Tears shimmered in Brandish's eyes, but the hatred burning behind them did not weaken in the slightest.
She stared at Lucy and slowly raised the Aquarius Key, her voice trembling as she asked, "Before your mother Layla died, how many Zodiac Celestial Spirits did she hold contracts with?"
Lucy thought for a moment before answering uncertainly, "Capricorn, Cancer… and Aquarius."
Brandish's gaze remained cold. "After Layla married and had a child, she gradually withdrew from life as a Celestial Spirit Mage. Because of that, she entrusted those three keys to the three servants she trusted most—Zoldeo, Spetto… and my mother, Grammi."
Her fingers tightened around the golden key.
"And the key entrusted to my mother was Aquarius's."
Brandish spoke as though reciting facts she had repeated to herself countless times over the years.
"My mother respected Layla more than anyone, and she treated Aquarius with the same care. Every single day, she polished this key until it shone. So tell me, Lucy Heartfilia—if Layla willingly gave Aquarius to my mother, why did the key eventually end up in your hands?"
Lucy froze.
Ankh's eyes moved toward the key in Brandish's hand, and he calmly completed the accusation for her.
"You believe Layla wanted Aquarius back so that Lucy could inherit the contract, so she killed your mother and took the key."
"Exactly!"
Whatever restraint Brandish had been maintaining shattered. Her expression darkened as years of suppressed rage spilled into her voice.
"My mother went to the Heartfilia estate that day and never came home! The next thing I heard was that she had been murdered—stabbed in the back!"
A terrifying wave of Magic Power erupted from Brandish's body.
The pressure befitting one of the Spriggan 12 flooded the underground chamber, heavy enough that Lucy, already shaken by the accusation, began to sway where she stood.
Yet the magical pressure itself wasn't what truly unsettled her.
What hurt was the uncertainty creeping into her heart, the terrible question of whether Brandish's story could somehow be true.
Ankh stepped in front of Lucy and effortlessly blocked the pressure from reaching her.
"If Layla wanted Aquarius's key returned, why would she need to murder Grammi?" he asked evenly.
"You just said yourself that your mother admired and trusted her."
"That trust is exactly what got her killed!"
Brandish could barely contain her killing intent now.
"She died on Heartfilia property! Who else could have murdered her there?!"
"I don't believe you!"
The answer came from Lucy.
The confusion that had clouded her expression disappeared as she raised her head and looked Brandish directly in the eyes.
"My mother would never do something like that!"
Lucy had spent only a limited number of years with Layla, but those years had shaped the foundation of the person she became.
Until the day she died, Layla had always been gentle in Lucy's memories, and Lucy had never heard anyone who knew her speak of her with hatred or contempt.
That short childhood with her mother had given Lucy warmth strong enough to survive everything that came afterward.
Even through Jude's coldness and the loneliness of the Heartfilia estate, she had still grown into someone capable of smiling brightly at the world.
The idea that Layla had murdered a loyal servant merely to steal back a Celestial Spirit Key was completely incompatible with the woman Lucy remembered.
Brandish glared at her, Magic Power gathering more densely around her hands.
"The truth doesn't change just because you refuse to believe it."
Bluenote, who had apparently become impatient with all the talking, scoffed from the side.
"Are you two going to fight or not? I came here because I still want to test my new strength against the Fairy God of Death."
"Shut your mouth!" Marin immediately snapped in a shrill, sycophantic voice. "Brandish-sama is speaking! Who gave you permission to interrupt her?"
Before the argument could deteriorate further and turn the entire chamber into a battlefield, Ankh suddenly spoke.
"If neither of you actually knows what happened that day, why not ask someone who does?"
Brandish looked at him suspiciously.
"What are you talking about?"
Ankh pointed toward the Aquarius Key.
"This entire dispute revolves around Aquarius. So summon her and ask what happened."
Lucy's eyes immediately brightened.
"That's right! Aquarius must know something about what happened back then!"
Brandish gave a cold laugh.
The twisted hatred on her face made it painfully clear that she was no longer thinking rationally.
"So that's your plan? Get me to hand the key back to you?"
She closed her fingers around it and put it away, resentment mixing with her Magic Power until her entire presence seemed darker.
Ankh sighed.
Trying to reason with someone who had spent years trapping herself inside one conclusion was proving exhausting.
"I'm not trying to trick you out of the key. I'm saying there are too many unexplained coincidences here."
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"And you know perfectly well that another person was present around the Heartfilia family at the time—someone who genuinely did fall into darkness."
Brandish frowned.
"Zoldeo."
Bluenote blinked.
"Zoldeo? What does he have to do with this?"
Zoldeo had once been one of Layla's three trusted servants, the man entrusted with Capricorn's key.
He later descended into forbidden magic, using a Lost Magic to fuse his own existence with Capricorn's and eventually becoming one of Grimoire Heart's Seven Kin of Purgatory.
Spetto, the Heartfilia family's head maid, had eventually passed Cancer's key on to Lucy when she came of age.
Capricorn's key returned to Lucy after Loke defeated Zoldeo and freed the Celestial Spirit from his control.
Of the three keys Layla had entrusted to others, Aquarius's was the only one whose path back to Lucy had never been properly explained.
"Excuses!"
Brandish's fury finally overwhelmed whatever rational thought she had left.
The suggestion of another possible culprit only made her angrier.
She snatched up a small piece of stone and hurled it toward them.
Under the influence of her magic, the fragment expanded rapidly in midair, growing into an enormous boulder that filled much of the chamber as it crashed toward Ankh and Lucy.
Ankh drew his blade in one smooth motion.
A web of thin black sword flashes spread through the air like tangled spider silk, and the massive rock was instantly sliced into countless fragments.
"Lucy Heartfilia!"
Brandish surged forward through the falling debris.
"You can atone for your mother's crime!"
Ankh had never been her real target.
Brandish's body shot toward Lucy as one arm expanded several times over, transforming into an enormous fist poised to crush her outright.
"I already told you!"
Lucy refused to retreat.
"My mother didn't do it!"
She pulled out a golden key.
Light burst across the chamber, and Loke appeared beside her in his sharp suit, orange hair gleaming beneath the golden radiance.
At the same time, Lucy's clothes transformed into her Leo Star Dress.
Two streaks of gold split apart in opposite directions as Lucy and Loke evaded Brandish's furious punch.
The gigantic fist smashed into the ground instead.
BOOM—!
The entire foundation of the underground hall collapsed beneath the impact, steel and stone buckling as the chamber shook violently.
Brandish restored her arm to its normal size, while Bluenote and Marin immediately rushed forward, eager to take advantage of the chaos and attack Lucy.
Ankh's eyes turned cold.
He pivoted and unleashed a single sweeping kick.
The air exploded.
The force of the blow tore through both men before either could react, launching Bluenote and Marin backward like two stuffed sacks.
"Stay out of it."
They crashed away in an almost comical heap while Ankh looked at them with complete indifference, keeping part of his attention fixed on Lucy and Brandish.
One woman was fighting to avenge a mother she believed had been murdered.
The other was fighting to defend the name of the mother she had loved all her life.
If outsiders barged into that confrontation now, they would only make it harder for either of them to uncover what had actually happened.
So Ankh intended to keep everyone else out of their way.
Everyone except himself, of course.