Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Worth Woodsea.
November, x784.
A few minutes after Karen finished her battle with Himiko and put her in a pair of anti-magic hand cuffs, Wendy completed her task of healing Sorano. Though, after healing two people in such a short amount of time, she was close to exhaustion.
"When you got back, I told you to rest." Carla said in a nagging tone. "And now you're like this."
"She needed help, Carla." Wendy said in her own defense.
"But now you're---" Carla said, working herself up at Wendy's blatant disregard for her own well-being.
"Look, Carla, I'm a member of this team, too." Wendy said forcefully, cutting off her best friend's rant. "And I'll do all that I can to help. Even if that means I'll end up tired and exhausted."
Hearing Wendy talk back so strongly, Carla was taken aback.
"I know you only want what's best for me, Carla." Wendy said in a decidedly more gentle tone. "But I'm not a little kid anymore. I can make my own decisions. And I want to help them."
In response, Carla simply turned her head away and snorted in annoyance. Though her inner thoughts were quite different.
"Maybe she isn't just a little kid anymore.' Carla thought to herself while stealing glances at Wendy from the corner of her eye. 'She's a wizard. Still, keeping her safe is the only thing I care about.'
"So, where did everyone go?" Sorano, now fully healed, asked while stretching her body.
"They went to find the members of the Oración Seis." Jura replied. "According to Hibiki, they've already taken out two of them. Though, sherry was seriously injured while taking down the one called Racer."
"I see…" Sorano said with a nod. "And what about the one that was impersonating Ichiya?"
"Karen took her out." Hibiki replied. "And after reporting it, she left a message for you."
"Oh, and what was it? Sorano asked curiously.
"Now, we're even." Hibiki said, repeating Karen's message verbatim.
"Haha… That's just like her." Sorano replied with a smile. "I guess I'll---"
*Clap!*
"Everyone, be careful!" Jura shouted, interrupting the ongoing conversation as he clapped his hands forcefully.
In the next instant, the group was covered by another layer of rock.
*Boom!*
Meanwhile, outside the shelter, Hoteye, the [Earth Magic] user of the Oración Seis had just cast a spell that turned all the ground around the shelter into liquified stone before he raised it and smashed it down on the shelter Jura built.
"That shouldn't be enough to crush them completely." Hoteye said with a smile. "Meaning, I'll be able to bring their bodies and collect the bounties. Oh yeah!"
"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Jura said from under the layers of stone. "But that's not enough to defeat any of us here."
With that, a path leading out of the pile of stones opened with Jura leading Sorano, Hibiki, Wendy, and Carla out.
"Then, I guess I should do something about that." Hoteye replied. "I can't miss out on that money. Oh yeah!"
"Sorano, take the others and get out of here." Jura said, never taking his eyes off of Hoteye. "I'll deal with him. The rest of you should go assist the others as much as you can."
"Are you sure?" Sorano asked. "I should be able to help against him."
"There's no need." Jura said, flaring his magic power as he spoke. "[Iron Rock Wall]."
A moment later, a large stone wall rose from the ground between Jura and Hoteye and blocked a torrent of liquified stone that was rushing towards Jura's group.
"I should be enough to deal with him." Jura continued.
"Okay, if you say so." Sorano replied with a shrug. Then, she turned around and started running towards the forest. "Come on, everyone , let's go. Hibiki, you know where everyone else is, right?"
"Yes." Hibiki replied with his [Archive Magic] screens floating around him.
Like that, Jura and Hoteye faced off in magical combat while Sorano, Hibiki, Wendy, and Carla went to assist the other members of the allied forces as best they could.
The next few hours passed without much of note taking place, though the battle between Jura and Hoteye was still continuing. The only real thing of note was the fact that the sun had set not too long ago. And that would set the stage for the next series of events to unfold.
"Ah, I finally found you." Cobra said as he drew near to his target, Jellal. "You're really hard to track down, you know."
Instead of responding, Jellal continued to walk forward. To anyone who was watching, it was clear that he had a destination in mind.
"It's rather rude to ignore someone when their talking to you." Cobra said after not receiving a response. "By the way, Brain said you would be able to lead us to Nirvana. But how would you even know about that?"
Once again, Jellal did not respond. Meanwhile, cobra, who realized that he would not be getting a straight answer, or any kind of answer at all, simply shrugged his shoulders and followed him.
Eventually, Jellal came across an altar deep in the forest. And when he did, he wasted no time placing his hand on it and injecting it with his magic power.
A moment later, a ray of dark light shot up into the sky from around Jellal and the altar, shining down on everything in a vast distance.
Nearly the entire forest was covered in this light. It's shine even reached Master Bob's mansion just outside the forest. And seeing that light, all the wizards currently in the forest stopped what they were doing and stared in its direction.
"Something tells me, if I go that way, I'll find Brain." Ur muttered to herself as she looked up. Then, with a blood thirsty smile, she started running in its direction.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Ultear was thinking the same as her mother while sprinting towards the light.
"So, I this the first stage that you were talking about?" Sorano asked as she ran alongside Hibiki.
"Precisely." Hibiki replied. "We need to hurry and deal with the Oración Seis before they can move on to stage two."
While traveling through the forest after leaving Jura to deal with Hoteye, Wendy told Sorano, Hibiki, and Carla everything she heard about the Oración Seis's plans that she had been told of by Brain. Hearin the name, "Nirvana," Hibiki immediately started searching for information about it with his [Archive Magic].
Fortunately, his magic had some information, if not much, about it. Unfortunately, that information did not include the location where it had been hidden.
It did, however, explain what it meant by changing light in to darkness and vice-versa. As it turns out, it referred to the light or darkness in a person's heart. Or rather, their alignment to the light or darkness. While in the second stage, it was, for all intents and purposes, a walking weapon of mass destruction.
Hibiki also broadcasted what he found over the [Telepathic Link], as well. So, everyone knew about what Nirvana was and what it could do.
After explaining what Nirvana was to the group, while they were searching for it, in an attempt to stop the Oración Seis from getting their hands on it, Hibiki received a [Telepathic Message] from Eve, stating that Sherry did not look like she was in the best shape.
Naturally, Hibiki relayed the message to the rest of his group. And unsurprisingly, Wendy decided that she would go back and deal with Sherry's injuries. Though Carla was quite against it.
In the end, since Wendy was so stubborn about it, Carla flew her back to the mansion so that Wendy could conserve as much energy as she could before healing Sherry.
"So, in stage one, it will only change people who are wavering in their beliefs, right?" Sorano asked as she dodged a blast of raw magical energy from Hibiki.
Looking back, Sorano could see a struggle in Hibiki's eyes as he held up his right hand in her direction.
"Why did Master Bob ever let someone like you into the guild after what you did to Karen." Hibiki said, tears pooling in his eyes.
"*Sigh* You should have just confronted me about this when I joined instead of letting it fester." Sorano said in response. "now, I'm gonna have to put you to sleep so you don't end up doing something you regret."
As soon as she finished speaking, Sorano flooded her legs with magic power. Then, she dashed in Hibiki's direction.
The only saving grace about this encounter was the fac that Hibiki didn't know any offensive magic. Otherwise, this would have been much more dangerous for Sorano, who had to subdue him without hurting him too much.
A moment later, Sorano ducked under another blast from Hibiki. Then, she grabbed his outstretched arm before forcing it upward. With is right side now undefended, Sorano threw a knee strike into his ribs. Then, she followed up by slipping behind him and hopping up to wrap her legs around his left arm and torso before wrapping her arms around his neck to stem the blood flow to his brain.
A few moments later, Hibiki passed out. Though, it was unfortunate that the team lost their [Telepathic Link], it was better than having Hibiki feeding information to the enemy after his little change of heart.
"*Sigh* Things were a lot easier when I was a dark wizard." Sorano said, sitting Hibiki against a tree. "I would have just killed you for what you did. Even if it wasn't your fault. But now, I have to think of my guild mates well-being, too."
Stretching after her little workout, Sorano looked back towards a certain tree.
"Why don't you come out, Karen?" Sorano said with a smile on her face. "Are you gonna try and take me down, too?"
"If you had killed him, I would have." Karen replied as she walked out from behind the tree she was watching from. "But there's no need for that, now."
"Oh, so you believe that I'm no longer a dark wizard now?" Sorano asked playfully.
"Hmph!" Karen simply snorted in reply.
"*Sigh* I really don't know how someone could care about someone with a personality like yours as much as he seems to." Sorano said while shaking her head. "I mean, you're such a bitch to everyone. Except for Elicia from Fairy Tail. I'm still curious to know how that happened, though."
"That's none of your business." Karen said, looking away with a frown and a slight blush on her face.
'Honestly, I don't know what he cares so much about me for, either.' Karen thought to herself as her gaze fell on Hibiki. 'By now, he should know I was only using him to advance my own career and that I never really had feelings for him. So, why would he care so much?'
Around the same time, Wendy and Carla finally returned to the mansion just outside the forest. When they got there, however, they were shocked. Currently, the mansion was more than half destroyed.
"What happened here?" Wendy asked in a panicked tone. "Hurry up, Carla, we need to see if everyone is okay!"
Like that, Wendy and Carla started moving away the rubble while searching for Eve, Ren, and Sherry, who they knew should have been inside. After a few minutes, they eventually found them. While Ren and Sherry were unconscious, Eve was keeping the rubble from crushing them with an igloo made with his [Snow Magic].
"Is everyone in there okay?" Wendy asked as she continued to clear rubble from the top of the igloo.
"Wendy, is that you?" Eve asked with relief. "I'm alright, but Ren and Sherry aren't looking so good."
Not long later, all the rubble was cleared and Wendy was working on healing Sherry, whose injuries were much worse than Ren's at the moment.
"So, what happened?" Did the Oración Seis attack?" Wendy asked.
"No, it wasn't them." Eve replied. "Sherry, who had just woken up after we brought her back here, suddenly attacked when that light shot up into the sky."
"It must have been because of Nirvana." Carla said. "It seems her emotions were unstable and it caused her to change sides."
"So, you had to fight to stop her?" Wendy asked in a concerned tone. "The fight must have been tough. Her injuries are so severe."
"Actually, we didn't fight her at all." Eve said with a wry smile. "She worsened her injuries just by attacking us. Luckily, Ren was able to talk her down."
Hearing that, Wendy sighed in relief while Carla looked at Eve skeptically, feeling that he did not tell the whole story. But as long as everyone came out okay, she did not really care. Since Wendy was and always would be her number one priority.
Meanwhile, at about the same time Wendy and Carla reached the mansion, Natsu and happy finally tracked down Jellal.
"Ha! I finally found you!" Natsu shouted as he caught sight of Jellal. "Now, I can make you pay for not only hitting me, but what you tried to do to Erza, as well!"
With that, Natsu threw himself forward with his fists covered in flames. Before he could attack, however, his charge was interrupted.
"Poison Dragon's Fang Thrust]." Cobra chanted from nearby.
Looking in the direction the chant came from, Natsu was surprised to see a snake head formed from purple poison flying at him. Still, he reacted quickly. Adjusting his position in the air, Natsu fed even more flames into the fire on his fist.
"[Fire Dragon's Iron Fist]." Natsu chanted as he swung his fist at the snake head.
Upon impact, Cobra's poison was evaporated, which caused him to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
"What's the big idea?" Natsu shouted angrily.
"Sorry, but I can't let you do anything to him.' Cobra said casually. "The boss still needs him for something."
"And you think you can stop me?" Natsu asked with a scowl.
"Yeah, I do." Cobra replied with a shrug.
"Then, why don't we put that to the test." Natsu said, flames engulfing his entire body.