While chasing the fleeing Brain through the dense forest, Ankh shouted after him:
"Hey! You're supposed to be the Guild Master of Oración Seis! Aren't you ashamed of running like this?"
Brain occasionally turned back to launch dark energy blasts without slowing his pace.
"Darkness Capriccio!"
He snarled viciously at his pursuer, his face twisted in frustration. "If I hadn't been injured fighting Jellal, there's no way someone like you could be my match!"
Ankh paused momentarily, dodging a blast.
'Fighting Jellal?'
"Why were you fighting Jellal? Where is he now?"
Ankh wanted to find Jellal to regroup, but after that outburst, Brain focused entirely on escaping and fell silent again.
"Tch~" Ankh clicked his tongue.
He quickly gathered Death God Power in both hands.
Black mist swirled, condensing into a solid form.
He immediately manifested a dark war scythe wreathed in thick black-red mist.
"Grim Reaper's - Carnage Execution!"
Slash!
The exaggerated arc of the war scythe swept down.
It released waves of destructive, decay-laden energy with astonishing speed. Everywhere it passed instantly turned barren.
Tree trunks shattered into dust.
Flowers withered instantly.
The air grew turbid with death—all along the blade's path became desolate wasteland.
At the attack's endpoint, under Brain's terrified gaze, the suffocating magical power tore through his defensive barriers.
Crack!
It struck his body, producing a series of explosive cracks throughout his form.
"ARGH!!"
Struck by the blade's energy, Brain was sent flying before crashing to the ground with agonized screams.
He rolled several times, clutching his chest.
Pushing himself up, Brain's expression crumbled.
'I am losing... again?' he thought, his confidence shattered.
'A guild master with worse combat records than his subordinates... this is humiliating.'
"What kind of magic is this?" Brain gasped, looking at the black marks on his skin. "Why does it keep corroding my body even after the hit?"
As the former director of the Magic Development Bureau, Brain considered himself highly knowledgeable.
He was confident he'd heard of every magic in existence.
But the effects from Ankh's strike today clearly exceeded all expectations.
"Grim Reaper... God Slayer magic? No... that's not right," Brain muttered, analyzing frantically. "Even that kind of God Slayer magic shouldn't possess such intensity of death."
Ankh approached the muttering Brain, holding his war scythe casually on his shoulder.
"Will you answer my questions now?" Ankh asked coldly.
Coming to his senses, Brain looked up.
A strange light flickered in his eyes and he suddenly began laughing darkly.
"Hehehe... That guy Jellal... after we rescued him, he actually refused to tell us Nirvana's location."
"But he was too naive. I used magic to extract his memories and easily found this place. Now I just need to locate the core seal and awaken Nirvana..."
Ankh frowned and said, "Extract memories? Then what about him?"
"Of course, we killed him!" Brain sneered.
"Bullshit." Ankh didn't believe it at all.
Even after being imprisoned for so long, Jellal's strength was not something Brain could overcome easily, even with the other five members of Oración Seis.
Jellal was a genius.
Moreover, even if Jellal died, he could definitely take Brain down with him—this was far from just the leader suffering minor injuries.
Brain let out a series of eerie chuckles without responding.
Then, sensing the erosion within his body easing slightly due to his own dark magic resistance, he quickly pulled out a hand he had been hiding under his coat.
"Dark Recollection!"
ZWOOM!
A spiraling impact of emerald-hued magical energy surged forth—the killing move Brain had been brewing earlier while talking.
Ankh raised his arm calmly.
Dark Death Wave swirled around him to envelop his body like a cloak.
The spiraling green light crashed against the Death Wave and vanished into nothingness in an instant.
But it wasn't over.
Brain used the distraction to run a short distance away to where his staff had fallen and he roared.
"Kuroa! Now!"
The skull staff that Brain had thrown aside earlier suddenly stood upright on its own.
Its eyes glowed green.
A magic circle appeared beneath its tip, while identical eerie magic circles materialized under the feet of both Ankh and Brain.
"Are you sure about this, Guild Master?" the previously silent skeletal staff suddenly spoke in a raspy voice.
A talking staff—the seventh member of Oración Seis.
A mad glint flashed in Brain's eyes as he growled, "If failure means death, then I might as well gamble!! Send us!"
Ankh observed the magic circle that had abruptly appeared beneath his feet.
He tried to step out of it.
Slide.
No matter how he moved, the magic circle followed him like a shadow attached to his soles.
"Can't shake it off?"
Ankh looked at the magic circle in surprise, then raised his head to gaze at Brain, exclaiming in an astonished tone.
"Forced teleportation magic? And target-locked? You can cast such high-level magic instantly? Not bad at all!"
Ankh immediately thought Brain was quite talented—a perfect candidate for a research position in his new company.
'Unfortunately,' Ankh lamented internally, 'while the other five members could be considered victims of tragic circumstances and might be accepted, this guy... he had deceived children and conducted human experiments, harming countless children including Ultear.'
Taking Brain in would be hard to justify to them.
To Brain, Ankh's words sounded like praise for his brilliance.
He smirked arrogantly once more and laughed wildly.
"You wanted to know where Jellal and Nirvana are, right? I'll take you to see them now! To the heart of the seal!"
As his voice faded, Ankh and Brain vanished into thin air as if dissipating into nothingness.
...
Meanwhile, on the distant battlefield near the villa.
The sudden disturbance made both sides halt their actions immediately.
Floating in the air, Natsu—who had just torn off Christina's mechanical wing, sending her plummeting from the sky—grinned triumphantly at Cobra.
"What do you think? I told you you couldn't stop me! I wrecked it!"
Cobra wasn't angered.
Standing on his giant flying serpent, he twitched his pointed ears slightly before replying with a mocking smile.
"Trying to distract me so you can land a punch? How childish. I heard that plan ten seconds ago."
"Dammit! He saw through it again!"
Natsu clenched his fists, about to launch a reckless assault, when a circular magic circle suddenly appeared in the air beneath his feet.
Hummmm.
Simultaneously, identical magic circles materialized under Happy, Cobra and his serpent, and everyone on the ground—Gray, Lyon, Jura, Racer, Angel, everyone.
Natsu warily tried to distance himself from the magic circle but found it impossible to evade.
He muttered in confusion, "What is this? Another trap?"
The allied guild forces on the ground noticed the change simultaneously.
They stopped fighting in unison, remaining alert for whatever might happen next.
Jura stared at the magical patterns beneath his feet and couldn't help but remark, "Forced teleportation magic? Why did it suddenly appear here?"
Lyon withdrew to Jura's side and asked in confusion, "What kind of magic is that, Jura?"
"In some S-class missions," Jura explained quickly, "ancient relics like large-scale underground dungeons or underwater labyrinths contain this type of magic. Once the trigger conditions are met, the relic forcibly teleports people to another location within the structure."
"However, such magic is usually fixed to a location—once set up, the trigger points cannot be changed. How could there be a forced teleportation magic that's both scattered and follows people around?"
Erza had already changed several sets of armor, panting slightly.
Her gaze fixed on the relatively calm Oración Seis members as she said:
"It seems they're behind this. We'll likely be teleported and separated. Everyone, be careful! Prepare for combat upon landing!"
Cobra in the sky was somewhat surprised upon seeing the magic circles.
'It seems the leader encountered trouble and resorted to this move...' Cobra thought, hearing Brain's desperate thoughts from afar.
Well, this makes it more convenient for me to hunt there.
The magic circles beneath everyone's feet glowed to their brightest.
Hibiki hurriedly called out to everyone, tapping his temple, "I'll contact you through telepathy! Remember not to act alone..."
Before he could finish speaking, the light vanished.
FLASH.
The previously chaotic battlefield instantly fell silent.
All that remained was Master Bob's mansion.
Though it had already been reduced to dust and rubble by their own guild's airship crashing into it...
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