"Keep your emotions steady. Do not let yourself waver, not even for a moment."
Ultear stared fixedly at the black-and-white pillar of light piercing the heavens in the distance.
Having suffered badly to this thing once before, she didn't attack recklessly. Instead, she lowered her voice and warned him,
"Nirvana's magic infinitely amplifies and reverses the good and evil inside a person's heart."
"Got it."
Jellal took a deep breath and forced the distracting thoughts out of his mind.
Golden heavenly body magic surged wildly into his palms, and he unleashed a killing move at once.
"Grand Chariot!"
Seven brilliant stars flashed into existence overhead and came crashing down toward Midnight on the flying carpet!
But just as the starlight was about to strike his body, the seven beams seemed to hit some invisible, grotesquely warped mirror.
Their trajectories bent at a bizarre angle, skimming past the edge of the carpet and veering away behind him.
"It deflected… my Grand Chariot?"
Jellal's eyes narrowed at the sight of his spell missing.
But he reacted instantly, changing tactics without hesitation.
"I'll keep up a constant barrage. Watch from the rear and find an opening!" he shouted to Ultear behind him.
Above them, the stars kept flashing, weaving a dense golden net of light.
Midnight drifted lazily down from the carpet.
Faced with that rain of killing blows, he moved through the light as casually as if he were taking a stroll through a garden, idly waving his hands and twisting every attack aside.
Not even a scratch touched him.
"He's every bit as monstrous as ever…"
Not far away, Angel had been watching all of it, and only now did she finally feel somewhat reassured.
As long as Midnight—that absolute wall of sighing darkness—held the line, there was no chance that side would break.
Then she turned and focused seriously on the two "Erzas" fighting fiercely below.
That woman really was a complete and utter monster.
She had already taken down dozens of dark mages without a single injury, and now, against a perfect full-strength copy of herself, she was still matching it blow for blow without falling behind at all.
"Gemini can only maintain the transformation for five minutes… and Hoteye that idiot has no idea what he's doing or where his loyalties even are."
Angel bit down irritably on her thumb, a vicious glint flashing through her eyes.
"We need to finish her quickly."
She glanced at Scorpio, still not sent back to the Spirit World, and snapped out an order.
"Go. Assist Gemini. Hit that woman from both sides."
"Yo~ Boss, you really are nasty, huh? Not a shred of knightly honor."
Scorpio tossed his hair with his usual showy flair, but his body was honest. His massive metal scorpion tail shot up high and began gathering another raging sandstorm.
At the center of the battlefield—
"Clang!"
Erza knocked away the fierce slash coming at her, using the force to slide back several yards, breathing a little harder now.
They had only been fighting for a short while, but every second had been pushing her to the limit.
Strength, speed, techniques—even the way her mind moved in battle—was perfectly identical.
In this fight against "herself," even the slightest dip in concentration or stamina became something magnified a hundredfold.
Which meant that the energy she had spent cutting down all those dark mages earlier had not, in fact, been as meaningless as Angel had assumed.
Erza could now clearly feel her rhythm being suppressed bit by bit. She was gradually slipping into the disadvantaged position.
If this continued, things would only get worse.
"This is troublesome…"
Erza murmured under her breath.
It wasn't that she was despairing over the idea that the opponent might be unbeatable. After all, a perfect copy like this could never be sustained forever on a Celestial Spirit's magic.
No—what she felt was regret.
At the rate things were going, she likely wouldn't be able to defeat "herself" head-on, cleanly and properly, before the transformation wore off.
And at the same time, Gemini—currently fully taking on the role of the red-haired swordswoman—had also sensed its summoner's growing impatience through their Spirit contract.
Knowing full well that time was running out, Gemini silently began increasing the pace of its sword swings, its attacks growing even more savage.
If it kept pushing like this, there might still be a chance to win before the time limit ran out.
But just as it was thinking that—
Angel's cold command rang out from the distance.
"Go, Scorpio!"
From the corner of Gemini's eye, a blinding yellow sandstorm was already roaring in.
"Angel! Don't!"
Instead of being happy that help was coming, Gemini's pupils contracted, and it shouted in alarm.
At this moment, having completely become Erza and fully stepped into her battle mindset, Gemini understood better than anyone else what it meant for an external force to intrude into a duel balanced so precariously, like walking a tightrope.
A variable.
A factor that would shatter the balance and make everything unpredictable.
The howling yellow sand spilled into the space where the two of them were crossing swords.
"…What a shame."
Through the gale, Gemini clearly heard the soft sigh from the opponent.
"What a pity. Your summoner doesn't understand this fight at all."
As the raging sandstorm came straight at her, Erza not only didn't retreat—she advanced!
As she surged forward like a storm herself, her armor dissolved into flowing light, leaving only a thin shirt and trousers behind.
She abandoned all defense, pouring every last bit of remaining magic into her sword.
"This one strike decides it all!"
Gemini grit its teeth.
Scorpio's sandstorm was clearly aimed at the other side. With the wind and sand interfering, there was no guarantee it would lose!
If it could just survive this one sword swing, it would win!
But Erza's swordsmanship changed completely the moment she discarded defense.
She even closed her eyes, refusing to rely on sight any longer. Her blade moved like a fierce wind whipping up a thousand heaps of snow, cutting along the very flow of Scorpio's storm.
The enemy's sandstorm was instantly reversed by the pull of Erza's sword wind, blinding Gemini.
And in the instant when its vision was stolen by the sand, a single, ultimate sword flash—too fast for the naked eye to catch—cut through the storm like cold lightning.
"Shhk—!"
There was no time to react.
Gemini crashed to the ground, and in a dim fading glow, it reverted helplessly back into two small blue figures.
"When it comes to adapting in a life-or-death instant…"
"You are beneath me."
Erza stood with her sword lowered, her voice as calm as water.
Then the black eyes burning with combat turned sharply and viciously toward Angel in the distance.
Whoosh!
A crimson afterimage leapt forward.
Angel didn't even have time to understand what had just happened before that stern face, filled with overwhelming pressure, was suddenly right in front of her.
Bang!
The sword hilt, loaded with crushing force, slammed straight into Angel's stomach.
"Urgh…"
Angel's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limply into the snow.
Even in the final instant before she lost consciousness, she still couldn't understand—
why a perfectly even fight had instantly turned into Gemini's complete defeat the moment she herself interfered.
…
"That battle's decided too."
Jellal caught sight of Angel collapsing and came to a halt, looking coldly toward Midnight.
"So now you're the only one left."
"Doesn't matter."
Midnight casually twisted one of Jellal's attacks away, his tone as lazy and superior as ever.
"Even if every last one of them fails… for Father, I alone am enough."
"Besides, I'm not worried."
He tilted his head slightly and looked toward the towering black-and-white pillar of light in the distance.
"Only one person flew over there. Now that Father has broken Nirvana's seal, he no longer has anything holding him back. Naturally, he'll deal with that nuisance himself."
As he spoke, Midnight's eyes cooled, and his fingers twisted sharply in the empty air.
The visible distortion of space spread instantly toward Jellal.
But Jellal was far too smart to ever let himself be cleanly targeted. Thanks to the speed of Meteor, he had been darting through the forest ever since this fight began.
"You seem to be misunderstanding something, Midnight."
Jellal's voice carried a faint laugh as he streaked through the trees.
"We're not worried at all. Just like you people blindly trust Brain…"
"we also trust the 'monster' on our side completely."
"Hey! Don't tell me none of you actually understand how terrifying Nirvana is?"
Hoteye, standing at the edge of the battlefield, was sweating nervously as he watched them fight this slow, restrained holding battle.
"If the boss fully masters that power, he could overturn all of Fiore!"
"No."
Ultear raised a hand, stopping the agitated Hoteye.
There wasn't the slightest trace of worry in her eyes. Only quiet calm.
"It's not that we don't understand Nirvana."
"It's that you… don't understand Shane."
…
If someone asked just how fast Lancer became after his true name was released, the answer would be:
900 kilometers per hour.
That was equivalent to a Boeing 737 cruising at full speed in the upper atmosphere.
And that was still only in a limited state—without his true name being completely, fully unleashed.
Crossing half a primeval forest meant almost nothing now.
The moment the thought of go there formed in his mind, raging air currents were already wrapping around him and hurling him forward.
He descended in a thunderous rush before the long-familiar cave.
Rumble—
The black-and-white pillar of light had already violently smashed through the cave's ceiling, magic pouring outward like a physical tidal wave.
And standing directly in front of that monumental, godlike beam was a single figure, absurdly tiny in comparison.
Dark brown skin.
Wild white hair.
And a face lined with harsh, crisscrossing tattoos.
Thud.
Shane hit the ground like a meteor. Looking at the man's back, he asked:
"You… are Brain?"
"Yeah. I am."
The man turned slowly.
That face full of ambition twisted with barely contained muscles, then split into a sick, unrestrained, wildly ecstatic smile.
"So you're the little bastard who sweet-talked my finest student into betraying me…"
"…and has been snapping at my heels like some rabid dog behind the scenes ever since?"
Brain bared a row of gleaming white teeth.
"First time meeting you."
"Nice to see you."