"Transferred? What do you mean?"
Ankh frowned, looking at the suddenly panicked Jellal as he asked.
Jellal gazed solemnly into the distance, his eyes wide with realization.
"Even Brain wouldn't have been able to undo the Biological Link Magic I placed. It's irreversible once set."
"But he probably used some dark method. Originally, my life force was linked to Nirvana's seal—as long as I lived, it would remain sealed. But now... the anchor has been transferred to someone else."
Ankh's face darkened. "So you're saying Brain killed someone?"
"No," Jellal corrected, "the seal breaks when the anchor dies or fades. Brain must have transferred the link to someone weak or dying to accelerate the unsealing! Even if they're still alive, they must be on the verge of death!"
RUMBLE...
As they spoke, the ground beneath them suddenly began to tremble violently.
The terrifyingly vast cavern started collapsing and crumbling.
The ancient city beneath their feet seemed to come alive, shaking as mountains split and the earth cracked open.
"Whoa!"
Jellal quickly grabbed onto a nearby ruined wall to steady himself, while Ankh used his Gravity Magic to anchor his boots to the already tilting road.
"Nirvana is activating..."
Ankh murmured to himself as he watched a rising black pillar of light erupt in the distance at the city center.
Ankh immediately turned to Jellal and shouted over the noise, "Do we need Archieve Magic to extract the core information of Nirvana for our plan?"
Jellal pondered for a moment before replying, "We could go to Nirvana's magic power output location—the King's Tower—and temporarily collect its core magic energy signatures for later research. The problem is we don't have a container capable of holding such powerful magic power."
Ankh pulled out a pure white Magic Crystal from behind his back—one he had prepared earlier—and tossed it to Jellal.
"I made this high-capacity Lacrima with my creation magic. It should be sufficient."
"We'll split into two teams," Ankh commanded. "I'll go to Nirvana's control center to stop whoever is operating it. You go collect the magic power data before I succeed, then rescue the other defeated Oración Seis members we left behind. Hide them safely outside before we regroup."
"Understood!"
Jellal caught the crystal and dashed off using Meteor speed.
The massive cavern began to collapse as the century-slumbering city of Nirvana stirred to life.
CRASH! BOOM!
Six enormous mechanical legs unfurled from the city's base, smashing through the cavern walls.
They slowly lifted the entire city upward, turning it into a colossal walking fortress.
...
At the city's center...
Jura stared furiously at the unconscious Hoteye, who had been pierced from behind.
He summoned rocks that came crashing down toward the floating Skeleton Staff.
"Silence!"
Kuroa remained as deranged as ever.
After being pummeled by the rocks, it cackled wildly, indifferent to destruction.
"The last Oración Seis member has fallen! The seal is broken! You're finished!!"
"Ahahahaha..."
Kuroa's maniacal laughter grated on everyone's ears, but no one had time to deal with the staff as the cavern ceiling above drew increasingly closer.
The city was rising to crush them against the roof of the cave.
"Protect the injured!!"
At this critical moment, Jura roared.
He took the lead to scoop up the critically injured Hoteye to shield him.
"Gather together!"
Erza protected Wendy with her left arm and Lucy with her right, covering them beneath her body as rocks fell.
Ichiya relied on his inflated muscular size to clutch his younger companions tightly, getting battered black and blue by debris in the process.
Gray, who had just arrived at the scene, was shielding the carsick Natsu while cursing loudly as he ran toward the group.
"Move it, flame-brain!"
Lyon carried Happy while desperately sprinting close behind.
Rocks shattered and dust rained down like an apocalypse.
Nearby, Angel lay face-down in the dirt, abandoned by Brain.
Her consciousness was gradually returning.
Through blurred vision, she saw Hoteye fall to a sneak attack, felt the ground shaking as if collapsing, and couldn't help but feel lost...
'My wish...'
Her only wish had been to disappear into the sky like an angel.
To fly freely.
Yet in the end, was she still destined to be buried in these cold ruins? Just like back in the Tower of Heaven?
'Just like before...'
"Huh?"
Just as Angel resigned herself to dying like a rat in this place, she suddenly felt her body become weightless.
'Am i floating?'
Ankh arrived, manipulating gravity with his feet to glide over the chaos.
With one hand, he used gravity to hold up countless falling rocks and huge debris overhead, creating a safe zone.
With the other, he lifted Angel up by her collar like a rabbit.
"Everyone gather behind me!" Ankh shouted to the group.
Seeing their strongest ally, everyone instinctively moved toward him.
Ankh looked up at the solid rock ceiling of the cavern that Nirvana was about to crash into.
"Repulsion Force: Piercing Spear!"
A massive purple magic circle appeared, covering the sky above everyone.
Then, an overwhelming force erupted from the magic circle.
BOOM!
Like a celestial waterfall flowing backward, a torrent of mud and rocks madly surged upward.
The gravity beam continuously broke through the earth crust, carrying tons of soil and stones with it into the sky.
Outside, in the quiet nighttime forest of Worthy Woodsea...
Suddenly, the earth seemed to groan in agony as trees swayed and collapsed.
RUMBLE!
Like a volcanic eruption, countless fragments of soil and rock erupted from the ground, flowing backward into the sky.
Viewed from afar, the astonishing spectacle of the reversed mudslide shooting skyward resembled a massive spear piercing through both earth and heavens to clear a path.
The continuous rumbling persisted as, under the moonlit night sky, the six-tentacled Nirvana City finally crawled out of the hole Ankh had created.
A large area of the ground had collapsed.
Fortunately, the forest was vast enough to absorb the impact; otherwise, such an earth-shattering event would have likely turned this forest into a desert...
At the center of Nirvana, those who had just emerged were still lost in the breathtaking spectacle they had witnessed.
It was no exaggeration to say that, from their perspective, Ankh's earlier feat was akin to piercing a hole through the sky to save them.
From such depths underground, he had used a single spell to shatter the thick layer of rock above before Nirvana could breach the surface—and he still looked like he had energy to spare.
Hibiki's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
He inwardly lamented, "A guild with a Wizard Saint... How infuriating... and reassuring."
Lyon stared numbly at Ankh floating in the air and couldn't help but whisper to Jura, "It was truly merciful of Ankh-san not to have killed me earlier for my insolence on Galuna Island..."
Though surprised, Jura quickly regained his composure and chuckled, "Ankh-san ranks among the top of the Ten Wizard Saints, and he's young and vigorous. How many could truly stand against him in a fight?"
Jura admitted that he could also achieve something like piercing through the earth, but he could never do it as effortlessly as Ankh had.
If he were to attempt it, he'd likely strain himself until his face turned green just to barely reach that level.
The members of the Fairy Tail guild, however, seemed far more accustomed to such spectacles.
Erza, holding two young women in her arms, shouted to Ankh, "Brother! Lucy and Wendy are badly injured! Brain got them!"
Jura, supporting Hoteye, added, "And this one—though he's a member of Oración Seis, he's now our ally!"
Ankh descended, carrying Angel.
He placed her down (keeping her restrained with gravity) and observed the injured Lucy, Wendy, and Hoteye.
He extended his hand.
"Life God: Recovery."
A faint silver light emanated from his palm.
He channeled the Life God Power into the three of them.
Lucy and Wendy's complexions visibly improved as bruises faded.
Hoteye's chest began to rise and fall faintly as the wound on his back closed.
Ankh didn't actually know healing magic in the traditional sense, nor had he developed his Divine Power in that direction fully.
However, the Life God Power inherently possessed life-restoring properties, making him more than capable as a healer.
After seeing the three recover stability, Ankh began spreading his Divine Power to the other injured around them (Natsu, Gray, Lyon), healing everyone's fatigue.
Suddenly, Jura stood alert next to Ankh, gripping his staff.
"Be careful! There's movement over there!"
Ankh looked over.
The King's Tower at the center of Nirvana was being lifted by a rising tower mechanism.
Inside, the screens for controlling Nirvana's magic cannon flickered.
Beside the controls stood a towering man radiating sinister energy, looking down upon them with red eyes.
It wasn't Brain.
Zero had awakened.
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