Many powerful characters are featured in the popular animated series Fairy Tail, starting with the classic shonen protagonist Natsu Dragneel. But he's not the strongest wizard of the Fairy Tail guild; it's a three-way tie between Mirajane Strauss, Erza Scarlet and Gildarts Clive. And Gildarts isn't often around to prove how strong he is, anyway.
Mirajane and Erza are among the strongest wizards in all of Fiore, and are certainly among the strongest women, too (even stronger than Minerva Orland or Jenny Realight). Erza is famed for her vast arsenal of swords and customized armor, while Mirajane can become a total demon in combat. What can they bring to the table when the fighting starts?
10 Erza: Her Custom Armor Suits
Magic can be surprisingly diverse and flexible in Fairy Tail, from Natsu's fire to Juvia Lockser's water and Cana Alberona's deck of cards. Erza, meanwhile, is among the most flexible wizard because she can access any number of armored suits during a battle, so she can customize her defenses.
No matter what sort of enemy she's facing, Erza can use her spatial magic to reach into her deep inventory of armor and choose one whose properties can protect her from the enemy's attacks. She can shield herself from fire, for example, or from water or lightning.
9 Mirajane: Her Demon Immunity
Take Over magic allows the user to morph their body into that of another creature, either in part or in whole. Mirajane's Take Over magic is based on demonic power, rather than the animals and beasts that Elfman and Lisanna can turn into.
Mirajane's demonic form gives her all kinds of powers, and one particular advantage is her immunity to the evil effects of other demons. For example, the demonic enemies featured in the Tartaros arc couldn't affect Mirajane with their demonic particles, giving Mirajane an edge.
8 Erza: Her Illusion Resistance
When Erza cries, she only produces tears from one eye. Why? She has a false eye, and that can work to her advantage at times. Erza often covers one eye with her long red bangs, but even if her eyes are totally exposed, the enemy isn't aware of what they're dealing with. Illusions are not going to work at full capacity.
Illusions and eye magic work by going into the victim's eyeballs to affect their body and mind, but Erza, having a fake eye, only suffers half the effect. For example, she can see through illusions, and Evergreen's Stone Eyes effect wore off faster than expected in Erza's case.
7 Mirajane: Her Powers Of Flight
Some of Erza's armored suits allow her to soar into the air, it's true, but Mirajane is always able to take flight during a battle, no matter what. Part of her demonic Take Over form is her pair of bat-like wings, a typical feature for a demon.
With those wings, Mirajane can soar into the sky and stay there, to avoid an enemy's close-ranged attacks and dictate the terms of engagement. She can also fly right over barriers or rough territory while pursuing an enemy or fleeing from them.
6 Erza: She Smashed The Meteor
During the desperate battle against Zeref's Alvarez Empire, the Spriggan 12 took on the wizards of Fiore with all they had. One of them was Irene Belserion, Erza's ancient dragon mother, and at some point, she dropped a massive meteorite right on Erza to finish her off.
But not so fast. Erza, despite having a beaten and broken body from the intense duel, summoned the incredible strength and resolve to take flight and smash the meteor apart, turning the tide of battle and shocking everyone. Not just any wizard could do that.
5 Mirajane: Her Poison Immunity
Mirjane, when she uses Take Over magic, assumes a lot of villainous properties, though she would never actually use her powers for evil. When Mirajane is in Satan Soul mode, she is immune not only to demonic particles, but also from poison, whether it's in liquid or gas form.
Poison gas or venom can be potent against many foes, but the villains who try to knock out Mirjane with poison were shocked to see their Fairy Tail opponent happily breathe in poison gas and treat it like a snack. Not even Erza can just toy with poison like that.
4 Erza: Her Heaven's Wheel Technique
When Erza dons her armored suits, she is able to perform a variety of special techniques, based on which particular suit of armor she has on and which sword(s) come with that suit. When Erza has a valkyrie-like armored suit on, she can create hundreds of swords at once.
This is the Heaven's Wheel technique, and it is one of Erza's few ranged attacks. She can float in the air and conjure countless swords, then fling them all at her enemy with great force and shred them from a distance. It's among her best moves.
3 Mirajane: Her Soul Extinctor Technique
Also translated as Soul Extinction, this technique is one of Mirajane's best ranged techniques, to rival Erza's Heaven's Wheel move. Mirajane can control dark energy when she is in her Satan Soul form, and she can collect all the energy around her to form this technique.
Mirajane will coalesce the power into a dark sphere, then fire it at her enemy in a wide cone of destructive power (and she can fire lesser versions with less charge-up time). This technique was enough to blast Freed Justine out of the air even when he was at full power.
2 Erza: Her Clear Heart Outfit
Many of Erza's outfits are fancy and offer Erza all kinds of defenses, but she does have another option: to abandon all defense and focus all of her energy on offense instead, as an all-or-nothing technique. Not just any enemy merits this kind of strategy.
There have been times when Erza had her back to the wall, only to swap her current armor for her Clear Heart outfit to expose her heart to the world, unimpeded by armor. Given how much strength is associated with friendship and the heart, it's no wonder this boosts her attack power so much.
1 Mirajane: Her Satan Soul: Alegria Form
Erza's Clear Heart form is impressive, but with the Satan Soul: Alegria form, Mirajane just might have her beat. This is the demonic form that Mirajane formed when she consumed multiple souls after the battle with the Tartaros guild, and its sheer demonic aura can evaporate ocean water and scare off even the strongest enemies.
As expected, Mirajane's offensive power, speed and durability go through the roof when she uses this form, and she was able to defeat Irene's minions with no trouble whatsoever. If Fairy Tail is on the ropes, it's Mirajane who will save the day.