The Worth Woodsea was a sprawling, ancient forest that felt entirely detached from the rest of the world.
The towering, moss-covered trees blotted out the sun, casting the forest floor in a permanent, eerie twilight.
The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and decaying leaves, and an unsettling silence hung over the dense foliage.
The Allied Forces marched cautiously through the thick underbrush.
After finding the real Ichiya bound and gagged in a supply closet back at the Blue Pegasus villa, the coalition had left him behind to recover and immediately set out to hunt their targets.
At the front of the formation, Natsu continuously sniffed the air, his brow furrowed in fierce concentration.
Erza and Jura flanked him, their eyes scanning the dark treeline.
Ace walked near the back, his footsteps completely silent against the forest floor.
Patamon rode comfortably on his right shoulder, while Armadillomon marched steadfastly by his side, the Digimon's heavy claws crunching softly against the fallen leaves.
"They're close," Natsu suddenly growled, coming to a halt.
He pointed toward a steep, rocky ridge overlooking a wide clearing just ahead.
"I smell something foul up there. It smells like... dead snakes and old dirt."
"Such s precise senses," Jura murmured, gripping his staff tightly.
The group stepped into the clearing.
As if summoned by Natsu's words, the shadows atop the ridge began to shift.
Five figures slowly stepped into view, looking down at the Allied Forces with expressions ranging from sheer boredom to predatory amusement.
At the center stood a tall, imposing man with dark skin, white hair, and complex tribal tattoos etched across his face. Brain.
To his right stood a man with crimson, spiky hair, a massive, purple venomous snake coiled lazily around his shoulders. Cobra.
To his left was a man wearing a sleek, aerodynamic racing suit with a prominent nose. Racer.
Beside him stood a tall, peculiar man with square hair and a disturbing, blocky smile, holding a golden staff. Hoteye.
And finally, floating on a magical carpet just behind them, was a young man with black and white hair, sleeping soundly as if the impending battle was nothing more than a minor nuisance. Midnight.
"Well, well. It seems the little alliance of official guilds actually managed to find us," Brain said, his deep, resonant voice echoing across the clearing.
His dark eyes swept over the group, his gaze lingering for a fraction of a second on Ace before returning to Jura.
"And it appears we are missing a piece. Where is Angel?"
"She's currently enjoying the hospitality of the Magic Council's holding cells," Erza stated coldly, drawing her sword.
"Your preemptive strike failed, Brain. It's over. You're outnumbered."
"Outnumbered?" Cobra burst into a fit of harsh, grating laughter, petting the head of his snake, Cubellios.
"Hear that, Brain? The fairies think numbers mean something!"
"It matters not," Brain said, his expression completely indifferent. "Angel was a fool to get caught playing games. Five of us is more than enough to eradicate this pathetic coalition."
"Less talking, more fighting!" Natsu roared.
He didn't wait for a strategy or a signal.
He ignited his fists and launched himself like a rocket straight up the rocky incline toward the Oración Seis.
"Natsu, wait!" Gray yelled, instantly running after him
. Lyon, unwilling to be outdone by his rival, followed suit with the Trimens close behind.
Ace didn't move forward. Instead, he calmly stepped back, leaping up with to land silently on a thick, overhanging tree branch overlooking the battlefield.
Patamon fluttered up to join him and Armadillomon curled into a ball to bounce up beside his Tamer.
"Aren't we going to help them, Ace?" Patamon asked, tilting his winged head.
"Not yet," Ace replied, crossing his arms as he watched the chaotic brawl unfold below. "I need to see how they handle a threat like this. The Dark Masters overwhelmed them with raw power. But the Oración Seis operates differently. Let's see if they remember their training."
...
Down in the clearing, the battle erupted into instant chaos.
"I'll take the fiery one!" Racer sneered, leaping down from the ridge.
"Ice-Make: Lance!" Gray roared, firing a barrage of freezing spears to intercept the dark mage.
But before the ice even left Gray's hands, Racer vanished.
He didn't just move fast, he seemed to skip across reality itself. In the blink of an eye, Racer appeared behind Gray, slamming a devastating kick into his ribs.
Gray coughed up blood, flying sideways into Lyon.
"Too slow!" Racer laughed, blurring again.
Hibiki, Eve, and Ren tried to surround him, but they were entirely outmatched.
Racer appeared as a dozen simultaneous afterimages, landing brutal, disabling strikes on all three Blue Pegasus mages before they could even cast a single spell.
Up in the tree, Ace narrowed his eyes, his eyes constantly analyzing the battlefield.
'It's not pure speed,' Ace noted silently.
'He's projecting a localized field that alters the perception of time for anyone caught inside it. He isn't moving faster, he's making them slower.'
Meanwhile, Natsu had reached the top of the ridge, swinging a massive, flaming fist right at Cobra's smug face.
Cobra didn't even look at the attack.
He simply leaned his head an inch to the left. Natsu's fist sailed harmlessly past his ear.
"Fire Dragon's... Roar!" Natsu unleashed a point-blank blast of fire.
Cobra ducked perfectly under the cone of flames, sweeping his leg to knock Natsu off balance.
"I can hear it," Cobra mocked, pointing a finger to his ear. "I can hear the sound of your muscles contracting. I can hear the air entering your lungs. I can hear your thoughts before you even make them. You can't touch me."
"Damn it!" Natsu snarled, trying to coordinate a flurry of rapid-fire punches, but Cobra danced through the assault flawlessly, striking Natsu with precise, poison-laced counterattacks that sent the Dragon Slayer tumbling back down the ridge.
On the other side of the clearing, Jura Neekis stepped forward to support the vanguard, slamming his heavy palms against the earth.
"Iron Rock Wall!"
Massive, towering pillars of solid stone erupted from the ground, aiming to crush Hoteye and Brain.
"Oh, money! Money solves everything, yes!" Hoteye laughed bizarrely.
He pointed his golden staff at the approaching stone pillars.
"Liquid Ground!"
The solid, unyielding stone instantly softened, collapsing into a wave of useless, muddy sludge that splashed harmlessly against Hoteye's boots.
Jura's eyes widened in genuine shock as the very earth beneath his feet suddenly turned to quicksand, pulling the Wizard Saint down to his knees.
'They're relying on conceptual magic, not just raw output,' Ace analyzed.
His guildmates were fighting bravely, and they were attempting to coordinate—Gray was trying to cover Natsu's blind spots, and Jura was trying to control the terrain.
But the Oración Seis possessed highly specific, "hax" abilities that perfectly countered traditional, straightforward magic.
"I can't let him keep dodging!" Erza declared, her eyes narrowing as she saw Natsu getting overwhelmed by Cobra.
She Requipped instantly into her Flight Armor, enhancing her speed to its absolute maximum.
Like a silver flash, she darted past the struggling vanguard, closing the distance to Cobra in a fraction of a second.
She didn't think, she let her battle instincts take over, swinging her blades in a chaotic, unpredictable flurry to overload Cobra's hearing.
"Fast!" Cobra gritted his teeth, forced to take a step back as Erza's twin swords grazed his cheek.
"But not fast enough!"
Cobra hissed a command.
Cubellios, the massive purple snake coiled around him, struck with terrifying speed.
"Erza, look out!" Lucy screamed from the backline.
Erza tried to twist away, but she was entirely committed to her offensive strike.
Cubellios's massive fangs sank deeply into Erza's right arm.
Erza gasped, stumbling backward as the snake released her.
Almost instantly, a sickly, dark purple discoloration began to spread up her arm.
The poison was incredibly virulent; Erza collapsed to her knees, her swords clattering to the ground as she clutched her burning arm, her breathing turning ragged and shallow.
"Erza!" Natsu screamed, trying to reach her, but Racer blurred into existence, kicking him back into the mud.
"How tragic," Brain sneered, watching the coalition crumble before them in less than three minutes.
"You thought yourselves hunters, but you are merely prey."
Brain's gaze drifted over the defeated mages, finally landing on the small, trembling figure standing near the back, clutching a white cat.
Wendy Marvell.
Brain's eyes widened, a dark realization flashing across his tattooed face.
"That girl... that aura... It cannot be. The Maiden of the Sky?! The lost magic of the Sky Dragon?!"
Wendy took a terrified step back. "H-How do you know about that?"
"Hahahahaha! Fate smiles upon the Oración Seis!" Brain roared triumphantly, his magical power flaring like a dark, suffocating storm.
"With her healing magic, we can revive him! We can revive the one who holds the key to Nirvana!"
Brain raised his staff, a massive shadowy hand of pure dark magic erupting from the ground.
It shot forward like a serpent, bypassing the struggling alliance members, aiming directly to snatch Wendy away.
Wendy screamed, squeezing her eyes shut.
But the dark hand never reached her.
Whoosh!
"Boom Bubble!"
A highly compressed blast of air shot down from the tree canopy, striking the shadow hand with the force of a cannonball.
The dark magic shattered like glass, dispersing harmlessly into the wind just inches from Wendy's face.
Brain's triumphant smile vanished, his eyes snapping furiously toward the trees.
Ace dropped gracefully from the overhanging branch, landing perfectly between Brain and the terrified little girl.
Patamon fluttered down to hover over his right shoulder, while Armadillomon hit the ground with a heavy thud on his left.
Ace didn't look at the defeated alliance members.
He kept his eyes locked dead onto the leader of the Oración Seis.
The cool, observational detachment was entirely gone from the Tamer's expression, replaced by a sharp, lethal focus.
"Observation time is over," Ace said, his voice cold and echoing clearly across the sudden silence of the clearing.
He raised his D-Tector, the device glowing with a brilliant, blinding light.
"If you want the kid, you'll have to go through me."