"Brat, if you've still got some trick you want to pull, then by all means, do it now—"
Hades' cold, threatening words abruptly caught in his throat.
Because at some point, "Erza," who had only just returned from Nirvana, had somehow approached him without a sound.
The two of them were now less than three steps apart.
"You… are also a ruler of the underworld?"
The girl tilted her head slightly, calmly sizing him up with a gaze that carried a clear note of scrutiny.
It was as though she were wondering why a mere mortal dared to take for himself the name of a god who stood on her level.
A storm exploded in Hades' heart.
He had not sensed in the slightest when or how she had crossed those several dozen meters to appear right in front of him!
It wasn't just Hades. Shane, standing not far away, froze too.
"Erza? Why are you getting that clo—wait, no, your hair!"
Shane's pupils shrank sharply.
He suddenly realized that the girl's signature crimson hair, like the evening glow, was rapidly losing its red from the roots upward, turning into a brilliant pure gold like sunlight itself.
And those originally deep black eyes had become a clear, crystalline ruby red.
At that moment, those scarlet eyes were filled with a divine majesty that did not belong to any human—and a faint trace of curiosity at first arriving in the mortal world.
"You're not Erza…" Shane's voice rose several notes without his realizing it. "You're… Ereshkigal?!"
"How perceptive. I thought it would take you a little longer to notice."
"Erza"—or rather, Ereshkigal using her body as a vessel—curved her lips into a faint, satisfied smile.
She raised both hands and stretched her slender fingers naturally in the air, then gently rolled her neck, as if getting used to this living body.
"As expected, choosing the person you 'like best' as the vessel was exactly the right decision."
Feeling the pulse of this body's heartbeat, she sighed softly.
"Using this form to stand upon the earth and speak with you is much more convenient, isn't it?"
"…"
What reached Shane faster than the underworld goddess's lightly teasing words was the very tangible, ghostly stare coming from Ultear behind him.
"So… the one he likes best…"
The black-haired girl lowered her eyes, a cold smile of unreadable meaning touching her lips.
At that moment, Shane naturally had no extra mental energy left to notice the subtle shift in the girl behind him.
He stared at Ereshkigal, who was still getting used to moving this body, his face grave.
Gods were always capricious and willful—and that went doubly for this goddess of death, who had been trapped in the underworld for ages.
If she decided she liked using this body too much and simply seized it forever, then wouldn't Erza—
"Put away those rude assumptions in your head."
As if she had seen through Shane's worry, Ereshkigal turned to him, a trace of reassurance flickering in her red eyes.
"The amount of time I can remain in the mortal world is only this brief interval needed to fulfill your wish."
Then, unexpectedly, she let out a soft laugh that felt startlingly human.
"And besides, the owner of this body seems to harbor extremely strong feelings for you. Influenced by that intensity, I now find myself rather fond of you as well…"
"Hm. In that case, I suppose I'll overlook your earlier offense down below."
Shane froze again.
Her personality… was far livelier than it had been in the underworld. And she was speaking so much more directly now too. Was that also the result of being influenced by Erza's own disposition?
And for someone's personality to affect how a god perceived things—looked at that way, Erza's force of character was honestly kind of outrageous.
Still, now that he had confirmed Erza was safe and unharmed, Shane stopped dwelling on it. He drew a breath and placed a hand to his chest in a respectful bow.
"In that case, please begin."
"Naturally." Ereshkigal inclined her head slightly.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hades had already realized something was very wrong.
Ever since Shane had reappeared from that strange pit, he had been far too composed compared to before.
And then there was that woman whose hair and eyes had both changed color… the aura radiating from her stood above magic itself, and it sent a primal tremor through Hades.
It felt as though something completely beyond his control was about to happen.
And things had a way of sliding toward the worst conclusion a thinker could imagine.
The moment that thought rose in Hades' mind, the darkness around them began to spread outward wildly like some monstrous beast that had gained substance.
The air turned strangely clear and grim, every breath feeling as though it filled the lungs with shards of ice.
The falling snow froze unnaturally in midair, and the entire world seemed stripped of all sound, transformed into an absolutely silent realm of snow, moonlight, and total darkness.
That change—wrong in every possible way—instantly put everyone present on edge.
"This is… the presence of the underworld? She's expanded the laws of the underworld into the living world?!"
Shane's heart jolted, and he immediately understood—Ereshkigal was invoking her authority!
Once divine power was set in motion, no one could predict what kind of consequences it might unleash.
He turned at once and shouted toward the Fairy Tail members, "Everyone, get back right now! Fall back to the edge of the forest!"
Though Makarov and the others had no idea what was happening, they trusted Shane enough to immediately retreat carefully while protecting one another.
Only Ultear remained where she was after catching the signal in Shane's glance.
"Master, are we just going to let them go?" Rustyrose pushed up his glasses and leaned in beside Hades, lowering his voice. There was sweat on his forehead as well.
Hades kept his lone eye fixed on the center of the field, that sense of unease in his heart only growing stronger.
But he was, in the end, still a great tyrant of his age. Before understanding exactly what his enemy was, he forcibly suppressed the impulse to attack.
"Watch for now! Just keep your eyes on Shane and Ultear."
Rustyrose nodded and obeyed at once, motioning for a few subordinates to go watch the Fairy Tail members retreating into the distance, while the rest remained in place with Hades.
And at the very center of the field—
The snow-covered ground, along with the vast ancient forest itself, lost its final trace of color. Every shred of light seemed to be swallowed whole by that absolute darkness.
And within that abyss-like blackness, only the goddess remained as the sole color in this underworld upon the earth.
Her golden hair shone brilliantly, and the simple shirt and trousers Erza had been wearing had disintegrated at some point without anyone noticing.
In their place was a long underworld dress woven of deep crimson and pure black, intricate and magnificent.
Ereshkigal's expression was solemn. In her hand was now a golden spear-staff radiating light.
She said nothing more. Like a queen carrying out judgment, she merely gave the staff in her hand a gentle swing.
Whoosh—
An invisible soft wind swept past.
Shane and Ultear both felt something shudder violently in the depths of their souls.
Then strands of murky gray-white curse-energy, visible to the naked eye, were forcibly dragged out of their bodies like iron filings pulled toward a magnet!
The instant the curse left them, both of them let out long, heavy breaths.
It felt as though the invisible shackles that had been pressing on the depths of their souls were completely shattered, leaving their bodies lighter and clearer than ever before.
And that was not all. Shane also sensed one more faint thread of gray-white curse-energy drifting in from the edge of the forest, merging into the mass of curse that had been extracted.
"Not just us—even the faint trace that had rubbed off on Gray got cleared away too?"
A look of unmistakable delight flashed through Shane's eyes.
He had never imagined that the troublesome curse which had tormented the black wizard Zeref for centuries without any solution could be removed this easily!
"That aura… was that a curse?"
Hades, who had been staring fixedly at the changes in the field, suddenly contracted his pupil.
For some reason, there was something in that disgusting presence that felt strangely familiar to him.
"Don't celebrate yet. Focus."
But just as Shane was about to let out a full sigh of relief, Ereshkigal—having just finished the extraction—retained that same divine majesty and warned him.
Thud!
At almost the exact instant her words fell—
Ultear, standing beside Shane, suddenly crumpled like all the strength had been ripped out of her body and collapsed toward the snowy ground.
"What happened?"
Shane reacted instantly, stepping forward and catching her before she fell.
But before he could examine her condition, in the next moment he clutched his own forehead in pain.
"Ugh!"
This time, even Shane—with his mental defenses—truly felt the same despair Ultear had described before:
the sensation of being utterly abandoned by the world—
a plunging fall and anxiety, as if the soul itself had been dragged in an instant into a bottomless abyss!
If even he was in this much pain, it was easy to imagine what kind of horrifying shock Ultear—whose mental resistance was far below his—must be enduring right now.
"How is this happening? The curse was clearly extracted, so why is something like this erupting instead? Is it backlash from removing the curse?"
Grinding his teeth, Shane forcibly suppressed the nauseating turmoil raging through his mind and looked up to ask.
"It is not that the extraction itself failed."
Holding her spear-staff, Ereshkigal fixed her crimson divine eyes high above.
"It is because my act of forcibly erasing this thread of causality has offended the 'being' that cast the curse."
"And so… a greater malice from that one has descended."