The eerie green glow of the magic lamps flickered through the dark hall, throwing strange shadows across the stone floor.
Rustyrose knelt on one knee, hardly daring to breathe.
He had followed Hades for years, yet he had never once seen the man known as the "Abyss of Magic" lose his composure like this.
In Rustyrose's mind, Hades had always been stern and absolute, a figure so powerful that nothing in the world should have been capable of shaking his emotions.
And yet now, that solemn old man looked like a fanatic, roaring at a mere projection.
"Zeref… just what kind of power does that man hold?"
Rustyrose couldn't help wondering.
After letting that wave of emotion run its course, the disturbance on the throne finally began to settle.
Hades slowly sank back into his seat, forcibly suppressing the frenzy inside him.
"Zeref, whom I searched the world over for centuries without finding… why would he suddenly appear on some remote mountain?"
His one remaining eye burned as he stared down at Rustyrose.
"Tell me exactly what happened back there again. Every last detail. Don't leave out a single thing!"
Rustyrose didn't dare delay. He immediately described everything he had seen through the magical telescope in painstaking detail.
When the report was finished, Hades fell into a long silence.
"He behaved like an ordinary, gentle boy…"
The old man murmured to himself, his withered fingers tapping lightly on the armrest of the throne.
"As expected… you still haven't truly awakened. You're still lost in sleep and confusion… You still need a key!"
"Master, now that we've confirmed the target's location, should I gather men at once and go find Lord Zeref?" Rustyrose asked cautiously.
"No." Hades shook his head without hesitation.
"If that man has already chosen to leave, then as long as he does not wish to reveal himself, no one in this world will be able to find him."
Then a sharp gleam suddenly burst from his eye.
"But… there are people who can call him out."
"You mean…?" Rustyrose froze, then quickly understood.
"That's right." Hades let out a cold laugh, his gaunt face full of unconcealed malice.
"If Zeref chose to appear in person to meet that boy named Shane and Ultear, then that means they possess something that interests him—something that can draw him out."
A grin spread across Hades's face.
"So they've already grown that far, have they…"
"Come to think of it, it was Ultear herself who first reported the information to me. That brat called Shane was the culprit who ruined my arrangements at the Tower of Paradise."
"And since he, too, came out of the Tower of Paradise…" Hades's voice dropped. "Go, tell Brain. Since our Balam Alliance has finally been established, the target of our first joint operation has been decided—hunt down Shane and Ultear!"
"Master, do we really need to make this such a large operation?" Rustyrose frowned, confused. "It's only two people. If Lord Bluenote and your own trusted subordinates moved, that should already be more than enough."
"Fool!"
Hades shot him a cold glare.
"To casually manifest a real city spanning hundreds of square kilometers—even if that magic has no direct offensive function, the amount of power behind it and the level of understanding required to manipulate the rules of reality are absolutely not something to underestimate!"
"More importantly, this matter concerns Zeref's whereabouts. There can be no mistakes!"
"Not only will Bluenote move, but once Brain draws them out, I… will personally act as well!"
His black robes billowed under the pressure of his rising magic.
"Go. Don't disappoint me."
At the same time, back in Magnolia—
On the walk back from the mountain, Shane had been simmering with resentment the whole way.
As he walked beside the black-haired girl, he kept turning his head to glare at her soft lips with obvious dissatisfaction.
He couldn't deny that it had felt very good just now, but that woman was seriously shameless!
Something like that should have been gentler, more mutual. But she never cared about what he wanted at all.
The moment she got hold of him, there was no backing out—her attitude was so strong and absolute that Shane felt less like a partner and more like some convenient tool for her to vent her desires on.
Meanwhile, Ultear clearly had no time to care about Shane's weird little emotional complaints.
The second she pushed open the guild doors, she turned around, grabbed his wrist, and headed straight for a corner of the hall with a clear purpose.
That was where Gray was.
At the moment, he had apparently just finished some kind of eating contest with Natsu and was sprawled on the floor with a bloated stomach, belching without the slightest dignity.
And beside him, Natsu stood on top of a table, laughing triumphantly like some kind of villain.
Clearly, the Ice-Make mage had lost in spectacular fashion.
"Trying to out-eat a Dragon Slayer with a dragon's stomach… is that idiot's brain made of ice chips?"
The corner of Shane's mouth twitched. He couldn't even be bothered mocking him properly.
At Ultear's signal, he stepped forward, grabbed Gray by the arm like he was hauling cargo, and dragged him off into a quiet corner.
Being treated that roughly made Gray's overstuffed stomach lurch so badly that, dazed or not, he was forced fully awake.
"Hey!"
He rolled to his feet and clutched his stomach, glaring at the two of them.
"You two slipped out of the guild all sneaky-like, and the moment you come back you jump me? What the hell is this?"
"Hm? How did you know we left in the middle?" Shane asked in surprise.
"Because Mira was shouting about it all over the place. I'm not deaf."
Mira? A trace of confusion flashed through Shane's mind, but this clearly wasn't the time to dwell on that.
His expression hardened, and he got straight to the point.
"Gray, go find the Master right now and have him erase all your memories of reviving Ur."
"Huh?!"
Gray yelped. He was about to shout "Why the hell should I?"—but when he saw the identical gravity on both Shane and Ultear's faces, he swallowed the second half of that line.
"Did something happen?" Gray asked, suddenly serious.
"I can't explain the details right now. Just know that this is for your own life. Go erase it," Shane said heavily.
On the way back, he and Ultear had already gone over everything again and again.
Why had Zeref only warned the two of them about being cursed by the gods, while the other two directly involved in the time reversal—Gray and Ur—didn't seem to have drawn divine attention?
The only answer they could come up with was:
Subjectivity.
The biggest difference between Gray and them was the degree of personal involvement.
He had only provided a time coordinate. He hadn't actually participated in the act of rewriting causality itself. So the weight of cause and effect attached to him hadn't yet reached the "critical point" needed to provoke the gods.
Even so, as long as Gray still retained that memory,
then that memory itself was an unstable time bomb.
Whether for the sake of perfectly closing the X784 time loop later, or simply for his safety, they could not allow him to keep carrying something that dangerous.
As for why Ur herself hadn't been targeted by the curse…
Shane and Ultear still couldn't make sense of that at all. The best they could guess was that perhaps the curse they were bearing now was some kind of mechanism by which the revived person's price was transferred onto those who had brought her back.
"If you won't explain it properly and only give me some vague excuse like that, then I'm absolutely not agreeing!"
Gray's stance was unexpectedly firm.
He had keenly sensed that something extremely serious must have happened during the short time these two had left the guild.
And as their comrade, there was no way he could agree to erase his memory without understanding why.
Looking at how stubborn Gray was being, Shane immediately felt a headache coming on.
With Gray's personality, trying to force him with violence probably wouldn't work.
And if he wasn't willing, Makarov would never use magic to erase a guild member's memories against his will.
Just as Shane was wondering whether he should reveal a little of the truth after all—
Ultear silently stepped forward.
Right in front of Shane's stunned eyes, she reached out expressionlessly and planted a hand on Gray's face.
Her eyes were as cold as a frozen lake as she looked down at him.
"I don't need to explain my reasons to you. I am giving you an order."
"Go to Makarov right now and have him erase your memory of that event. Understood?"
"W-wait!" Gray protested, struggling against the pressure she was giving off. "At least… at least tell me why!"
"Shut up and go. Now."
Ultear's tone sharpened, utterly unquestionable.
"I don't care whether that old man is eating dinner with his grandson or chatting with some old flame. Go. Right now. Immediately."
"…Yes!"
Gray visibly flinched. He had been about to argue more, but then something crossed his face. His expression dimmed for a moment, and in the end, he turned and left obediently.
Watching Gray go from adamant refusal to total submission in a single instant, Shane looked Ultear up and down in disbelief.
This woman… he could understand being afraid of Erza. But why was Gray caving to Ultear this hard, like she could order him around on sight?
"What's so surprising?"
Ultear pulled her hand back and glanced at Shane coolly.
"That idiot has always carried a deep sense of guilt toward me because of what happened to Ur."
"As long as I make use of that and crush him with pressure, controlling his actions is easy."
"…"
Looking at her flawless, beautiful face, Shane swallowed with difficulty.
What a terrifying woman.
She could speak about something this horrible in such a flat, casual tone, like it was nothing.
At that moment, the thought of spending a lifetime entangled with a woman this malicious—someone with a foul personality and almost no redeeming qualities beyond her looks—filled Shane with a deep and utter despair.
~~~
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