Jellal?
Seeing how calm Shane looked, Ultear's mind immediately jumped to that man's name.
Thinking back, when that chestnut-haired boy had "reported" Shane's location to Jellal, it had been a little too deliberate. Almost as if… he'd done it on purpose for her to overhear.
So—
"You came for me?" Ultear's cold gaze slid over Shane, then flicked toward Gray and Erza in the distance.
A wave of anger surged in her chest at being underestimated.
She'd already decided: once she finished here, she was absolutely going to deal with Jellal. As for Brain's grand plans? None of her concern. She'd be delighted if that man dropped dead tomorrow.
"Whatever it is you're expecting—"
Shane stepped forward with a faint smile. The flames around him reacted as if commanded, shrieking as they poured into his hand, compressing and coalescing into a plain, pitch-black katana.
"—you weren't actually planning to walk away, were you?"
He let his arm drop, the blade angled casually toward the sand.
Just that lazy motion sent a pressure washing over her, heavier and denser than before, pressing hard on Ultear's chest.
Her brows knitted. "You've gotten stronger again? That your new magic?"
A bad feeling twisted in her gut.
She'd thought her own power had grown enough to wash away her shame—but now his aura was deeper, stranger, nothing like before.
Shane, by contrast, was in a talkative mood. "This time, the one lending me his strength is named Senji Muramasa. A swordsmith."
"Tch." Ultear could already hear the irritating monologue winding up and cut him off with an attack.
She couldn't give him time to settle.
Her long leg snapped, kicking up a spray of sand. The grains, wrapped in her magic, accelerated midair.
They streaked toward Shane as countless golden threads, too fast to follow, shrieking through the air.
"More tricks—and more fluid," Shane thought, grudgingly impressed. I'm not the only one who's been training.
"But that's about as far as it goes."
He didn't invoke the heart-fire to boost his speed. He simply lifted his left hand—
A large, red shield like a blossoming flame flower sprang open with a dull whumph.
Thudthudthudthud!
The sandstorm hammered the shield like rain on banana leaves.
And in that brief blind spot, the air above him twisted, filling with countless points of light—stars forming in midair, each pulsing with a sickening density of magic.
"Flash Forward!" Ultear's arms snapped downward as she shouted, voice cold and resolute. "This is the future where you fail—take it properly!"
"With that much mana and power… no wonder she had the confidence to come looking for me," Shane thought, watching the falling constellation reflected in his eyes. Options flickered through his mind.
Should he tank it with Arash's [Robust Health EX], or let Muramasa's [Magic Resistance B] eat it?
He decided in a heartbeat.
He raised the ink-black katana, flames roaring back to life in his eyes. "No. Cutting it all down suits me better."
There was no earth-shaking boom—just a single, razor-thin arc of black-red light slicing upward, as gentle as ripping paper.
Sssht—
Where the blade passed, the glittering stars fell apart like they'd met a natural enemy—vanishing on contact, dissolving into bare motes of light.
Shane's steps never changed as he walked through the wind stirred up by the spell's collapse, dragging the long sword through the sand.
The flames in his pupils flared even brighter. "If you're out of tricks, stand still and let me count your karma."
With that, he suddenly swung back-handed.
A wave of dark-red slashing wind tore the air, biting into the sand not far from where Ultear stood.
"Already out of ideas?" Shane shook his head, disappointment in his voice. "Trying to fool me with illusions? Did you really think just because my eyes changed, I can't see where you are?"
Eyes that could see the karma and cause behind things weren't going to be fooled by a simple visual mirage.
The residual blade-wind sliced past her, shaving the hem off her white robe.
Fabric split with a ripping sound, revealing a stretch of smooth, pale leg—then a thin line of red blossomed across it. Blood welled up and soaked into the white cloth.
Ultear bit down hard, leg burning with pain—but what stung worse was the humiliation and confusion inside.
She couldn't understand how Shane's strength had grown so monstrous in such a short time.
Before, she could at least trade a few blows. Now she couldn't even get a proper counter in.
Shane walked toward her, unhurried, eyes resting on her forcibly calm face. He nodded, almost approvingly. "Staying instead of running was the right call. You're smart enough to know we came here for a reason."
Before he finished, his fist snapped forward, drilling into her gut.
"Ggh!" The punch drove the wind from her lungs; agony made her limbs go weak and she dropped to her knees in the sand.
She clamped her teeth together, refusing to let the pain twist her features.
She wouldn't show weakness in front of this man again.
"No Ice-Make this time?" Shane looked down at her. "You're just giving up?"
"I'd never use that magic again!" Ultear snarled, eyes blazing.
Last time he'd driven her to the brink of death—and in that desperate moment, she'd instinctively used Ur's magic to shield herself.
That was what she hated most about him.
That reflex had made her feel like a pathetic child, scrambling for her mother's arms. It had humiliated her more than losing.
"Arrogant, huh? You're the one," Shane said, tone flat as ever despite the hatred burning in her eyes. "I've always been very careful."
At the same time, he was a bit surprised.
Through the flaming filter of the Eyes of Karma, he saw the "burden" on Ultear was far lighter than he'd expected.
The few karmic lines around her were dim—and most of them were other people's "causes" bound to her. Her own sins weren't that deep.
"Good," he thought. "No need to wrestle with whether to kill her. There's room to talk."
He smoothly twisted her arms behind her back, pinned a knee against her shoulders, and sat down against her upper back, locking her in place.
"I'll ask, you answer," he said in his usual calm, dealing-with-enemies tone. "You already know who I am."
But the struggle and curses he'd expected never came. Instead, she was oddly silent.
This stubborn? he thought, puzzled.
Looking down, he saw Ultear straining with all her strength to keep her head up. The tendons in her white throat stood out; she refused to let her face be pressed into the sand.
"So that's how it is. More pride than I thought," he mused.
Trying to be considerate, he shifted his weight back, moving off her shoulders so it would be less strain—
Which, unfortunately, shifted his center of gravity further toward her hips.
Ultear's body went rigid. A wave of raw embarrassment and panic shot through her and she whipped her head around. "What do you think you're doing?!"
Yeah… that position really wasn't the most dignified.
Shane realized it and, internally, couldn't help thinking, If only Erza had half this girl's awareness of social norms.
Just then, Erza and Gray arrived at a run, having seen the fight end.
Shane quickly waved the redhead over and pointed at Ultear's lower back. "Erza, sit here."
He gestured for her to take over the pin.
Gray, arriving at the same moment, caught the scene full-on: Erza moving to sit on Ultear's back, Shane crouched nearby, and Ultear's face—almost a mirror of his beloved master's.
"You—what are you doing?!" he blurted, eyes wide.
~~~
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