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With the Seven Kin of Purgatory effectively out of the fight, the dark guild forces that had invaded Magnolia alongside them were mopped up by Fairy Tail's mages without much trouble.
Natsu returned to the guild hall with Ultear and Meredy in tow, dragging a barely conscious Zancrow behind him. Outside, they found three figures encased in blocks of ice.
Ultear recognized them immediately as her former colleagues.
Rustyrose looked disheveled even frozen solid. Azuma's face was locked in an expression of pure shock. And Kain had been turned into a stone statue on top of it all. The sight was more thorough than she had expected.
In just a few months, Fairy Tail had become this powerful.
Hades had truly made a catastrophic mistake.
"Hey~ Natsu, you got one too. Not bad."
Gray's smug face peeked out from behind a large block of ice. He patted the massive frozen block in front of him, inside which three figures were preserved in various uncomfortable positions with painfully twisted expressions. "Come look at my masterpiece. Three for the price of one — buy one, get two free. My count is higher than yours now, so it looks like I win today's challenge."
Natsu looked deeply unhappy. "You just got lucky. If I'd also run into three Grimoire Heart executives at once, I could have taken them all down just as easily."
Ultear and Meredy, standing nearby, both thought the same thing. They still hadn't removed their Grimoire Heart emblems.
Natsu caught himself and smiled apologetically at the two soon-to-be new guildmates he had brought back.
Just then, Erza and Mirajane came out of the guild hall. "Gray, have the captives been secured?"
Gray pointed to the giant block of ice behind him. "Already done."
"Gray! You tricked me!"
Natsu understood now. Not all the enemies frozen in that block had been defeated by Gray alone. He had nearly conceded the whole thing to him.
Gray spread his hands with a smug grin. "I told you from the start — buy one, get two free. It's not my fault you were too slow to figure it out."
Natsu's eye twitched. He felt his intelligence had been personally insulted, and his temper flared at once. He rolled up his sleeves. "Damn it, Gray, you want to fight?!"
"Fine with me. Why would I be scared of you?"
"You two, that is enough."
Erza's cool, authoritative voice landed on them like cold water. Natsu and Gray both snapped upright simultaneously, like two schoolchildren caught misbehaving — all their earlier aggression gone in an instant.
Mirajane walked over to Ultear with a warm smile. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Natsu and Gray are always like this when they're together."
Ultear said nothing, but Meredy couldn't help commenting. "Maybe this is what they call 'fire and ice don't mix.'"
Mirajane noticed Meredy and felt a quiet tug at her heart. The pink-haired little girl reminded her of Wendy. They were roughly the same age, but the worlds they had grown up in couldn't have been more different.
Wendy had first had Roubaul create Cait Shelter as a place for her to belong, and then she had found the warm, boisterous family of Fairy Tail.
But Meredy had grown up in a dark guild. That was not a gentle environment for a child.
Erza had also noticed Meredy. The girl's quiet, slightly guarded demeanor made her curious, though now was clearly not the moment to ask questions.
The invaders had been dealt with, but the one commanding them was the real concern.
Erza looked up at the airship still hovering over Magnolia. "Ultear, how strong is Bluenote?"
Ultear considered the question. "Very strong. After Jellal joined Grimoire Heart, he tested Bluenote's abilities under the pretense of a sparring match. According to Jellal, Bluenote's strength is comparable to the higher-ranked Ten Wizard Saints."
"Jellal's assessment was that Bluenote is likely stronger than the former Wizard Saint Jose Porla, but not at the level of the top four."
Erza's expression shifted slightly at the mention of Jose's name. She remembered that both Jose and that scoundrel father of Minerva's had been rendered completely powerless by Noah.
As for Bluenote — celebrated across the dark magic world as a mage who could contend with the Ten Wizard Saints — Erza wasn't particularly concerned. She had, after all, seen firsthand the strength of the Western Continent's top-ranked Wizard Saint, even if that encounter had ended with her losing in a single move.
Ultear, however, wasn't thinking about Bluenote at all. Her concern was elsewhere.
"How do you plan to deal with Hades?"
If Bluenote was known as the mage in whose wake no blade of grass remained, then in Ultear's eyes, Grimoire Heart's Guild Master Hades was something far more dangerous — a man who had pursued the truth of magic to the point of madness, and who was willing to destroy everything in that pursuit.
Among the Seven Kin of Purgatory, excluding Jellal, each of the other six had been personally taught a different form of Lost Magic by Hades himself. Six distinct types of Lost Magic was already extraordinary by any standard — and that was only the surface of Hades' knowledge.
Erza crossed her arms calmly. "Hades? Noah went to handle him."
Ultear stopped worrying at once.
Erza, however, looked mildly puzzled. "Speaking of which, why did Noah volunteer for anything? Just yesterday that lazy man showed absolutely no interest in taking part."
Mirajane thought of something and quietly covered a smile. "It's because... Noah took a liking to Grimoire Heart's airship. He thought it was very cool, so he went to Hades himself, hoping Hades would be reasonable enough to simply hand it over."
Erza was speechless.
Walking straight into the enemy's headquarters to ask the enemy's leader to give up his own headquarters. Only Noah would do something like that.
"Well. It's rare for him to show any enthusiasm."
"If that's the case, this war should be over soon."
Erza let her gaze drop from the airship. "By the way, Ultear — Natsu told me you've decided to join the guild. Would you mind if I handled the introduction paperwork for both of you?"
"That would be fine. Meredy and I are in your hands."
Ultear had no objection at all. Natsu, however, did — silently. He had asked first, after all. But thinking that Gray's senior had agreed to join Fairy Tail partly because of his request, Natsu couldn't help puffing up his chest and throwing a sidelong look of pure superiority at Gray.
Gray scratched the back of his head. He had also wanted to be Ultear's introducer. But even though she was the daughter of his most respected teacher, if she hadn't chosen him, what could he do?
Just then, a violent explosion shook the sky above.
"What in the world was that?!"
At Natsu's outburst, the others looked up. A massive square floating structure — several times the size of Grimoire Heart's airship — had appeared in the sky and slammed directly into the airship with a colossal impact.
From within the floating fortress, a swarm of demon figures began pouring out, one after another.
A chillingly indifferent voice cut clearly through the air and reached everyone below.
"Hand over Lord Zeref."