"A hand?!!"
"It's a hand. Definitely a hand," Touka and Faris answered with remarkable calm.
Lucy stared at them in horror.
"We can see that! The question is why there's a gigantic hand coming out of the sea!"
Faris covered her mouth lightly, looking surprised as she asked,
"Do hands not exist in Earth Land?"
Ultear shook her head.
"It would be stranger if they did! How could something that bizarre possibly exist there?"
Faris remained perfectly calm.
"Please don't worry. The hands do not harm people."
"No, look over there!"
The moment she finished speaking, Touka pointed at the giant arm with a terrified expression.
Following her finger, Raizel, Erza, and the others immediately noticed the black markings running across it.
Touka's eyes widened in disbelief.
"I've never seen a hand like that before!"
Before she could finish, the enormous hand reached for them.
Its shadow rapidly swallowed the entire group.
At the last possible moment, Raizel teleported everyone away. The cloud they had been standing on was crushed and scattered in every direction.
The group retreated to Black Moon Mountain. Still shaken, Lucy turned on Faris and Touka.
"What's going on?! Didn't you say they wouldn't attack people?"
"We... we don't know either."
Touka and Faris were just as confused. Hands had appeared before, but they had never attacked anyone.
Selene rubbed her chin, her brows drawn together.
"That hand seems to contain my Magic Power."
Irene nodded thoughtfully.
"I see. No wonder the Magic Power there felt strange."
The malicious thoughts once contained in Selene's Magic Power had contaminated it. That malice had seeped into the "hands," and now they were no longer under Selene's control.
"I need to return to Whiteout Village immediately!" Faris said, realizing something was seriously wrong.
Selene and Irene did not accompany Raizel's group to Whiteout Village.
If Selene appeared there, there was a good chance a fight would break out. It would be better to resolve the crisis first and explain everything afterward.
As it turned out, Faris's concern was justified.
Whiteout Village had already been reduced to ruins.
"Faris, you've returned."
An elderly woman leaning on a cane appeared before them, followed by two guards carrying broad swords.
"High White Priestess! Are you hurt?"
Faris hurried forward and anxiously looked the old woman over.
Ultear stepped closer.
"What happened to the village?"
The elderly priestess sighed.
"It was destroyed by the Binding Hands. The last time they appeared was several decades ago. This means Elentear is becoming increasingly unstable..."
A resident of Whiteout Village came rushing over with a weapon in hand.
"High White Priestess! A second wave of Binding Hands is coming! There are some enormous ones this time!"
The creatures called Binding Hands somewhat resembled the earthen demons Precht summoned with Black Magic. They were huge, but as for their combat ability...
Kagura cut them all down in an instant with one sword and one katana.
"S-So strong!"
The Mages of Whiteout Village stared in shock.
"Who are these people?"
"They come from the other world, Earth Land. I asked them to help Whiteout Village," Faris explained to the villagers.
"In short, they are our friends."
Raizel went straight to the point and asked the elderly priestess,
"What exactly are these so-called Binding Hands?"
The priestess sighed.
"They were caused by a woman named Selene."
Before Raizel could ask what she meant, "hands" suddenly began emerging all across Elentear—from towns, estates, farms, coastlines, and everywhere in between.
Hands also began erupting from Black Moon Mountain.
Selene and Irene could no longer remain idle. The two of them began investigating the Binding Hands as well.
Selene held her palm toward the ground and closed her eyes, sensing the violent disturbance in the world's Magic Power.
"The Magic Power running out of control does seem to be my fault, but even I can no longer stop it."
Irene shook her head.
"No. There is a way. These hands may seem chaotic, but they all converge on a single point. Follow them, find the main body, and destroy it."
With Irene's deep understanding of world reconstruction Magic, the origin of those hands could not escape her senses.
She lightly tapped the ground with her antler staff, and crimson Magic Power spread through the earth, probing deep underground.
...
"There are way too many hands!"
"The world is going to end..."
"Can we escape? Can we flee to Earth Land? How did you come here? Can you take us with you?"
The female Mages of Whiteout Village lowered their heads and covered their faces, speaking in despair.
The elderly priestess drew on all her strength and shouted,
"Everyone, raise your heads! Now is the time to use our Whiteout power to erase the excess Magic Power from this world! We must save Elentear!"
Lucy, Ultear, and the others encouraged them as well.
"We'll help too!"
"Everyone! Even people who do not belong to this world are fighting to protect it! We have no right to run away! Elentear must be defended by our own hands!"
The High White Priestess had protected Elentear for many years, and she had her own pride. She would never allow herself to flee and watch Elentear be destroyed.
Irene sent the method she had discovered to Erza.
Raizel's group descended underground from Whiteout Village, while Irene and Selene entered from Black Moon Mountain.
Both sides followed the Binding Hands toward their source.
On Raizel's side, Lucy summoned Virgo, who rapidly dug downward by following the direction of the hands' Magic Power.
"There's a cavern this deep underground?"
The group had been digging along the flow of Magic Power when they suddenly broke into an underground cavern.
At that exact moment, a hand burst upward from directly in front of them and extended toward the surface.
"It's close!"
Everyone immediately understood.
By the time Raizel's group arrived, Selene and Irene were already there.
The two stood before a colossal stone carving of a human face. Countless "hands"—the so-called Binding Hands—extended from behind it.
The enormous stone face contained a staggering amount of Magic Power.
"That thing is huge!"
"What is it?"
"If we defeat it..."
"The Magic Power will stop running wild, right?"
Then Irene said something none of them expected.
"F.A.C.E. It resembles Ishgar's F.A.C.E."
With Irene's reminder, Raizel suddenly noticed the similarity too.
Those hands really did resemble F.A.C.E.
The difference was that Ishgar's weapon took the form of faces, while Elentear's version manifested as hands.
Ultear looked surprised.
"F.A.C.E.? You mean the Council's weapon?"
Ishgar's F.A.C.E. weapons had neither been destroyed nor activated. The three Organic Link keys still existed, and Raizel was one of them. Ultear and the others all knew that.
This one, however, seemed slightly different.
"How ugly this world is..... O light of Magic, overflow. Let Magic fill the entire world and destroy everything."
Because the stone face could speak.
"No... is it talking?" Lucy asked, staring at it in horror.
Natsu glared at the stone carving.
"Is this rampage happening because you want it to?!"
The stone face repeated itself.
"How ugly this world is..... I am the source of Magic in this ugly world—Alta Face."
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