppets to fight—he hadn't seen anything like that in the Fairy Tail library, so he was a little interested.

"George, you came! That's such a relief!"

Seeing George appear, Lucy finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.

After the incident with the Phantom Lord's assault, all the Fairy Tail mages had developed great trust in George, and Lucy was no exception.

"Reparo."

He flicked a Repair Charm at Lucy, restoring her tattered, nearly shredded clothes from the battle, and then asked,

"What exactly is going on here? Where are Erza and the others?"

[Translator: sauron05]

"Erza was sealed into a card by one of her former companions. Right now…"

Lucy, clutching her sore, whip-marked butt, explained everything that had happened.

A few days earlier, they came to the resort using a hotel voucher that Loke had given them. While there, they encountered Juvia, formerly one of the Phantom Lord's Element Four.

At first, everything was great, and they were all having fun.

But last night, several mages suddenly attacked them. Because the enemy's magic was quite unusual, they were caught off guard and all fell into the trap. Erza and Happy were even taken away.

Later, they escaped and pursued the mages to this island, knocked out the guards, and entered the tower.

After that, they encountered Erza, who had already broken free.

From Erza, they learned she used to be a slave here, forced to build this tower. Back then, she and Jellal led their friends in rebellion and defeated the dark mage who enslaved them.

But just as they were about to escape, Jellal underwent a drastic change in personality. He exiled Erza by threatening the lives of their friends and lied to everyone, saying Erza had betrayed them.

He tricked the others into continuing the tower's construction, claiming it would become a paradise of freedom.

The mages who attacked last night were Erza's childhood companions during her time as a slave. Erza had deliberately allowed herself to be captured to return to the island and uncover Jellal's true motives.

When the friends learned the truth, one of them, named Sho, sealed Erza into a playing card to prevent Jellal from harming her and went off alone to confront him.

The team was then split—Sho took Erza to the tower's top to fight Jellal, and Gray, along with another of Erza's childhood friends, Simon, followed to stop him. Lucy and Juvia came to find Natsu, who had rushed into the tower to rescue Happy.

"Looks like things are pretty complicated. Come on, let's find Natsu first, then regroup with Erza and the others and get out of here."

George had originally planned to use Apparition to send Lucy and Juvia out first, but considering how suspicious the whole situation was, with two S-Class enemies still in the Tower of Heaven and an unknown-strength Jellal, he decided it was better to regroup before attempting to leave.

Now that he had revealed himself to Jellal's surveillance by defeating the guitar mage, having another ally in battle could make a big difference.

Juvia, being an S-Class mage, could help significantly in combat. Lucy wasn't strong herself, but her Celestial Spirits were useful.

According to Lucy, her Aquarius spirit from the Aquarius constellation was as powerful as a typical S-Class mage, but had a bad temper and couldn't distinguish between friend or foe—so Lucy only summoned her in dire emergencies.

"Footprint Revelation – Natsu."

George temporarily changed the target of his tracking spell to Natsu and set off again with Lucy and Juvia.

The Tower of Heaven was a hundred meters tall with dozens of floors and a labyrinthine interior. Without a tracking spell, finding someone would've been nearly impossible.

"To think he lost... Even Fairy Tail's healer has arrived. Things are getting more and more interesting."

At the top of the tower, Jellal sat on a throne, resting his head on one hand while flicking the guitar mage's symbolic piece off the chessboard with the other.

To him, the outcomes of the battles below didn't matter.

Even though he had split off half of his power into this Thought Projection, he was still among the kingdom's Ten Wizard Saints and believed he could easily defeat all the Fairy Tail mages below.

Even if they added a cat with S-Class power, the result would be the same.

The reason he hadn't made a move yet was simply because waiting was too boring. Since the Etherion hadn't yet struck to help him complete the R-System, he was playing a little game to pass the time.

"This is still too slow!"

With fifteen minutes left before the Etherion strike, George grabbed Lucy in one hand and Juvia in the other, burst out of the tower, and flew upward in a straight line.

After locating Natsu's floor, he blasted a hole in the tower with an Explosion Charm and charged in.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Once inside, they encountered a bizarre creature.

It had the muscular body of a human but the head of an owl. Strangely, the owl head had short cherry-pink hair that looked about 80% identical to Natsu's hair.

What puzzled George the most was that his tracking spell pointed directly at this strange creature.

(End of Chapter)