"That man's holding a Dogramag Core, isn't he?"
While Mira rested one hand against her cheek and considered the situation, the stranger suddenly clutched the core and took off running.
"Wait!"
Mira immediately chased after him.
"I found this treasure! I'm not giving it to anyone!!!"
The man never looked back as he sprinted down the corridor.
Unfortunately for him, running could never compete with flying—especially when the one pursuing him had already activated Satan Soul.
Mira spread her wings, shot past him, and landed directly in his path.
"Stop. Who are you?"
She frowned and extended her right hand to block his way.
"A Mage? Why would there be a Mage in a place like this?"
Sensing the Magic Power coming from Mira, the man regarded her warily.
He had slightly long hair tied behind his head, black tattoos beneath his left eye and across that side of his forehead, and wore something resembling striped coveralls.
'Why is he surprised to see a Mage? Does that mean he isn't one?'
Mira kept a close eye on his movements before glancing at the sphere clenched in his hand.
"That isn't actually treasure, you know. Please hand it over."
Realizing that Mira was also after his prize, the man stepped back and tightened his grip around the core.
"Are you a member of Diabolos?" Mira asked tentatively.
"Diabolos..."
The man thought for a moment before muttering,
"If I remember correctly, that's supposed to be the strongest Mage guild on this continent."
Mira immediately caught the implication.
"Judging by the way you said that, you're clearly not one of their members."
The man puffed out his chest and introduced himself proudly.
"I'm Sai, a member of Gold Owl—the greatest alchemist guild on the continent of Guiltina!"
"An alchemist guild?"
Mira was mildly surprised, though mostly because she had not expected to encounter an alchemist in a place like this.
After handling countless mission reports over the years, she possessed at least some knowledge of alchemy.
Wall Eehto, one of the Spriggan 12's Invel—no, one of their members—had also been an alchemist.
"Whether you're an alchemist or a Mage, I can't allow you to take that sphere."
Sai protectively held the Dogramag Core against himself.
"I found this treasure. I'm not giving it to you."
"That isn't treasure," Mira explained patiently. "It's a fragment of the dragon that created this labyrinth."
Sai tossed the sphere lightly into the air and caught it again with a grin.
"I know. That's exactly why it's treasure. It's an essential alchemical material for advancing our guild's research."
Mira planted one hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes.
"Then it looks like I'll have to take it by force."
The instant she finished speaking, she vanished into a blur and appeared in front of him.
In truth, Mira had complete control of the situation.
Her only real objective was to destroy the sphere; defeating Sai was merely secondary.
"Do you even understand alchemy?" Sai began as he prepared to activate his technique.
"Do you even understand speed?"
Mira was already behind him.
Her demonic claw pressed against the back of his head and drove his face straight into the floor, while her other hand snatched away the Dogramag Core and crushed it.
Mira had not held back in the slightest.
Fortunately for Sai, the stone floor of the Dogramag Labyrinth was absurdly durable. Otherwise, his head might have ended up buried in the ground like an ostrich's.
Even so, slamming forehead-first into that surface left him temporarily unable to fight.
As he lay sprawled across the floor, Sai incoherently muttered something about the Signario Sisters and "God Bro."
"I'm terribly sorry. Everyone's in a hurry, yet I wasted so much time here."
Mira had no intention of staying around to entertain him.
Destroying the Dogramag Cores took priority, and Sai had simply chosen the worst possible person to rob.
He had been defeated before he could use a single one of his techniques involving the "Bond of Friendship," "Bond of Lovers," or "Bond of the Weak."
Mira ran through Selene's magic water mirror while reporting through her portable communication Lacrima.
"Attention, everyone. A member of Gold Owl, Guiltina's leading alchemist guild, has appeared inside the labyrinth. He uses alchemy, so remain cautious!"
"He was also muttering something about the Signario Sisters and 'God Bro'..."
As Mira finished her report, she followed Selene's pointing finger and ran straight into another water mirror.
"Understood!"
Everyone responded at once.
Then they all suddenly processed what she had said.
"Wait—God Bro?!"
Could she have meant God Serena, the former strongest of Ishgar's Four Emperors?
...
"You're a strange one."
After taking a Fire Dragon's Claw directly to the forehead without flinching, Dogramag suddenly looked at Natsu with curiosity.
"You carry the scents of a dragon, a demon, and a human."
"Your dragon nose isn't very good! That stuff is all in the past. I'm human!"
Natsu stamped his right foot against the floor and drove a Fire Dragon King's Demolition Fist toward the side of Dogramag's face.
Until now, Natsu's attacks had been completely ineffective.
This time, however, Dogramag actually suffered a slight injury.
At the same moment, he manipulated a stone pillar with one finger to block Raizel's slash.
Dogramag stared at Natsu in surprise.
"He actually wounded my body? Why?"
Part of the reason was the enhancement provided by Natsu's Flames of Emotion.
The other reason was that Selene had been right. Every destroyed Dogramag Core weakened him.
"Thirty-seven remaining!"
...
"Found one. Heh."
Gajeel had just spotted another core when he suddenly caught an unusual scent.
"What is that smell...?"
"One dragon... No, two..."
"GOD, hello!"
A man stepped into the corridor.
He had orange hair tied into high twin tails and a horizontal scar running across the bridge of his nose.
It was God Serena, the former strongest of Ishgar's Four Emperors and the Eight-Dragon God Serena.
Now, however, he possessed a new identity.
He was a member of the alchemist guild Gold Owl.
"So it really is you... God Serena."
The moment Mira mentioned "God Bro," Gajeel had immediately thought of him. He simply had not expected his guess to be correct.
God Serena looked pleasantly surprised.
"Oh? You know me?"
He immediately began striking one flamboyant pose after another. At last, he held one palm above his head and the other before his chest.
"What an honor, Mister Monster."
"I'm human!!!"
God Serena spread his hands.
"I just ran into a whole pack of stone monsters, so naturally I assumed I'd found another humanoid creature."
"I'm Gajeel of Fairy Tail. I've heard what happened to you. You betrayed Ishgar to follow Zeref, then disappeared after Raizel defeated you."
God Serena launched into another series of incomprehensible poses. He covered part of his face with his left hand and wagged the index finger of his right.
"NO, NO, NO."
"I did not disappear."
"I was reborn—in every possible sense of the word!"