A New Life in Fairy Tail

A pair of massive white wings materialized behind Sorano's back. Pushing off the ground with intense force, she took to the sky with a single flap, cleanly evading Cobra's breath attack.

Beside her, Natsu was carried into the air by Happy, similarly dodging Cobra's assault.

BOOM!

Cobra's breath slammed into the earth, triggering a massive explosion that rapidly dispersed vast amounts of neurotoxin into the surrounding area.

The Mages fighting nearby, who had already been shifting their battles further away to avoid the poison, ran even further back upon seeing this. Cobra's toxins did not distinguish between friend and foe.

"We need to wrap this up quickly!" Sorano said to Natsu, her expression dead serious.

"I'm fired up!" Natsu declared with a look of pure excitement.

With that, Sorano, Natsu, Happy, Cobra, and the giant purple serpent launched into a fierce aerial dogfight.

Relying on his ability to hear Natsu's movements, Cobra directed the purple serpent beneath his feet to evade all of Natsu's attacks, even in mid-air. This allowed him to focus the majority of his energy on his battle with Sorano.

"Curse it! If that's how it is, a frontal assault is the only option!"

"Aye!"

Furious after missing multiple strikes, Natsu let out a loud roar and had Happy fly him directly toward Cobra.

"What?!"

After dodging a light beam from the Sunlight Angel, Cobra attempted to listen to Natsu's inner thoughts to predict his next move, just as he had done before. But after evading two or three strikes, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

BAM!

"Gah!"

This time, Cobra failed to dodge. Natsu's fist connected squarely with his abdomen, causing him to cry out in pain.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Pressing his advantage, Natsu rapidly unleashed a flurry of punches, landing multiple heavy blows on Cobra in quick succession.

The purple serpent tried to carry Cobra away, but Happy flew Natsu in relentless pursuit, allowing Natsu to keep landing his strikes.

"How is this possible? This guy literally has absolutely nothing on his mind!" Cobra thought in sheer shock. Enduring the pain, he threw a punch of his own, clashing with Natsu's fist in mid-air to borrow the kinetic force and retreat alongside his serpent.

"Oh no!"

The moment he pulled back, Cobra realized he had put himself in severe danger.

VMM!

The sound of vibrating air echoed beside him. Cobra only had enough time to turn his head before a massive light beam struck both him and his serpent simultaneously.

BAM! BOOM!

Cobra was critically injured instantly, and the purple serpent lost its ability to fly. Both man and snake plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily into the ground one after the other.

Cobra twitched on the dirt a few times but couldn't manage to get up, ultimately collapsing helplessly. Beside him, the purple serpent writhed briefly before going completely limp.

"Dammit, I was so close to finishing him myself!" Natsu complained, looking thoroughly displeased that Sorano had landed the final blow.

"Alright, taking him down quickly is a good thing. You, me, and Happy have all been poisoned. Let's go find Noah to get this cleared up," Sorano told Natsu.

Inevitably, they had inhaled some of Cobra's toxins during the fight. Despite the protective buffs Noah had cast on them earlier, Sorano was already beginning to feel physically unwell.

Hearing this, Natsu quickly glanced back at Happy and noticed that the Exceed's face had indeed taken on a pale, purplish hue.

Without wasting another second, Natsu had Happy fly them directly over to Noah for treatment. Meanwhile, Sorano summoned her Mighty Angel to scoop up the unconscious Cobra and his serpent from the ground before following suit.

"Oh? Gray and the others already succeeded?" Sorano asked in surprise, noticing Noah sealing the unconscious Racer on the ground.

"Mmm. Once his magic was decoded, defeating him was only a matter of time. Combined with so many people attacking him at once, he went down quickly. I just didn't expect him to be the very first to fall," Noah replied.

"Dammit! Gray actually beat his opponent faster than I did!" Natsu grumbled, completely dissatisfied.

At that moment, Noah finished his sealing sequence on Racer and stood up. Seeing that Sorano, Natsu, and Happy had been poisoned, he casually waved his hand. A serene radiance enveloped them, and thick black smoke instantly evaporated from their bodies, completely purging the toxins from their systems.

"Awesome!" Feeling the poison clear from his body, Natsu excitedly sprinted off toward the sector where Erza, Lucy, and Midnight were fighting, leaving Happy by Noah's side.

"So you guys succeeded as well," Noah smiled, looking at Cobra and the serpent in the Mighty Angel's grasp.

"Mmm. What about the others?" Sorano smiled back.

"After defeating Racer, Lucy went to help Erza with Midnight, while Gray headed over to assist Ultear's side. The Blue Pegasus trio went to help Lamia Scale deal with Hoteye," Noah explained as he began applying sealing spells to Cobra and the serpent.

Sorano surveyed the three remaining battlefields and confirmed Noah's breakdown.

Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus were handling Hoteye, with Jura anchoring the primary assault while the others provided support. They had already established absolute dominance; it was merely a question of how long Hoteye could endure.

On another front, Erza and Lucy were battling Midnight, now joined by an incredibly eager Natsu, who had clearly not fought to his heart's content earlier. Erza was wearing a Sensory Visor to neutralize Midnight's illusions. She and Natsu maintained a relentless close-quarters assault, while Lucy provided ranged support by commanding Sagittarius. Midnight was already struggling against Erza and Lucy, and Natsu's addition made his situation incredibly perilous. The Coalition Force held a crushing advantage here too, making Midnight's defeat inevitable.

Sorano then looked at the final battlefield: the four-way confrontation between Ur, Ultear, Gray, and Brain. Ultear and Gray were actively fighting the supreme director, while Ur stood by, ready to intervene at a moment's notice. With Ur holding the line as a reserve asset, Sorano had absolutely zero worries about this sector.

"I'm going to head over and help Erza finish her fight quickly," Sorano told Noah.

"Alright," Noah nodded.

With high enthusiasm, Sorano rushed off toward Erza's battlefield.

"You should remember who I am," Ur said, remaining completely calm as she looked at the nemesis she had spent a decade hunting. The intense emotional turbulence she had felt earlier had been fully suppressed while she was cloaked.

Beside her, Ultear was equally composed as she stared at Brain. Both mother and daughter shared the exact same mindset: today, right here, they would finally settle the score with this man.

"Of course I remember. Ur, the Mage whose power was once said to rival the Ten Wizard Saints. I should actually thank you for entrusting your daughter to me for treatment back then. Being able to experiment on a child with such exceptional talent yielded a massive amount of valuable data, providing immense support for my subsequent operations. So, truly, thank you," Brain said, a cold smile on his face.

Realizing that his forces were pinned down and that escaping would require a fight, he intentionally aimed to enrage her. If he could provoke a critical mistake, his chances of victory would increase slightly.

"You bastard!" Hearing Brain's words, Ur's suppressed fury violently flared back to life. Handing her daughter over to Brain for treatment was the single greatest regret of her entire life. Now, not only did Brain show absolutely zero remorse, but he was actively thanking her for handing her child over for human experimentation. Naturally, her anger burned like a roaring inferno.

"Mother, calm down. He's intentionally trying to provoke you. Don't fall into his trap," Ultear urged, acting as the voice of reason despite being the actual victim of those experiments.

Haaa... whew...

Hearing her daughter's words, Ur took several deep breaths, forcing her rage back down.

"So you're Ur's daughter... the little girl I treated back then?" Brain took a closer look at Ultear, noting the strong facial resemblance between her and Ur. No wonder she had glared at him with such intense hatred earlier.

"Your talent was indeed remarkable back then. I really must thank you for letting me conduct those experiments on you. Without you, I wouldn't have known where to find such a gifted child test subject," Brain said, pivoting to provoke Ultear instead since Ur had calmed down.

"Without you, we might not have the life we share today, and I am entirely satisfied with my current life. In a certain twisted sense, we really should thank you," Ultear replied, remaining perfectly calm and unfazed by his taunts. "But facts are facts. Since you've always relied on exploiting talented children for your experiments, allow me to demonstrate the strength I've forged through my own talent and relentless training over the years. I hope you can handle it."

With that, Ultear spread her feet, dropping into a slight crouch. She struck her right fist against her open left palm—the standard casting stance for Ice-Make Magic.

Seeing her daughter step up to face Brain, Ur decided to hold her ground for the moment, allowing Ultear to test her mettle against him first. Since Ultear was the primary victim, it was only fitting she took the first swing at her nemesis. With Ur standing by and Noah monitoring the entire field from the rear, there was absolutely no chance Ultear would be allowed to suffer any serious harm.

Brain was internally thrilled that they were underestimating him by only sending the girl while Ur stayed out of the fight. He had covertly assessed the other battlefields and noted that every single one of his Oración Seis members was fighting at a severe numerical disadvantage. Furthermore, they had exhausted their tactical options, and their defeat was only a matter of time. The Coalition Force also had Noah anchored in the rear, yet to make a move.

The overall tactical metrics were incredibly unfavorable for his network. Although he had absolute confidence in his own strength, conserving energy was paramount. If they were only sending the girl to fight him, he could seize the opportunity to capture her. With a hostage in hand, these legal Mages would be forced to capitulate to his demands.

"Hehe, then let me see exactly what you are capable of," Brain smirked.

"Ice-Make: Eagle!" Ultear didn't waste another breath. Thrusting her hands forward, a magic circle unfolded, releasing a massive flock of ice-sculpted eagles that soared directly toward Brain.

"Dark Rondo!" Brain raised his skull-adorned staff. Dark green magical energy concentrated on the Lacrima crystal embedded within it. Pointing the staff forward, he unleashed dozens of dark green magical blasts that intercepted the ice eagles.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The magical blasts and ice eagles collided in mid-air, shattering the frozen constructs completely. However, the dark green blasts retained their momentum, continuing their trajectory straight toward Ultear.

"Ice-Make: Shield Wall!" Ultear thrust her hands out again, erecting a solid wall of ice before her.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The magical blasts slammed into the ice wall, generating a series of deafening explosions that echoed across the clearing. Once the bombardment ceased, the surface of the ice wall was heavily pockmarked with deep craters.

"Ice-Make: Lancer!" Without breaking her stance, Ultear launched countless ice spears from the wall itself, hurtling them toward Brain.

Brain raised his staff again, firing another barrage of deep green energy blasts that met the ice lances in mid-air, triggering a rapid chain of explosions.

"Dark Capriccio!" After intercepting the lances, Brain aimed his staff at Ultear, unleashing a uniquely spiraling, high-penetration magical beam.

"Ice-Make: Ape!" Ultear frowned slightly. A colossal ice-sculpted ape materialized in front of her, swinging its massive hand to swat the incoming beam.

BAM!

The ice ape's hand shattered almost instantly upon making contact with the beam. However, the strike managed to successfully deflect the attack's trajectory, sending the beam shooting harmlessly into the sky behind Ultear, where it slammed into the overhead golden barrier with a distant boom.

Ultear was mildly startled. Fortunately, she had noticed something structurally anomalous about that specific attack and hadn't relied on a static ice wall to block it, otherwise, it would have pierced straight through her defenses. Having witnessed Brain's tactical trickery firsthand, she grew even more cautious.

Brain mentally cursed his bad luck. Dark Capriccio was a high-penetration spell; if Ultear had attempted to block it with a static wall, it would have bored right through and critically wounded her, granting him the perfect window to capture her. Unfazed, he calculated that he would simply have to engineer another opening.

"Dark Rondo!" Brain pointed his staff, firing countless dark green blasts that arced along varying trajectories to bombard Ultear from multiple angles.

"Ice-Make: Aegis!" Ultear swiftly repaired her ice ape's shattered arm, then manifested a massive ice shield for it to wield. Holding the shield high, the ice ape charged directly toward Brain.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The magical blasts rained down on the shield, triggering rapid detonations. While the shield absorbed the majority of the barrage, a small cluster of blasts curved around the ape, tracking toward Ultear standing behind it.

Ultear didn't attempt to block, dynamically leaping out of the way. Suddenly, the ice ape was pierced by a stray blast that shot toward her landing coordinates. She was forced to execute another frantic dodge to clear the attack.

By this time, the ice ape had closed the distance to Brain, forcing him to leap backward to avoid its crushing swing. Simultaneously, he fired several rapid blasts from his staff, completely shattering both the ape and its shield.

Having evaded each other's attacks, the two Mages fell back into a tense standoff.

"Ugh!" Brain was just preparing to launch another offensive when he suddenly clutched his face in pain.

"Racer has fallen... one pillar of the Seis has collapsed..."

One of the dark, linear markings etched across Brain's face slowly faded away into nothingness.

"Mother, did a portion of his facial markings just disappear?" Ultear asked, keeping her eyes locked on Brain.

"Mmm, a section definitely vanished," Ur confirmed. Having monitored the entire field, she hadn't missed the anomaly on Brain's face. "It's likely connected to Racer's defeat."

Ur had been tracking the other battlefields and had witnessed Gray, Lucy, and the Blue Pegasus Mages systematically neutralize Racer. The exact frame Racer went down, Brain's facial marking disappeared, forming a clear correlation.

"We'll know for sure once the other Oración Seis members fall," Ultear noted.

"Agreed. Focus on the battle in front of you for now," Ur nodded.

"Master. Senior disciple," Gray said, walking over to join them after handing Racer over to Noah's custody.

"Mmm." The mother and daughter acknowledged Gray with a nod, turning their collective focus back toward Brain.

Brain had recovered from the physiological shock of his marking fading. Looking at Gray stepping up to reinforce the line, a cold, calculated smile actually broke across his face.

~~~

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