"You look… pretty calm, don't you?"
With a faint crunch of gravel beneath his boots, Shane folded away his black wings and landed lightly on the edge of the abyss-like cavern.
"That's right."
Brain slowly turned around. The muscles in his tattooed face twitched with barely contained ecstasy, twisting into something almost grotesque.
"My original plan was to wait until the others in Oración Seis had matured a little more—until the timing was absolutely perfect—before taking this final step."
"But thanks to you pests buzzing around like flies… I finally made up my mind to move ahead of schedule."
Spreading his arms wide, Brain tilted his head back and drank in the air, greedy for the dense, suffocating magic saturating it.
"And now that I've tasted the fruit early… ah, it's even more intoxicating than I imagined!"
Then he snapped his head back down, his eyes burning with feverish contempt as he stared at Shane.
"So what if you guessed my plan and rushed here to stop me?"
"You're too late! It's already over!"
With that, Brain raised his skull-topped staff high like a priest announcing the end of the world and howled at the top of his lungs:
"Take a good look, brat! Behold the true form of the ancient magic—Nirvana!"
"Show the world the form that can overturn everything!!!"
Rumble—
Before his manic laughter had even fully faded, the entire land let out another groan as though it had reached its breaking point.
The mountains in the distance began to shake violently. The black-and-white pillar of light piercing the sky suddenly swelled to more than twice its previous size, bursting with a radiance hundreds of times brighter than before.
And then came the next series of sounds from deep underground—cracks and ruptures so violent they made the scalp crawl.
Crack! BOOM!
The earth split apart like brittle biscuits.
One after another, enormous stone "tentacles," thick as mountain ridges, burst out of the ground, dragging mud and broken rock into the air with them!
Shane's brows drew together. To avoid getting caught in the upheaval, he beat his wings and rose into the air, looking down on the massive transformation below.
When the falling avalanche of dust and debris finally cleared, the scene that appeared before him was a staggering one.
Nirvana was not some altar or magic circle hidden beneath the cave.
It was a colossal city, built from layer upon layer of ancient stone architecture.
And now, that city—dormant for centuries—was being hoisted high into the air by six enormous stone legs rising from beneath it, like the limbs of some giant octopus.
It was as though an incomprehensible ancient beast had just stood up from the torn-open depths of the earth.
"At last! At last it's mine!"
Standing atop the central control platform at the heart of the city, Brain looked down at the "mobile fortress" beneath his feet, his face flushed with excitement.
"The ultimate weapon—super reversal magic, Nirvana! Powerful enough to destroy all light and plunge the world into darkness and distrust!"
"The fake unity and trust of those legal guilds, every shred of kindness and hope in this world… from this moment onward, none of it will remain! Hahahaha!!!"
Floating in midair, Shane looked at the absurd creation and couldn't help showing a flicker of amazement himself.
"So this is the true body of Nirvana—the thing that wiped out the Nirvit clan…"
"Honestly, calling it magic feels wrong. This is basically an entire city converted into a giant war machine. And the chassis actually has octopus legs…"
But even as Shane was still taking in the sight, the enormous city beneath him suddenly rumbled.
The six immense stone legs began moving in sequence, lifting and carrying the whole city forward with a slow but unstoppable momentum.
"Where is it headed?"
Shane's eyes sharpened, and his gaze traced the direction Nirvana was moving.
"Wait… that direction…"
His heart jumped.
At the end of Nirvana's path was the remote village where old man Roubaul lived.
"Of course," Shane realized at once. "It was the Nirvit clan who created Nirvana in the first place. So if there's still anyone in this world who knows how to shut it down—or destroy it completely…"
"…then it would have to be old Roubaul, the guardian of the Nirvit clan."
"That old fox Brain absolutely cannot be allowed to reach him."
Shane's expression turned completely cold.
Whoosh!
He folded his wings and dropped like a bolt of lightning, landing precisely atop the central platform.
"Hm?"
The instant he landed, his eyes swept quickly around Brain, and he even used his magic to probe the space nearby.
No ambush. No hidden experts.
So Grimoire Heart… hadn't sent anyone?
A sliver of suspicion rose in Shane's mind, and he decided to probe.
"I heard Oración Seis only has six people total, counting you as the leader."
He pointed toward Brain with his chin.
"With power on this scale, can so few of you really control it completely?"
"And besides…" Shane narrowed his eyes. "I'm standing less than ten steps away from you right now, and you don't seem… nervous at all."
"Hmph. That has nothing to do with you."
Shane's probing instantly made Brain think of that arrogant old man from Grimoire Heart.
The bastard had contacted him out of nowhere and spoken in the tone of someone bestowing a favor. If not for the larger picture—
Brain ground his teeth.
Now that Nirvana was finally his, once he dealt with the problem in front of him, he would make that old man pay for underestimating him.
Still…
His gaze returned to Shane, and his expression turned cautious.
This brat might be young, but the rumor that he had single-handedly beaten José Pora was no empty boast.
And with the others absent, if he had to control Nirvana and hold back this monster alone…
"…Looks like I'll have to use that."
A harsh glint flashed in Brain's eyes.
He touched the three tattoos already gone from his face, stopped hesitating, and pressed a hand to his temple, activating a long-range thought transmission.
…
"W-what the hell is that?!"
At the outer battlefield in the forest—
even from that distance, everyone fighting could see the ancient city rising from the horizon like some prehistoric beast.
The enormous shadow blotted out the sky, while the strange magic pouring from the pillar of light sent a chill through everyone's bones.
"That… is Nirvana."
Midnight stared at the colossal city, his eyes gleaming with morbid ecstasy.
"That is Father's life's ambition!"
At that exact moment, Brain's commanding voice rang out in Midnight's mind.
"Midnight. Can you hear me?"
"Father?"
Midnight blinked, then answered respectfully in his thoughts.
"Congratulations on getting your wish. Don't worry. I'll crush these annoying insects soon and come to your side immediately."
"No."
To Midnight's surprise, Brain's voice turned cold as ice.
"Your priority is no longer those troublesome insects."
"I want you to crush Hoteye first."
"Hoteye?"
Midnight froze for a second, then understanding dawned on his pale face.
"So… you already know he betrayed us? I suppose that makes sense. Someone willing to sell his life for a little money was never worth trusting."
Hoteye… betrayed them?
Hearing that, something in Brain's heart dropped hard. The viciousness and murderous rage in his tone instantly skyrocketed.
"Crush that traitor without mercy! Now! I want everyone to understand what happens to anyone who betrays Brain!"
The transmission cut off.
The lazy expression that always clung to Midnight's face receded like a tide.
In its place was a murderous chill that made the skin crawl.
"Understood, Father. I will… execute your will perfectly."
…
Meanwhile, on Nirvana's central platform, Shane had been watching Brain's every movement coldly.
From the furious growling and obvious malice in Brain's telepathic exchange, Shane had more or less pieced together the content of the communication.
And it left him puzzled.
A powerful enemy stood right in front of them, and their own side was already stretched thin.
As the leader, Brain wasn't ordering his ace to go deal with high-threat enemies like Jellal and Erza. Instead, he was issuing a death order to eliminate someone who hadn't even fully defected yet?
Wasn't he basically forcing Hoteye to cross all the way over to the other side?
"Heh. You look confused."
Having finished the transmission, Brain turned back to him. Seeing Shane's slight frown, he seemed to read his thoughts and let out a smug laugh.
"Don't bother trying to guess. You'll never understand."
"But it doesn't matter. In just a moment… I'll let you see with your own eyes what true—"
His pompous declaration stopped dead in his throat.
Because, to his horror, he suddenly realized—
Shane was gone.
"What?!"
Brain's pupils shrank as he spread his senses out in a panic.
Nothing.
Not even the slightest trace of magical energy.
It was as if Shane had evaporated into the air, leaving behind not even the weakest breath or heartbeat.
And in the same instant Shane vanished, another thing appeared: a dense, pale mist that had silently spread across the entire central platform.
It was a ghastly white fog, eerie enough to feel like it could swallow even sight and magical perception whole.
"Drop the tricks and come out!!"
Brain roared and swung his staff. A howling gust of wind tore outward, trying to blow the strange fog away.
But the mist behaved like it was alive. Not only did it refuse to disperse, it thickened even more, locking Brain's vision down to less than ten feet.
His proud perception had been completely stripped from him inside the fog.
And in the heart of that mist, only three steps away from Brain—
Shane stood hidden like a bodiless ghost, perfectly concealed within the all-consuming fog of Dark Misty Metropolis.
Looking at Brain—so close, wildly thrashing his staff around and yet completely oblivious that death was already standing beside him—Shane's eyes turned utterly cold.
He was completely sick of Brain's endless, grating monologues.
"Right now, only one activation condition is fulfilled—'mist.'"
Shane slowly raised his left hand.
In it, a short dagger had already materialized, glowing with an ominous light.
"But that's enough."
"Maria… the Ripper."
~~~