Deep within the royal palace of the Alvarez Empire, Invel—known as the Winter General—slowly pushed open the doors to a dark, secluded hall.
He strode inside, stopped before the black-clad figure standing with his back to the entrance, and bowed respectfully.
"Your Majesty. Mard Geer's operation in Ishgar was exposed."
Invel's usually cold expression remained rigid.
"And… the Fairy God of Death killed him."
The figure in the center of the hall remained motionless, almost like a statue.
Only after a long silence did Zeref's calm, detached voice finally break the stillness.
"I see…"
"Mard Geer is dead."
Invel maintained his formal posture and continued, "The Stella operation was technically completed, but the Magic Council responded faster than anticipated. If we want to recover meaningful experimental data, we may have to infiltrate the Council directly."
Zeref's expression did not change.
"If Jacob is available, send him."
"Yes."
Invel lowered his head, then asked, "Should we suspend our other arrangements in Ishgar for the time being?"
"No."
"Tell everyone involved to be more cautious."
Invel hesitated briefly.
"There is one more matter."
"Brandish… appears to have defected as well."
This time, Zeref fell silent.
Several moments passed before his cool voice sounded again.
"Tell the other members of the Spriggan 12 not to pursue her."
"If we meet again…"
"It will be on the battlefield."
"Understood."
Having finished his report, Invel waited a short while. When no further instructions came, he tactfully withdrew from the hall and closed the doors behind him.
Only after Invel was gone did Zeref slowly exhale.
"The first members of the Spriggan 12 to disappear were Mard Geer and Brandish…"
His quiet sigh carried an emotion that was difficult to read.
"I wonder who will be next."
...
The demonic catastrophe in Stella struck Ishgar like a hammer, abruptly shattering the complacency of everyone who had convinced themselves that the Alvarez Empire would never truly bring its war to their continent.
An entire well-known kingdom had been corrupted almost overnight.
The death toll was catastrophic, and even now the Magic Council still hadn't managed to establish an accurate number of casualties.
Had Fairy Tail's strongest team not already been at the center of the incident, no one knew how far Mard Geer's transmutation array might have spread before anyone managed to stop it.
After only a brief period of relative calm, the Magic Council was once again operating under crushing pressure.
Its forces now had to investigate the incident, track the remaining Black Magic Cult cells, study the demonification, and protect and treat the surviving citizens of Stella.
The world had begun slipping back toward the same dangerous atmosphere that had hung over Ishgar half a year earlier.
Fortunately, before the next storm fully arrived, the members of Fairy Tail could still enjoy a little ordinary life.
On the outskirts of Magnolia, a horse-drawn carriage rolled lazily toward the city gates.
Inside sat the members of the strongest team, finally returning from Stella.
After multiple battles followed by a long journey through mountains and wilderness, nearly everyone was exhausted.
The carriage was filled with the sound of steady breathing and occasional snoring.
Across from Ankh, Natsu sat with his head tilted back and his face faintly green.
It was difficult to tell whether he had actually fallen asleep or simply passed out from motion sickness.
Gray had shamelessly turned him into a pillow.
Lucy, on Natsu's other side, was fast asleep with her head resting on his shoulder.
Brandish, the unexpected addition to the group, sat quietly beside the window with her arms folded and eyes closed.
Erza rested against Ankh's shoulder, while the unconscious Wendy lay curled up in her arms.
The only person still awake was Ankh.
Sleep had long since become optional for him.
At the moment, his attention was entirely focused on the object he had brought back from Stella.
Dragon Cry.
Recovering the staff had originally been the entire purpose of their mission, but after the incident ended, King Toma learned just how important Dragon Cry had been to Mard Geer's research and decided to hand it over to the Magic Council.
His reasoning was straightforward.
Since Dragon Cry had significantly strengthened the transmutation array, perhaps it could also assist in developing a cure for the victims.
The Council accepted the offer.
Then, after studying the situation, they promptly traded Dragon Cry to Ankh in exchange for the Book of Demons.
The truth was that Dragon Cry wasn't nearly as essential as Toma assumed.
The Alchemical Transmutation Array had functioned without it.
The Book of Demons, on the other hand, had been the actual core of the formation and was therefore far more valuable to the Council's research.
Since the Book of Demons had originally been Fairy Tail's spoils, exchanging the two suited everyone involved.
None of the other team members had any real use for Dragon Cry, so the strange staff ultimately ended up in Ankh's hands.
"A power that influences emotion…"
Ankh turned the staff slowly as he examined it.
"And it seems especially effective against Dragon Slayers."
After considering that for a moment, he brought out his Dragon God's Arsenal.
By its nature, Dragon Cry was still a material fundamentally connected to dragons.
Which meant…
Ankh placed the staff against the crystal orb.
Exactly as he expected, Dragon Cry immediately dissolved into a stream of light and was absorbed by the Dragon God's Arsenal.
Within seconds, the staff had vanished completely.
The crystalline sphere became even clearer and more brilliant than before.
Ankh fed Magic Power into it.
The orb immediately softened and reshaped itself like clay, stretching and reforming until it became a perfect replica of the Dragon Cry staff.
After sensing the power now contained within the transformed weapon, Ankh nodded in satisfaction.
The staff provided a considerable boost to spells cast through it.
From now on, whenever he needed to use long-range magic, he could simply shift the Dragon God's Arsenal into Dragon Cry's form and use the weapon as a casting medium.
Ankh was still happily experimenting with his new toy when the carriage finally slowed to a stop.
They were home.
Natsu and Wendy practically threw themselves out of the carriage.
Both collapsed onto the ground and stared up at the sky with tears of joy.
"We made it!"
The two unfortunate Dragon Slayers looked like prisoners who had just crawled out of Shawshank after decades behind bars.
Gray stepped down after them and stared at the pair reverently embracing solid ground.
"Seriously? It was just a carriage ride."
"Bro, let's head back to the guild."
Erza walked over.
Ankh, however, pointed toward a figure waiting for him near the city gates.
"You guys go ahead. I need to talk to Frey."
Brandish had already draped herself against Lucy with the casual familiarity of an older sister who had somehow decided she lived there now.
"Then I'm going home first. Come find me if you need anything."
Lucy's expression darkened.
"That is my home…"
The resentment radiating from her was somehow even worse than the suffering of the two motion-sick Dragon Slayers.
After everyone separated, Ankh walked toward Frey, who had clearly come specifically to meet him.
"So what happened?"
He smiled.
"What kind of problem is important enough for the head of House Qurenier to come find me personally?"
Frey—Ankh's walking money printer and unofficial logistics chief—gave him a mysterious grin.
"There's a very big deal on the table."
"Question is whether you've got the nerve to take it."
Ankh's interest immediately rose.
"Let's hear it."
"Real estate acquisition."
His excitement vanished.
"That's it? The company already buys property all the time."
Frey's smile only widened.
"Not on this scale."
She raised one hand and pointed far beyond Magnolia, roughly in the direction from which Ankh's carriage had returned.
"This time, the company isn't looking to buy a few buildings."
Her grin became almost conspiratorial.
"We're looking to buy an entire country."