Brain, and Klodoa didn't waste any moment. After dodging he immediately used Klodoa as his magic staff, and waved forward, pointing to the place he was attacked earlier. Klodoa's lacrima glowed, and released a ray-shaped discharge of electricity.
The figure he attacked stood there not moving. Its hands were gave a white shine, revealing black fancy gloves. Right hand was clenched into fist, and stopped the attack for a second. Then the fist was waved to the right, making a noise on a nearby spot. A puff of smoke rose up.
"What a weak spell." Feminine voice resounded in Brain's ears. The same voice that he heard already twice, when he failed.
"So it's your doing?" Brain asked the familiar figure.
"Someone's smart." She said sarcastically.
"Oh, shut up! I don't know what you are doing here, but I'm going to clean that mess with your face. By the way I can't believe you found me."
"I have my ways. It's an old family secret shared between mothers and daughters…" She said mysteriously.
The tension between the two was growing. Brain understood that it won't be easy to go away. First he needs to defeat the woman standing before him. On the other hand Layla didn't seem to be in a hurry at all, which suggested that time is on her side.
He heard a lot about Layla. She's the most powerful Celestial Spirit Mage in her generation, and famous Demon Banisher, inheritor of 12 Golden Gate Keys, with very old lineage, starting even before Zeref was born. Thinking about this, Brain had to admit the assassination wasn't exactly a smart idea. The only reason why he decided to try such a bold move, was an attempt to exploit the situation. After stopping the last demon invasion, Layla started to grow weaker. It seems like she did something she definitely shouldn't, which resulted in her weakened state. It's also a significant thing that she gave up on most of her keys. After that she never unleashed the same power she used against the demons. The conclusion was very clear to him. She can't wield the same power she used to defeat the demons anymore. The family of Heartphilias is in a very hard situation. They managed to change that a little thanks to their business success, but it doesn't change the fact Layla is weak.
He wanted to put his hands on that inheritance. Kill Layla, and then maybe persuade Lucy to go with him, promising her the opportunity to get her revenge on the killer. However, in the end he heavily underestimated Layla. Not only was she able to avoid the assassination, but somehow she was able to determine that he planned to kill her, track him, and now… here he is. Running away from her.
'I feel pathetic. Still…'
The look in his eyes changed rapidly from somber to that of determination. There was fire in his eyes.
"After going so far I'm not going to give up. Mrs Layla, shall we dance?"
"No dance with you. I don't dance with filthy people." Layla replied with another insult.
"Shame. I have to dance solo."
On his free hand a fireball formed. Layla was preparing herself while Severin was keeping himself to ask Layla properly.
"Where's my Dad? Did you bring him here? Why did he go with you in the first place?" Severin broke the silence."
Layla didn't dare to stop looking on what Brain is doing. Without turning her head around she used the only reply she could come up with so fast.
"Sorry, kid. I couldn't bring him here, but he sent me here. If all goes well, you will meet soon."
"What did you do to him?" Severin demanded the answer.
"I don't…"
"Severin, I have to tell you something. When we talked that time, the mark I planted on Kibbe suddenly disappeared. At first I didn't want to believe that, but now it seems he's dead." Brain said sadly.
"What? Wasn't my dad enough for you?"
Layla had to grit her teeth to not laugh. This was actually something Brain hoped for.
"You killed him!"
"God damn!"
…
Brain is really a resourceful foe to deal with. He would have escaped a little sooner, and she wouldn't have been able to find him anymore. Not to mention his well-used Illusion Magic. If not for that his escape was within her expectations, she wouldn't even start searching for him before landing the facility. Still even after her little attempts to take some of his attention after starting the landing, he jumped off, and made himself invisible.
How to deal with such an unknown illusion? The best idea she came up with was to do something to change her perception. Illusion Magic is known for making illusions matching the way the target perceives the world. Layla recently learned Star Dress from Lucy, and used with Capricorn it gives dark shades. The shades are not normal. Not only they are able to block the Eye Magic, which alone is very good, because ordinary dark shades actually can't do that, but there are also different perks related to the dark shades. For example, they could negate some charms, and cancel the effects of Eye Magic that already started to influence the target! Immediately after using the Capricorn Form, she spotted Brain, gave some orders to the rest of the team, and began the pursuit. While running she deactivated the Star Dress to not reveal it to the enemy so soon.
It isn't easy to take down someone with a single punch. Layla's long known that, but still it's really disappointing how hard it is to make a single attack work. She did everything she could. She even took him by surprise making sure he didn't notice her before throwing that Layla Punch. All for nothing.
'This is going to be a hard battle." She thought while taking an expression of an audacious smirk.
Layla expected this pursuit can turn into a fight, if the surprise attack failed, so she switched herself to get ready for the retaliation. She noticed that Brain used his very characteristic staff made of skull to make his next attack. Crack sounds coming from it suggested the next attack will be a lightning one. This gave her an idea to appear more intimidating before the enemy. Layla used Requip, and summoned a pair of black gloves. The gloves were made of rubber, which meant if she will be to touch the discharge with it, it wouldn't electrocute her as they can't conduct. The attack stopped on her hand, and then with a bounce she redirected it to her right to demonstrate how it didn't work. This feat wasn't easy at all. If she missed the attack with her hand, she would be struck instead. Layla could do that only thanks to her incredible reaction time, and experience.
Brain didn't seem to be impressed that much. At least he quickly recovered from the shock. Nonetheless that wasn't of her concern. Whatever Brain is going to do against her, she can probably dodge it. There's not even a point in running around him. The lightning magic was surprising indeed, but relying simply on that would not give him much of an advantage. Due to that he's forced to reveal more cards.
Meanwhile she turned her attention to the boy, that followed Brain. Spending a little time with a villain surely had some decent influence on him. Kibbe mentioned that Severin is sick, and that got Kibbe to leave his son with Brain before. Does the boy look sick? Centairly not. If she didn't know better, she would assume that Severin wasn't really sick in the first place. Severin was sick, and the researcher probably did some good job curing him.
She couldn't decide if she should consider it good or bad so things were very confusing. From one point of view, it's apparent Severin would still be sick, if not for Brain's unorthodox approach. She didn't know if it was risky, but even if it was, the situation was that taking the risk might be reasonably better than just letting Severin suffer. Then wouldn't that mean Brain did a right thing? On the other hand he already murdered many people, turned a desperate father into a murderer, he himself is going to kill even more. Severin with such a foster-father would certainly end up corrupted. The problem is Severin doesn't know that. Kids like him often don't know much about how one can be cheated, and then are taught to feel grateful for what they get even if they are actually cheated by his parents. Therefore things backfired.
There seems to be very little that she can do about it. As she predicted, Brain convinced Severin to believe that either his father left him or it's she who took him away from him. She tried to say to him that he's going to reunite with his father. Instead she caused the boy to believe Kibbe is dead. She almost laughed at the idea, because it's terribly wrong, but in this situation her reaction was taken as a sign of maliciousness.
'Goddamn, I screwed up this one terribly.'
And there was no time to make up for this misunderstanding, because Brain was to use another spell.
"Fire Magic: Fireball"
Simple, yet hard to block due to being explosive, and burning. She jumped away. Then Brain waved his staff again, repeating the lighting ray attack. Forcing her to deflect it again. She managed to do that just barely. The battle just started, and Brain started to put Layla under pressure. She dodged a few coordinated attacks hoping to force Brain to reveal something else. She did that at the expense of her stamina, but Brain, and Klodoa on the other hand had to expend their magic power, so she was fine with that.When she was dodging around, her moves turned more into some kind of unpredictable dance. Their ranged attacks were failing one after another, and yet Brain couldn't force her to reveal her magic.
"Aren't you getting tired?" he asked with a hint of helplessness.
"Not at all." Layla answered.
Klodoa fired another discharge of lightning magic. This time Layla instead of redirecting it to the side punched it straight with much strength. The lighting returned to Brain that was about to throw another fireball. In result both exploded just before Brain. Damage was next to none, but the shock of getting hit prevented him from reacting to what happened next.
"Layla Punch Barrage!"
She landed consecutive punches causing him to fly. Brain managed to somehow recover, land with his legs, and slow down shuffling on the ground.
"For a Celestial Spirit Mage with Golden Keys you don't seem to be highly dependent on it."
"You just didn't force me to use them so I don't see a reason. Not to mention I wanted to see if you can resist. At least in this aspect you don't disappoint me."
If she was to fight the future Brain, she wouldn't be so sure about facing him alone, while restraining herself so much. Facing him currently is just troublesome, taking some toll on her stamina, but she can expect it to pay off. In contrast to what she said to him, Layla considers Brain as a very interesting person. Surely evil, but she would love to learn what is up to him.
'Am I getting greedy? Definitely.'
Ugh… What a menace are you?" Brain gave a solemn growl.
"My fame still exceeds me, I suppose."
"And you're still looking down on me. You probably dealt with Kibbe so easily that he didn't even know what actually hit him. Layla Hearphilia, despite the circumstances I'm going to show you the power that comes with resolve. I'm all fired up!"
Brain formed another fireball in this hand. But that one was different. Instead of throwing it on Layla he gripped it with his palm, hiding it inside. Contrary to what one would expect, his skin didn't burn at all. The fireball turned into a handle and then out of it came out a long rope made of fire.
…
Lucy and Ren couldn't help, but take a look at the fight. It was far away from them, and yet it looked very intense. Someone was throwing fire, and lighting magic pretty quickly. They could easily tell it's Brain's doing.
"Aren't you worried about your mom?" Ren asked.
"Don't forget that she's the one that brought us here. She's fine despite our worries. We have other things to worry about. Let's continue." said Lucy while completing another barrier.
It was already decided they're not going to fight the researchers directly. Layla said that they have to be ready to eventually escape, and inform the Council about the danger. But that's just the literal way of understanding mother's words. The true meaning of this is that she doesn't fully trust Gran Doma. Layla never really trusted politicians, and here's another example of this trend. She's considering him as a person with political interests. Just in case, in case something goes really wrong, and Layla or Makarov won't be enough to keep Gran Doma in check, she has to take the task of making a fuss. In the end why Gran Doma is actually here? Is that really the thing he's not so sure about Brain's doings? The short time when Lucy was a journalist, she developed a little instinct for such things, but mother is still a few steps ahead of her.
The very moment Layla told him about Brain Mr Gran Doma already knew the Council will face a major crisis. Gran Doma is here, because that way he will be able to say it's actually him who discovered this outrage against the order, and put an end to it. Otherwise the Council would be blackmailed under the threat the whole kingdom would learn about Brain. Carrot, and stick situation. Nothing more, nothing less.
'But why the hell did my mother rush into Brain all by herself?'
Putting those thoughts together Lucy has been continuing their preparations. When they finished casting letter enchantments for Gran Doma it was time to prepare their own position based on the same patterns provided by Gran Doma. They made one, then two, they thought they overdoing casting five of them, but still continued. After making the tenth one they stopped. Ren also smoothened the path they're going to run away, and made some small holes in the ground within the inactive barriers. The facility was about to land, and it happened very loudly. Lucy gestured to Ren to stop, who seemingly was trying to continue.
"Don't bother anymore. Now's the real start of the battle. If we won't pay attention someone will use the moment against us. You won't even learn what hit you so let's watch."
…
Gran Doma witnessed the fall of the false moon. The facility landed safely in his intended place. Then a gate at the base opened, and a group of people started to come out in a very disciplined manner. Ten in a row. Rows turning right, and left to spread possibly wider. Many of them had long magic staffs, gadgets meant to easily cast one spell, some kind of bullet magic. Everyone would manage to use it if they learned a bit about channeling their magic power to it. The attack would be slow, and weak, but against those who don't have any magic that's more than enough. And that's only when you don't consider their huge numbers. You can fight well, but can you defeat three hundreds?
'Let's see.'
The enemy organized pretty quickly. The formation was seamless, and geometrical. One would believe it's a regular army, something that can't be subjugated by a group of bandits or an ordinary dark guild. One man stood out of the formation. His outfit was clearly different from the rest. While the rest weared white coats, white caps, short gray pelerines, and red veils with crest of the Bureau of the Magical Development, that one had a black cape with unnaturally purple fur, a short yet green plerine, black cap, a purple veil with the same crest, but golden in color. Well, he was in the middle of taking off his black cap, and replacing it with a big tricorne.
"Why are you here? Why did you attack us?"
"In the name of the Magic Council I order you to surrender. We're doing a pre-investigation. We're concerned about the way the experiments were conducted. I want to create an investigation commission that will determine the moral value of activities taking place in your unit."
The unit was surely surprised to hear that. Gran Doma didn't see their faces, but even then he could notice a light shudder in their movements
"We don't believe you. You didn't inform us in the official procedure. All the official messages go through our communication channels. It's to maintain the secrecy needed to protect ourselves from the curiosity of outer parties."
"Your director of the facility is probably the only authorized man to relay them to you. Unfortunately he's also the greatest object of our concerns. We can't trust him. That would defeat the point of the investigation that is meant to check if we can trust him. That's why we're requesting you to bring him here so we can have a talk."
"It's funny that you're talking about it now. We can't find our boss, and the last time we saw him he ordered us to stop whoever made the facility land. Do you expect us to just believe it's not your doing?"
"We did it. Your place was definitely flying! Without some intervention we would have a problem to approach you. It's the only way we…"
"So you took our director, and you threatening us that you'll do something to him if we don't listen. Enough talk! Fellows, prepare!"
"Oh, shit!"
At first Gran Doma expected he would use his authority to make them researchers listen, but contrary to his expectation he discovered that the Bureau of the Magical Development over time has grown to become a pretty autonomous organization. Perhaps it's not even that strange. After all, due to the secret character of the research conducted there they had to manage themselves in desolate land, very close to Isvan. Gran Doma already knew there could be issues trying to talk to them, but the official way to do that this time was the worst way. First, the messages would inevitably go through Brain, and that would give him enough time to prepare himself.
If he wants to punish Brain, he needs to make an official Council Investigation Commission. That's the only way to do that, because it's the Council who gave it the privileges of protection, and secrecy leaving them out of cognition of a normal court. To make that one he has to submit a motion to the Council with at least three members' support, which in turn would expose the whole procedure to Brain giving him a lot of time to do something really funny. In result Brain would flee, perhaps he would harm the Bureau of Magical Development, and obliterate council's reputation, which in Gran Doma's mind is a straight way to unleash chaos on Ishgar. Letting that happen goes against his convictions. On the other hand if he let Brain do whatever he wants then the case of the Bureau would have to be kept secret. He personally would cover everything in hope that the Council is safe. Yeah, that would be a little bit of unruly, but it's for the best.
'So yes, that's the only way. We have to defeat them, and then think about how to deal with the legal part."
"Just to let you know. We didn't take your director. He left you on his own."
"Fire!"
Some researchers dispersed revealing magic cannons in the middle of charging. They were half the height of an adult human. They didn't resemble Etherion at all. The cannons fired suddenly. Gran Doma could say there passed only three seconds from revealing the cannons to firing. From experience he could tell that the discharge was based on the form of bullet magic, which suggested… well, not much. It's only that the power behind the spell is pretty physical. If he was to face the spell directly he wouldn't suffer any elemental effect, despite probably being pierced badly. Not that he wants to experience being pierced.
"Well, at least feel warned. Activation!"
Gran Doma stopped playing with his long gray beard, and raised his large serpent staff. With this gesture the letters made of golden light started to appear one after another forming a bow, and going to reveal a circle rising several meters upward. The discharges of the magic cannons stopped just a few meters from Gran Doma. The blow of wind from the magic bullets almost caused his wizard hat to fall. He had to use his hand to fix it. The force behind the shots was loosened, and they ricocheted eventually disappearing.
The researchers were in shock. Many forces in Ishgar were able to pull off such a feat, but to achieve this kind of scale it required a lot of discipline, and preparation. Something a single wizard shouldn't be capable of. For those, and other reasons, to perform the spells of Jutsu Shiki in time usually it required a small team of preferably educated mages, and usually they would have a small scale. The big scale means a lot of time used to cast. A lot of time to used to cast suggest good predictions about the landing. In short, not only they were forced to land. They were forced to land in a very precise location, and to do that…
"Someone betrayed us…"
"Head, what are we going to do?"
"Take it calmly. We have an advantage in numbers. Prepare shields, and start exploring the ground. We're at a real disadvantage here, because we don't know what we're dealing with. Without breaking the encryption we can't get them, and probably won't be able to fly away. For better or worse we have to fight. Disperse, and start breaking! I expect the ones with a staff to provide a cover."
"Yes, sir!"
The groups of researchers started to run in different directions in hurry to reach the barrier. However soon one group was hit hardly by something.
"Ouch!"
Looking in confusion they discovered that they are inside another smaller barrier, which prevented them from going further. The group was trapped as they felt a shiver from despair of their situation. They couldn't complete the task.
Soon three more groups were caught in different barriers. Just like that 20 researchers were disabled from fight. It wasn't that much, but it was enough to confuse the enemy. The rest of the researchers was now more cautious looking for the signs of barriers being formed.
In the deep loud voice Gran Doma announced what's coming.
"Tonight I'll give the opportunity to see what it's like to face the head of the Magic Council!"