Chapter 371: Strategy Meeting
"Thus, all three guilds are fully assembled." Seeing everyone stop fighting, Jura spoke up.
"Let us all introduce ourselves first, especially the magic we commonly use, so that we can better coordinate our combat efforts." As the strongest mage here and one of the two oldest, Jura naturally took on the responsibility of a leader. Many people present did not know the names or magic of the others, so introducing themselves was highly necessary.
"I will start. I am Jura, and I specialize in various types of Earth Magic," Jura was the first to introduce himself.
"I am Yuka Suzuki. I use 'Wave', which neutralizes the opponent's magic," the blue-haired young man from Lamia Scale said.
"I am Sherry Blendy. I use 'Marionette Magic', which allows me to manipulate anything other than humans," the other Lamia Scale member, a girl with long pink hair, introduced herself.
Seeing Lamia Scale take the lead, everyone else began their own introductions.
Ichiya used Perfume Magic to produce special effects using various scents. Hibiki used Archive Magic. Eve used Snow Magic to launch snowballs and avalanches. Ren used Air Magic to shatter space and drain oxygen.
The Fairy Tail members also introduced the magic they used.
"Archive Magic? Doesn't Noah use that kind of magic too?" Sorano spoke up.
"Indeed. It was about six years ago. He studied Archive Magic alongside me, and back then, he learned much faster than I did. Thanks to his help, I was able to master Archive Magic faster and better," Hibiki nodded, reminiscing as he spoke.
Hearing Hibiki's words, the Fairy Tail members smiled, and their attitude toward him improved significantly.
"Everyone's magic is so amazing," Lucy sighed in admiration, having witnessed a lot of incredible new magic once again.
"Now then, since everyone has introduced themselves, I shall proceed with the operational briefing," Ichiya stepped in front of everyone, striking a pose as he spoke.
"There is no need to strike a pose for that..." Lucy retorted.
"First, the Oración Seis. The place where the Oración Seis is gathering is..." Ichiya paused mid-sentence. His upper body held the pose while his lower body rapidly shuffled away into the distance. "Ah... before that, I must go and experience the rich parfum of the toilet."
"Hey, don't use the word 'parfum' for a place like that!" Gray shouted without hesitation.
Since the person explaining the strategy plan had gone to the bathroom, everyone had no choice but to chat among themselves while waiting for his return.
"If you head north from here, you will find the endless Worth Woodsea. The ancients sealed a powerful magic inside that sea of trees. Its name is... Nirvana," Ichiya struck another pose upon his return and began the operational briefing.
"I already told you there is no need to pose," Gray couldn't help but say, watching Ichiya's movements.
"Nirvana?"
"Never heard of that magic."
The Fairy Tail members all stated they had never heard of it. For reasons of secrecy, Noah had not told the others about this magic beforehand.
"What about you, Jura-sama?" Sherry asked Jura beside her.
"No... I have not heard of it either," Jura shook his head.
"All we know at the moment is that it is a destructive magic sealed by the ancients," Ren said.
"But we still don't know exactly what kind of magic it is," Eve added.
"A destructive magic?" Natsu said.
"I'm getting a really bad feeling about this," Lucy said nervously.
"The Oración Seis gathering in the sea of trees must be for the sake of obtaining Nirvana," Hibiki said.
"In order to stop this, we must subjugate the Oración Seis!" Ichiya and the Blue Pegasus trio struck a synchronized pose.
"They're posing again..." Lucy said helplessly.
"I don't even want to complain about it anymore," Gray echoed her exhaustion.
"We have 13 people on our side, and the enemy has 5, but we absolutely cannot underestimate them. Those five are ridiculously strong," Hibiki told the group. He then snapped his fingers, and a magical keyboard and screen materialized beside him. After typing on it for a moment, multiple screens displaying different figures appeared in front of everyone.
"These are the visual records of them that we finally managed to obtain recently," Hibiki informed everyone.
The moment these images appeared, Noah reached out and placed his hand on Ur's shoulder.
Immediately, a freezing aura began to spill from Ur's body, but it was suppressed to the immediate area around her by a magic circle that manifested from Noah's hand, preventing the chill from radiating outward. The magic circle also concealed the fluctuations of magic power emanating from Ur, ensuring that Jura and the others wouldn't notice the anomaly over here.
"Huff... huff..." After panting a few times, Ur slowly withdrew the freezing aura she had emitted, and the magical fluctuations around her gradually ceased.
"Alright, I've calmed down, you don't need to keep doing that. To think that, just as you guessed, he really is in the Oración Seis," Ur said to Noah. However, her eyes remained dead set on one of the images in front of Hibiki, the hatred in her gaze unmistakable.
Seeing that Ur's breathing had indeed steadied, Noah nodded and released his grip on her shoulder. The magic circle lingered for a moment before slowly fading away.
"I already had images of all of them except Brain. It's likely that his recent movements to secure the magic known as Nirvana were a bit too conspicuous, which allowed others to capture a picture of him," Noah said, looking at the image of Brain floating in the air.
Because the other four were constantly active in the dark world, Noah had long since obtained their pictures. However, Brain, as their leader, had always been extremely careful about keeping his whereabouts hidden. Therefore, no pictures of him existed, and Noah had never been able to completely confirm if he was truly part of the Oración Seis.
"Since we've confirmed he is nearby, let's finish him for good this time. We cannot let him escape again," Ur said to Noah with absolute seriousness. She had spent years searching for this bastard; now that she had found him, she was not going to let him go.
"Mm, I definitely won't let him escape," Noah nodded. Having spent so much effort, he naturally wouldn't let his prey slip away.
While Ur's outburst had been swiftly suppressed, things played out differently on the other side.
The moment the images appeared, Ultear immediately spotted her target. She was instantly consumed by fiery rage. Influenced by her volatile emotions, her magic power involuntarily leaked out.
Swish!
The floor centering on Ultear was instantly frozen solid. Fortunately, none of the mages present were weaklings; they all quickly leapt back, dodging Ultear's unconscious attack.
"What is this?!"
"Hm?"
"What's wrong with her?"
Everyone turned to look at Ultear. The members of the other guilds instinctively assumed combat stances.
"I apologize. One of her sworn enemies is among them, and she lost control of her emotions for a moment. That is why this happened," Sorano explained to the group as she walked over to Ultear, putting an arm around her shoulder to comfort and calm her down.
Although Sorano also harbored hatred for Brain, it was much lighter compared to Ultear's, so she was able to keep her emotions in check.
"Huff... huff..." Under Sorano's comforting words, Ultear took several deep breaths, slowly calming her surging magic power.
"I apologize. I got too emotional and affected everyone," Ultear apologized to the group.
"It is fine." Everyone shook their heads, indicating that they didn't mind. After all, it was perfectly understandable to become highly emotional upon seeing a sworn enemy.
Confirming there was no further issue, the others dropped their combat stances.
"A mage who uses poisonous snakes, Cobra." Seeing that Ultear's emotions had recovered, Hibiki resumed introducing the data on the Oración Seis.
"What a nasty face, that guy with the slanted eyes," Natsu said without hesitation.
"You look pretty much the same, alright?" Gray retorted immediately.
"From his name, you can guess that he uses a speed-type magic, Racer," Hibiki said.
"Whatever his magic is, that's a seriously irritating face," Gray grumbled, looking displeased.
"As long as there's big money to be made, he's a mage who can wipe out an entire army single-handedly using his Heavenly Eye... Hoteye."
"For money?" Sherry said.
"How despicable," Jura frowned.
"There is very little intel on this man, but he is known as 'Midnight'," Hibiki continued his introduction.
"Midnight? What a weird name," Erza, who had also walked over to comfort Ultear, commented curiously.
"And finally, their commander... Brain. There's even less data on this man. We only recently learned his name and what he looks like," Hibiki said, pointing at the image of the final person.
"That guy is the former Chief of the Bureau of Magical Development," Ultear said with sheer hatred in her voice.
"No wonder I couldn't find any data on him. I'd only heard that the Bureau of Magical Development was shut down a long time ago for some reason, but I never knew why. So that's how it is," Hibiki instantly understood the situation.
The Bureau of Magical Development fell under the direct jurisdiction of the Magic Council. If something went wrong there, the Council would undoubtedly cover up the related information, making it genuinely difficult for him to find anything. Add to that the passage of so much time, and the information became even scarcer. Moreover, he hadn't had the image for very long, giving him no time to dig deeper into the data, as some highly classified files were not simply stored in his Archive.
"Every single one of them possesses the strength to single-handedly crush an entire guild. We must utilize our advantage in numbers. If their commander is the former Chief of the Bureau of Magical Development, then we need to be even more careful. It is highly likely he possesses magic we have never seen or heard of before. We must be extremely cautious," Hibiki warned everyone.
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