Chapter 341: The White Legacy, Face
Whoosh—!
A sharp, violent distortion of space rippled through the center of the chaotic Fairy Tail guildhall. The rowdy atmosphere of flying beer mugs, brawling mages, and roaring laughter was instantly snuffed out as a brilliant flash of azure light crackled across the wooden floorboards.
When the spatial energy dissipated, four figures stood in the middle of the hall. Ren appeared as calm and unfazed as ever, brushing a speck of dust from his shoulder. Beside him stood the trembling, cat-like former Magic Council member, Michello, and his equally terrified granddaughter, Michelia. Finally, the battered, unconscious body of the Etherious demon, Jackal, lay dumped unceremoniously onto the floor.
"Ren?!"
The momentary silence shattered. Chairs scraped against the floor as the entire guild swarmed toward the center of the hall, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"Ren, you're back already?!" Natsu yelled, pushing his way through the crowd, his scarf fluttering. "That was insanely fast!"
"Seriously? It feels like you literally just left," Gray muttered, crossing his arms as he eyed the unconscious demon on the floor.
"Who in the world are these people?" Erza asked, stepping forward, her sharp gaze scanning the new arrivals.
The guild members murmured among themselves, deeply confused by the strange, eclectic group Ren had dragged back with him.
For Michelia, the sheer whiplash of the teleportation left her dizzy and gasping for air. It was simply too fast. One moment she was staring at impending doom, and in the blink of an eye, the world had warped around her, dropping her into a loud, unfamiliar tavern filled with intensely powerful magical auras. After blinking away the residual spots in her vision, she took a careful look around. The legendary crest painted on the walls confirmed it—this was the Fairy Tail Guild.
Suddenly, her frantic gaze locked onto a familiar face leaning casually against a pillar near the bar. The color rushed back to her pale cheeks, her eyes widening in unadulterated surprise.
"Loke!!"
Without a second thought, Michelia broke away from her grandfather and pounced across the room, throwing her arms around the orange-haired playboy.
Loke, adjusting his signature tinted glasses, was mildly startled by the sudden incoming projectile, but his playboy instincts flared to life effortlessly. He caught her mid-air, wrapping his strong arms securely around her waist and pulling her flush against his chest.
"Michelia!" Loke breathed out, a genuinely fond smile breaking across his handsome face. He buried his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling her familiar scent, holding her unabashedly tight in his embrace.
It had been an agonizingly long time since they had last seen each other. The seven-year time skip on Tenrou Island hadn't just affected the Fairy Tail mages; Lucy had been frozen in suspended animation along with the rest, meaning Loke had been entirely cut off from the human world. Even after their triumphant return, he was still bound by his contract as Lucy's Celestial Spirit, meaning he couldn't just roam Earth Land as freely as he did back when he was a 'human' guild member. Consequently, he hadn't been able to visit any of his past lovers.
"I missed you so much...!" Michelia whimpered, burying her face into his chest, her fingers gripping the lapels of his tailored suit as if terrified he would vanish into golden stardust.
"I know, baby. I missed you too," Loke murmured in a smooth, velvety tone. He trailed a gentle hand down the curve of her spine, pressing a lingering, passionate kiss to the crown of her head.
Despite being a legendary womanizer, Loke possessed a strange, undeniable charm—he was fiercely loyal and incredibly affectionate to every single woman he dated. It was a testament to his charisma that his former girlfriends were still so hopelessly devoted to him.
Nearby, Lucy slapped a hand over her face, groaning loudly. "This stupid spirit... Not even five minutes in the guildhall and he's already swooning over a girl."
While the reunion played out, the short, elderly Michello stood frozen, staring at the familiar, diminutive old man standing before him.
"Master Makarov!" Michello gasped, his voice trembling.
Makarov blinked, utterly stunned to see the short, cat-eared old man standing in his guildhall. During Michello's tenure as a prominent Magic Council Member, he had been a constant thorn in Makarov's side, frequently summoning him to ERA to mercilessly scold him over Fairy Tail's catastrophic collateral damage.
Of course, deep down, Makarov knew it wasn't entirely Michello's fault. Fairy Tail's destructive habits caused infinite headaches for the Council, and the scoldings were well-deserved.
"Michello!" Makarov responded, his tone a mix of surprise and complicated relief. Seeing his old colleague alive brought a wave of comfort to Michello. Makarov was a genuine powerhouse—one of the Ten Wizard Saints. Standing in the heart of Fairy Tail with Makarov present, the former Council member finally felt a modicum of safety.
"Ren, who exactly is this guy?" Erza asked, her voice cutting through the chatter as she pointed her sword down at Jackal's limp, battered body. The demon's strange, beast-like features and the lingering, ominous aura of his Curse power put the veteran mages on edge.
"Him?" Ren casually nudged Jackal's ribs with the toe of his boot. "He's a member of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros. He's also the culprit who blew up the Magic Council headquarters."
The guildhall fell into a dead, suffocating silence.
"What?!"
"This guy did it?!"
"He single-handedly wiped out the Council?!"
The guild erupted into shouts of disbelief and outrage. The sheer destructive power required to obliterate ERA was unfathomable, yet the monster responsible was currently laid out on their floor like a discarded rug.
"Master," Ren continued smoothly, cutting off the rising panic. "This guy is an Etherious from Tartaros. His blood contains the exact compounds we need to synthesize a vaccine against the Magical Barrier Particles. He's our golden ticket."
"Good! Good work, my boy!" Makarov's eyes lit up with profound relief and pleasant surprise. He slammed his staff against the floorboards. "Quickly, take him up to the infirmary! Give him to Porlyusica immediately!"
Ren never ceased to amaze him. To deploy, track down a high-ranking Tartaros demon, save a former Council member, and return with the exact cure they desperately needed in record time was a feat only Ren could accomplish.
Without breaking a sweat, Ren hoisted Jackal onto his shoulder and carried him up the wooden stairs to the second-floor infirmary.
Pushing the heavy oak doors open, Ren was met with the pungent, overwhelming scent of medicinal herbs and sterilized alcohol. Porlyusica, Fairy Tail's resident medical advisor and misanthrope, looked up from her vials, her eyes narrowing in surprise. She hadn't expected Ren to return so quickly, but then again, she was well aware of his unfathomable strength. With his spatial manipulation, distance was essentially meaningless.
"Ms. Porlyusica," Ren said, dropping Jackal heavily onto a reinforced steel operating table. The demon groaned, still deeply unconscious. "This is a demon from Tartaros. Extract whatever you need from his blood to synthesize a vaccine for the Bane Particles. If his blood isn't enough, just tell me. I'll go hunt down the rest of them."
Porlyusica stepped closer, her sharp pink eyes scrutinizing the Etherious. "I will certainly try. But this creature... its physiological makeup is completely different from a human's. If he wakes up in the middle of my extraction—"
"Don't worry," Ren interrupted with a smirk. "He won't be able to move a muscle for a good long while. I hit him hard enough to scramble his nervous system."
"Hmph. I don't care how hard you hit him. If he twitches, he ruins my work," Porlyusica scoffed. "Even if he can move, I have ways to ensure he remains compliant."
She turned around and opened a heavy iron cabinet. When she turned back, Ren's stoic expression cracked for a split second.
In her hands, Porlyusica held a massive, terrifyingly oversized syringe. The needle was thicker than a steel nail, filled to the brim with a murky, neon-purple liquid. Without a moment of hesitation or a hint of bedside manner, she slammed the massive needle directly into Jackal's thigh, injecting the entire payload of liquid in one swift, brutal motion.
`[System Notification: Lethal dose of unknown paralytic toxin detected. Target: Jackal. Status: Completely incapacitated... possibly comatose.]`
"What the hell was that?" Ren asked, his eye twitching slightly.
"A highly concentrated paralytic agent," Porlyusica stated dryly, pulling the massive needle out and tossing it aside. "Just a single drop of this serum is enough to completely paralyze a fully grown adult for three days. I gave him a significantly increased dosage. I don't care how powerful this demonic brat is; his nervous system is entirely shut down. He won't be moving a single finger for the next month."
Ren stared at the old woman in stunned silence. A single drop paralyzes someone for three days? That giant syringe must have held hundreds of drops!
Too much anesthetic could easily stop a person's heart. This grumpy old woman genuinely had zero intention of showing mercy. It was a stark reminder that pharmacists and healers could be the most ruthless people on the battlefield when they set their minds to it. Deciding it was best to leave the scary medic to her grim work, Ren silently stepped backward, opened the door, and slipped out of the infirmary.
Downstairs, the atmosphere had grown tense and heavy. The guild members had formed a tight circle around Makarov and the trembling Michello.
"Michello, what exactly is the reason behind this?" Makarov pressed his old colleague, his tone deadly serious. "Do you know anything about Tartaros's true motives? Why do they insist on hunting down and slaughtering all the Council Members?"
"H-How would I know?!" Michello stammered, sweat pouring down his wrinkled face. "There are countless people in the criminal underworld who hold deep grudges against the Magic Council..."
"Don't play games with me, Michello," Makarov interrupted sternly. "Even if that were true, it would be one thing if they solely targeted the current acting Council Members. But they are actively hunting down former Members as well. You and I both know this isn't as simple as a petty grudge. They are looking for something specific."
Michello flinched as if struck. "I... could it be...? No, how is that possible? Such highly classified information... only a handful of people in the entire world know about it!" He suddenly slapped both hands over his mouth, his eyes darting around the room in absolute panic. "I don't know anything! I swear, I really don't know anything!"
His blatant overreaction was a dead giveaway. Every single mage in the room stared at him, their expressions hardening. It was painfully obvious he was hiding something monumental.
"Michello," Makarov warned, his magical aura flaring slightly, causing the air in the room to grow heavy. "If you know anything about what Tartaros is planning, you must tell us immediately. Fairy Tail needs to prepare, and millions of lives could be at stake."
"No... I can't say a word!" Michello squeaked, backing away until he hit a wooden pillar. "This violates the highest tier of Council regulations! It's absolute treason!"
Thud.
Heavy footsteps descended the stairs. Ren walked over, his expression utterly void of empathy. He loomed over the short, cat-eared man, his shadow swallowing Michello whole.
"Listen closely," Ren said, his voice dropping to a chilling, glacial octave. "If you don't want to tell us, that's fine. I'll just throw you out the front doors and let you fend for yourself against the Nine Demon Gates."
Michello let out a pathetic shriek, his knees buckling. "No! No, please! I can't die! If I die, this entire continent will be finished!"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Natsu demanded, narrowing his eyes.
"The entire continent?" Erza repeated, her hand instinctively resting on the hilt of her sword. The guild members murmured, utterly confused and deeply unnerved by Michello's apocalyptic words.
"I don't give a damn about your pathetic Council regulations," Ren continued, grabbing Michello by the collar of his expensive robes and lifting him effortlessly off the ground. "The Magic Council is literally a pile of rubble right now. Your rules mean absolutely nothing. If you don't speak up in the next three seconds, you're going out the window."
Ren casually reared his arm back, preparing to launch the former councilor through the guild's stained-glass windows. He truly didn't care about the political red tape of Ishgar.
"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Michello screamed in pure terror, waving his arms frantically.
Ren stopped, keeping the old man suspended in the air. "Start talking."
Michello took a ragged, shaking breath, his eyes wide with a lingering dread.
"The White Legacy... Face."
"Face?" Lucy repeated, furrowing her brow.
The name echoed through the silent guildhall. Ren narrowed his eyes. The name tickled a distant memory in his mind, a lingering piece of lore from the system's vast archives, but it had been a long time, and the exact specifics eluded him.
"Face is one of the ultimate doomsday weapons held in secret by the Magic Council," Michello explained, his voice hollow and defeated as Ren lowered him back to his feet. "To maintain the Council's absolute rule over the continent of Ishgar, we developed and stockpiled multiple superweapons. Depending on their danger level and strategic importance, they have different management protocols."
He paused, swallowing hard. "For example, you all know of Etherion."
[Akarin's Note: Etherion is the Magic Council's ultimate satellite-based weapon, a massive cannon capable of firing a concentrated blast of elemental magic devastating enough to vaporize an entire country in a single strike.]
"Etherion is a super-magic cannon capable of keeping the entire continent in a state of lockdown," Michello continued. "Its sheer destructive power is enough to wipe a nation off the map in a fraction of a second. But to prevent its misuse, firing it requires the physical, magical consent of all nine active Council Members."
"Wait..." Gray's eyes widened in sudden realization. "In other words, now that all the current Council Members have been assassinated..."
"...The Magic Council can no longer activate Etherion," Erza finished, her face turning pale. "The enemy wanted to cripple the Council's greatest deterrent!"
"Exactly," Makarov said grimly, leaning heavily on his staff. He turned his piercing gaze back to Michello. "But if Etherion is disabled, what kind of weapon is Face? Why are they hunting the former Members?"
Michello trembled violently. He closed his eyes tight, shaking his head. He clearly didn't want to speak the cursed words into existence. But the more he resisted, the more the dread pooled in the stomachs of the Fairy Tail mages. He had openly discussed Etherion—a country-destroying superweapon—but was terrified to even speak of Face.
That meant Face was infinitely worse.
"I understand you have a sworn obligation to keep this a secret," Makarov reprimanded, his voice booming with authority. "But now is not the time to play politics! Millions will die if Tartaros succeeds!"
Michello slowly opened his eyes. The fight had completely drained out of him, replaced by the hollow gaze of a man who had resigned himself to a horrific fate.
"Face is a Magic Pulse Bomb," Michello whispered, his voice echoing loudly in the deafening silence of the guild. "It is a weapon designed to completely eliminate all magic power across the entire continent."
[Akarin's Note:
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