Plop!
A strange mist silently crept over the coastline.
At first, people were confused, wondering where the fog had come from. But within moments, they began collapsing one after another.
"Not good! Ur, be careful! That's miasma! Don't breathe it in!" Sia, the red-haired teenager beside Ur, suddenly blanched and shouted.
Unfortunately, his warning came a second too late.
The moment he spoke, Levy's body went limp. Her eyes fluttered shut as she fainted, and Ur barely caught her before she hit the ground. Seeing Levy collapse, Sia's expression twisted into something ugly.
"Damn it, why would miasma show up here!?"
"That's simple." Compared to Sia's panic, Ur was calm to an almost unreasonable degree. "It means someone wants to get rid of everyone else… and take that ten-million reward for themselves.
"What do we do then? The whole area's covered in miasma! Unless we stop breathing, we're going to pass out too!" Sia's voice was tight with panic.
"Relax. We just need to find whoever's releasing it. Solve the culprit, and the problem solves itself." Ur patted him on the shoulder casually.
Sia felt a vein throb on his forehead. This Fairy Tail mage was legitimately insane.
Of course, he knew that capturing the caster would end the miasma. But that was only helpful if they could actually find them!
After weighing their odds, which were not in their favor, Sia decided he needed to gently remind this lunatic mage of reality.
So he asked, as politely as possible, "Then, how exactly do we find them?"
"Hm…" Ur thought for a moment. "Help me hold Levy first. I'll try looking for our mastermind."
At those words, Sia's eyes lit up. "Alright!" he replied quickly.
He reached out and carefully took Levy from Ur's arms, but the very instant Sia's fingers brushed her clothes, a flash of cold steel flickered in front of him.
Pchhk!
A soft tearing sound followed, and a burning pain suddenly erupted from his abdomen. Sia's eyes widened. He lowered his gaze to see a sword plunged straight into his stomach, then looked up at Ur, who wore a faint, almost playful smile.
"Yo. Nice to finally meet you, mastermind." With a smile, Ur twisted his wrist and ripped the blade back out.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed from Sia's lips as the blade slid out. He staggered back several steps, clutching his abdomen, face draining of color.
He stared at Ur with unwilling eyes. "How… how did you find out?"
There was no point pretending now. The strike had hit a vital spot; he was as good as dead.
"Well…" Ur shrugged.
"Your disguise was sloppy. Of all guilds to imitate, you picked Blue Pegasus—the eccentric pretty-boy guild?" He spread his hands helplessly, as if disappointed by Sia's sheer incompetence.
"For starters, you said Karen from Blue Pegasus came with you. That alone was a massive red flag."
"I'm guessing everything you know about her came from reading magazines, yeah? Brother, those articles are written to fool people. She's nowhere near as pleasant as you think. If she were actually here, she'd have turned this place into a full-blown celebrity fan meeting by now. There's no way she'd be quiet."
"And besides," Ur tilted his head. "Do you even know what kind of people Blue Pegasus recruits?"
"That compliment earlier about you being handsome? That was just empty politeness. Look in a mirror sometime—there is no universe where someone with your face and fashion sense would pass as a Blue Pegasus member."
Ur shook his head with genuine pity, as though Sia's lack of self-awareness offended him more than the ambush attempt.
Bloodshot eyes bulged. Sia trembled with fury.
"You… I— pffft!"
Overwhelmed by rage and the insult, Sia spat a mouthful of blood and collapsed, dead on the spot.
Ur felt the surge of magic power swell inside him. He stepped to the corpse, sighed, and murmured. "Honestly, how can someone have such weak mental fortitude? Look at you—dying with that expression."
Shaking his head, he crouched down and calmly rummaged through Sia's pockets.
❖≔﴾═══════ﺤ
With the mastermind dead, the miasma faded rapidly. Ur pocketed everything useful from the corpse, and at last took a good look at the real guild mark on Sia's arm.
A twisted beast's head, its outline disturbingly similar to the giant monster on the beach.
A dark guild: The Beast Apostles.
Ur wasn't surprised.
From the moment the Magic Council showed up, he had suspected Sia belonged to a dark guild.
With Sia dealt with, Ur finally turned toward the distant battlefield. The fight had changed; the giant beast was no longer battling Lahar.
Instead, it was facing several unfamiliar mages.
As for Lahar, he was lying off to the side, unmoving. Whether he was alive or dead… no one could tell.