Bang!
A dull crash rang out as Brian was sent flying in a sorry heap, a vivid arc of blood spraying through the air until he smashed into a boulder and stopped dead. A muddy black boot-print now sat squarely in the middle of his face.
Brian had assumed that, even if he couldn't dispatch the "loose cannon" Hope in one move, he could at least keep the upper hand.
Reality, however, slapped him—no, stomped him—across the face with a shoe-print.
"Brian, why'd you greet my sole with your face?"
Hope rolled his wrist and strolled forward.
Apart from using Gods Foot, he hadn't cast a single spell; the sheer speed and passive might of Magnetic Field Power alone let him thrash Brian like a rag-doll.
For all its strength, the leader of the Oración Seis wasn't as formidable as rumored.
Hope had expected Brian to outclass Jellal—after all, he'd taught the man magic. Once they clashed, though, he found Brian only a notch above an ordinary S-Class Mage, nowhere near Jellal or Jose.
Yet judging by Jose's earlier wariness, Brian should have been terrifying… Hope flickered forward and pinned the rising Brian to the ground with a boot. "You dared strike at me? Didn't Jellal mention how hard I am to beat?"
Brian's face darkened; Jellal had said nothing.
He'd assumed Jellal had died in the Tower of Paradise—he himself had created the Self-Destruction Spell and knew its lethality.
But mere days after the tower incident, their nominal allies Tartaros delivered a living Jellal to help him seize Nirvana.
Brian, worldly as he was, sensed something wrong.
The "resurrected" Jellal was only a walking corpse… Brian raged—he considered himself utterly without scruples, yet even he wouldn't desecrate the dead.
Yet Tartaros had done exactly that.
Beyond fury, Brian felt deep dread; reviving corpses while keeping their former power was beyond him.
Tartaros truly deserved its fame as the most mysterious Dark Guild.
Unfathomable.
The reanimated Jellal spoke only when pointing the way to Nirvana; how could Brian learn anything about Hope from him?
What Brian didn't know was that every thought in his head was being "read" verbatim by Hope.
Hope sighed softly. Jellal… At first he'd thought the man had escaped death; now he saw Jellal couldn't even rest in peace.
If Erza saw Jellal now, she'd surely grieve—he had once fought the tower alongside her.
Sentiments aside, Hope pressed on. "Eight years ago, did you cause Jellal's sudden change?"
This time Brian answered: the first time he met Jellal, the man was already obsessed, dreaming daily of reviving the Black Wizard.
Brian, however, never believed it possible.
According to his intel, four centuries ago the Black Wizard Zeref created the R System to resurrect someone, yet the spell ultimately failed.
Brian never told Jellal that truth; he tutored him partly for Jellal's talent, partly to use him.
And Jellal performed splendidly—
he disrupted the Council, obtained data on Nirvana, and drew most of the magical world's attention with the Tower of Paradise incident.
Hope had one last question, but Brian refused; pinned underfoot, he wouldn't play the obedient informant.
He was the esteemed leader of Oración Seis—did he have no dignity?
Dark mana surged like a tide, and a vast nightmarish field unfurled with Brian at its heart, swallowing Hope in an instant.
Then… a fist shattered the darkness, expanding until it filled Brian's entire vision.
Bang!
The next instant Brian felt the world flip; powerful force spun him 180 degrees, slamming his face into the dirt.
For a moment he forgot even pain.
Shock and disbelief were written across his face—his dark magic had shattered like fragile glass before this youth.
And it had been broken by sheer physical might.
Was this still human? What human body could be so monstrous?!
"Father!"
Seeing Brian battered, Midnight's languid look vanished; he warped space to fling Natsu aside, then teleported behind Hope via Reflector magic.
"Die!"
"Spatial Rend!"
In an instant the space around Hope twisted violently, tearing and compressing to shred him apart.
Interesting spell.
After the "magic exchange" at Mildian Magic Academy, Hope had catalogued plenty of useful spells and thought nothing new would catch his eye for a long while.
Yet the moment he left Mildian Magic Academy, he ran into one.
Hope didn't move; truthfully, the spatial compression couldn't budge his current body, though to onlookers he seemed helpless—
after all, Midnight was the strongest of the Six.
Richard slammed both palms to the ground, channeling massive earthen-yellow mana into the soil.
The battlefield heaved as countless colossal stone spikes shot up like a forest.
But this time his targets weren't the allied guilds—they were the surrounding Dark Mages, plus Midnight and… Brian himself!
"Hoteye, have you lost your mind?!" Cobra, still locked with Mystogan, roared in fury and disbelief at Hoteye's treachery.
Had he forgotten how terrifying Brian's punishments could be?
A violent shockwave erupted; Midnight twisted space to shatter every stone spear aimed at him and Brian.
He whirled, eyes blazing. "You dare strike Father? Hoteye, are you revolting?!"
"I'm not Hoteye—I'm Richard!"
Richard's face burned with equal fury. "My brother Wally spent these eight years in Jellal's Tower of Paradise, yet Brian kept lying to me… You're right—I won't serve him anymore!"
----------------------------------
I've already posted 70 new chapters on Patreon!
If you like the story and want to reaad more, please visit my patreon. Every support is very meaningful!
[patreon.com/Kazenova223]
Thank you very much!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"