A biting wind, laced with blade-like snow pellets, howled across this desolate land.
"Haa—"
The sleet stung Shane's face with a fine, prickling pain. The cold air burned its way into his lungs… and carried a faint, scorched smell.
"This is…"
As the brief dizziness of time-space travel faded, Shane steadied himself at once and scanned the surroundings.
A foreign-looking town filled his vision—sharp-roofed buildings arranged in uneven layers, unmistakably northern in style, now half-buried beneath heavy snow.
But a deathly silence hung over everything.
No people. Only a distant, muffled roar… and a pillar of flame that dyed half the sky red.
"The Northern Continent… Prague…"
Gray's voice was low and hoarse, each word forced out through clenched teeth.
"I'll never forget this place… This is the city where I killed Ur…"
"Since it's in the past, stop saying it out loud."
Ultear cut him off coldly, staring straight ahead. Her voice was stretched so tight it carried no emotion.
"I don't want to hear meaningless confessionals. Lead the way. To Ur."
Gray's body stiffened. He was about to speak—
Thunk.
A solid blow landed on the back of his head.
Shane pulled his hand back and looked at Gray's stunned face, his tone hard.
"At a time like this, learn from that one-celled organism Natsu—move first, think later."
He pointed at the firelight flickering in the distance.
"You've got time to wallow here, but what's happening over there isn't going to wait for you."
It was like a bucket of ice water dumped over Gray's head.
Right—Ur was still alive right now.
Gray's face changed instantly.
He remembered: Ur could still cast that life-for-life spell to protect him and Lyon at any moment.
"Follow me! This way!"
He didn't dare waste a second. He didn't even try to conserve magic—ice mist burst under his feet as he shot forward like an arrow.
Shane and Ultear followed close behind.
They cut through two snow-choked streets, skirted a field of collapsed rubble—
And then that grotesque, colossal nightmare slammed into view, completely unobscured.
"ROOOAR—!!!"
At the far end of a street engulfed in flames, a giant monster stood atop the ruins.
Its absurdly muscular upper body was a sick, bluish gray. Two huge horns curved upward like they meant to pierce the sky.
"That is…"
Shane didn't slow, his eyes locked on the behemoth. Even at this distance, the oppressive presence was suffocating.
"Deliora."
Gray ground his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot now—no hesitation left, only ruthless intent.
"The demon that destroyed countless cities… the demon that killed Ur!"
"BOOM!"
As they spoke, Deliora let out a violent bellow.
It swung one arm lazily—its claw, carrying ridiculous force, swept across the side of a three-story stone clock tower. The building crumbled like papier-mâché, collapsing in an instant as dust exploded outward.
Shane narrowed his eyes. A pale gold light turned in the depths of his pupils.
Clairvoyance, activated.
His vision snapped closer. This was the first time he'd faced a "demon-class" calamity at this range.
Before, whether it was the emotion demon Gildarts hunted down, or the unseen "Satan" in Mira's village, he'd never personally witnessed this kind of sheer presence.
"That aura… born purely to destroy…"
Shane's expression sharpened.
His peripheral vision flicked toward a distant slope, where a line of villagers struggled to flee.
"And since this is a demon… why hasn't the Book of Heroic Spirits triggered a trial?"
The doubt flashed past—but this was no time to dwell on it.
"Too slow."
Gray and Ultear were moving fast, but to Shane it still wasn't enough.
His gaze hardened.
"I'm going ahead!"
Before the words even finished—
"Whoosh!"
Mechanical dragon wings snapped open behind him, whipping up a gale.
Shane stopped holding back. He became a black bolt, instantly overtaking them and blasting toward the center of the battlefield.
From high above, the view opened wide.
In the wrecked heart of the combat zone, Shane spotted her immediately.
Right in front of Deliora stood a short-haired woman who resembled Ultear by at least seventy percent—half-kneeling on the ground.
She was battered and nearly out of magic, but her back was still rigidly straight.
Behind her lay two unconscious boys, still young.
And across from her—
Within Deliora's jagged maw, a deep crimson heat was already gathering, terrifying enough to make Shane's skin crawl.
The air hissed and warped from the temperature, like it was being cooked alive.
Even from far away, the power in that attack was unmistakable.
But the woman… didn't move.
"Ice Make… Rose Garden…"
Ur murmured, hands forming the seal.
Shane's pupils shrank.
"She can't block that…"
At Ur's current state, she couldn't take an impact of that level—no chance.
He accelerated midair. The instant the beam detonated forward in a roaring blast, Shane plunged down like a meteor.
Arms wide, riding the momentum of his dive—
He scooped Ur up with one hand, and with the other he roughly grabbed the two unconscious kids off the ground.
"Hold on tight!"
He skimmed the ground, sliding sideways—so close the beam practically licked his back—as he hauled all three of them out of the line of fire by dozens of meters.
"RRRRRROOOOOM—!!!"
The next second, it was like sound vanished from the world.
The spot where Ur had been standing was swallowed by blinding red light.
Stone pavement vaporized. The raging torrent of energy surged forward without losing force and slammed into the mountain behind, carving a bottomless black trench straight through it.
The explosion merged with a collapsing avalanche—boulders and snow crashing down together, shaking the earth.
A storm of wind pressure and grit battered Shane's back with dull thuds.
He rolled several times to bleed off momentum, shielding the three bodies beneath him.
When the dust finally settled, Shane lifted his head and stared at the scorched track that ran all the way to the edge of sight.
He clicked his tongue.
"Damn… that's a ridiculously brute force kind of power."
A weak, startled voice came from underneath him.
"You are…?"
Ur blinked up at the black-haired boy who'd dropped out of the sky and saved them.
Shane let his hold loosen and set them down. He glanced at Ur's ragged state.
"If you'd been hit by that, you wouldn't be walking away intact."
"What else could I do? My idiot students are right there."
Ur didn't bother with her own condition. Her gaze snapped immediately to the two unconscious boys, her tone full of helplessness and fierce, protective affection.
Yeah—exactly the kind of person both Gray and Ultear had described.
Shane felt it in his chest.
He didn't hold anything back now. He turned and pointed at Deliora, still searching for targets amid the chaos, and spoke clearly and firmly:
"I'm Shane, a Fairy Tail mage. I'm here specifically to hunt that demon."
"Fairy Tail?" Ur froze for a beat.
She'd heard the name. That absurdly strong orange-red-haired man she'd met before—he'd been from that guild too.
And this "Shane"… this young… yet with strength like this.
A guild that produced monsters, huh…
Even so, Ur shook her head hard, forcing herself upright.
"No matter who you are… thank you for saving us."
"But that demon isn't something you can handle. I'll find a way to hold Deliora back. Please—use those wings and get these two idiots out of here."
Deliora was a "death calamity" created by Zeref—something that couldn't be killed by ordinary means.
Ur had already made her choice. She wasn't about to let some stranger die in her place.
"You're planning to fight alone?"
Shane shrugged, then tilted his head and pointed toward the street behind them.
"That's not up to you."
Then he raised his voice sharply toward the snowy street beyond.
"Move it already! How long are you going to waste?"
"Crunch—"
Rapid footsteps answered through the storm. Two figures cut through the dancing snow, growing clearer.
Ur's eyes went there automatically.
The first black-haired boy stumbled to a stop, panting.
He was taller now, his features harder, his eyes more resolute—but those stubborn, slightly drooping eyes, and that same idiot courage that only knew how to charge forward…
Ur's expression locked into place.
"Gr… Gray?"
She whispered, as if she didn't trust her own tongue.
Then her gaze fell on the girl beside him—a young woman with long, straight black hair.
Those familiar eyes.
That familiar brow.
A blood-deep recognition tore through Ur like lightning, wiping her mind blank in an instant.
Tears flooded her eyes without warning.
Her lips trembled. Her voice broke.
"T-Tia…?"
~~~
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