The cavern was silent, save for the faint, unsettling hum of ancient magic.
Ankh stood before the towering monolith of ice, his arms crossed over his chest.
His crimson eyes traced the jagged contours of the frozen prison, analyzing the structure not just as a physical barrier, but as a construct of immense magical sacrifice.
Inside the ice, the demon Deliora was suspended in a moment of eternal roaring, a terrifying snapshot of destruction halted by a mother's love.
"Ur," Ankh whispered, his voice echoing slightly in the vast chamber. "Her Magic Power rivaled the Ten Wizard Saints in her prime. The forbidden spell she cast with her life—Iced Shell—is truly remarkable. It essentially turned her very life force into absolute zero."
Ultear stood a few paces behind him, staring blankly at the colossal prison.
Her expression was a mask of indifference, but her trembling fingers betrayed her.
"Yes..." Ultear replied, her tone a complex mix of awe and resentment. "From what little memory I have, that woman was indeed powerful. Powerful enough to seal a demon, but not powerful enough to save her own daughter."
Ankh stole a glance at her over his shoulder.
He saw the crack in her armor.
"Well?" he asked, stepping aside to give her a clear view. "Now that we're here, standing before her final resting place... don't you want to say a few words to your mother? I can give you privacy."
Ultear let out a short, sharp laugh.
It was a sound devoid of humor, filled only with bitterness.
"She's already dead, Master. Who would I be talking to? A block of ice?"
She turned her head away, unable to look at the figure within the frost.
"Besides, that woman abandoned me long ago. She moved on. Didn't Ur... didn't she show more affection to those two disciples of hers, Gray and Lyon, than she ever did to me? I was replaced."
Ultear's voice trembled slightly at the end.
Her eyes, usually so sharp and calculating, were rimmed with red.
The emotions she had buried under layers of ice magic and hatred were far less calm than she pretended.
Seeing Ultear trying to maintain her composure, Ankh felt a pang of genuine regret.
Not for his actions, but for the tragedy of it all.
If Ur had known that her decision to seek help for her daughter would result in Ultear being stolen and turned against her, she would have likely regretted it for eternity.
'Brain..'. Ankh thought, his eyes narrowing. 'That man destroyed two generations.'
He watched the grieving woman calmly. It was time to break the final chain binding her to the past.
"Ultear," Ankh asked suddenly, his voice cutting through the silence. "Do you know the name of the place that imprisoned you back then? The facility where they experimented on you?"
Ultear paused, blinking at the sudden change in topic.
She searched her memories, which were hazy with pain.
"It was some early magic research facility. I don't remember the name... it seemed connected to Master Hades in some way, which is how he found me later."
Ankh nodded slowly.
It was as he suspected—Ultear truly didn't know about the Magic Development Bureau or that its director had been Brain.
It made sense.
If Ultear had known that her mother had handed her over to Brain—who was now the Guild Master of the Oración Seis, a member of the Balam Alliance alongside Grimoire Heart—she would have pieced the puzzle together years ago.
She knew Brain.
She knew he was a madman willing to abandon all moral boundaries for the sake of his "Genesis Zero" research.
The young Ultear, a prodigy born with too much magic for her body to handle, was the perfect lab rat for him.
"The place where you were imprisoned," Ankh began, his voice steady and authoritative, "was called the Magic Development Bureau."
Ultear frowned. "The Bureau?"
"In its early days, the Bureau was a relatively neglected external research institution under the Magic Council. Its oversight was lax, its ethics non-existent. And its director at the time... is a man you should be quite familiar with through the Balam Alliance."
Ankh turned to face her fully.
"The leader was Brain. The man with the facial markings. The current Master of the Oración Seis."
Ultear's pupils contracted to pinpoints.
She stared at Ankh in disbelief.
"Brain? He... he ran the facility?"
Ignoring her shock, Ankh pressed on, laying out the facts like a prosecutor.
"In those days, Brain used the Bureau as a front. He engaged in child trafficking, deceiving numerous parents—including Ur—promising to cure their children, only to use them for his experiments. Later, when the Council began to ask questions, he blew up the Development Bureau to erase the evidence and fled, eventually founding the Oración Seis."
Ankh took a step closer. "I suspect the Council's archives contain no detailed records about the Bureau or Brain anymore because he destroyed them. Ur didn't abandon you, Ultear. She was tricked. She thought she was saving your life."
The strength left Ultear's legs.
She didn't fall gracefully; she crumpled, her knees hitting the cold stone floor with a dull thud.
"If that's the case..." she murmured, her voice hollow, staring at nothing. "If she didn't know... how do you know all this?"
Ankh revealed an enigmatic smile.
"I have my sources. The shadows whisper to me."
With this explanation, coupled with Ankh's track record, Ultear had no reason to doubt him.
He had consistently demonstrated intelligence-gathering abilities that bordered on omniscience.
In fact, she sensed that compared to Hades, who was obsessed with the Abyss of Magic, Ankh knew more about the political and historical truths of the world.
Seeing that the wall of hatred was crumbling, Ankh delivered the final blow to her misconceptions.
"Gray and Lyon grew up under Ur's care," Ankh said softly. "Gray once told me a story. He said that late at night, he often saw Ur weeping silently in her room, holding a set of little girl's clothes. She never stopped looking for you."
He gestured to the ice.
"Lyon viewed Ur as his mentor, his goal, even a mother figure. I recall hearing that when he was young and naive, he tried persuading Ur to forget her 'deceased' daughter to focus on training. Do you know what she did? She nearly expelled him. She could never let go."
Ultear had no time to ponder how Ankh learned these intimate details.
Her emotional dams broke. The avalanche of realization crashed down on her.
All these years...
The hatred she had clung to as a lifeline, the anger that had fueled her rise in the dark guild... it was all based on a lie?
That woman... her mother... had she truly loved her until the very end?
"Mother..."
Ultear could no longer suppress her tears.
They spilled over, hot and fast.
She covered her mouth with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently as she struggled to silence her sobs in the echoing cave.
Her hatred had always stemmed from misunderstanding.
The genuine love she held for her mother had never truly diminished; it had merely been buried deep within her heart, encased in its own shell of ice.
Now, that shell was melting.
Watching the weeping woman, Ankh felt unexpectedly conflicted.
He had intended to break her down to rebuild her loyalty, to prepare her mentally before Ur's potential resurrection.
He hadn't anticipated his words would shatter her so completely.
After a moment's thought, Ankh stepped forward and placed a hand on her trembling shoulder.
"Ultear," he began tentatively. "If I could bring your mother back..."
[Be careful, Ankh.]
A deep voice suddenly resonated within Ankh's mind, cutting him off mid-sentence.
[The magic power in this ice... it has changed.]
It was the sound of Seram residing within him.
Ankh jerked his head up abruptly, pulling his hand back.
Ultear seemed to sense something too.
Her watery eyes snapped open, and she scrambled backward. Both of them stared at the ice block.
The massive ice sealing Deliora was no longer static.
It emitted a faint, dazzling blue glow that pulsed rhythmically—brightening and dimming.
Thrum... Thrum...
It was beating. Like a heart.
Watching this scene, Ankh cautiously raised his hand, signaling Ultear to stay back. He narrowed his eyes and silently asked in his mind: 'What's happening? Is it Ur? Is she waking up?'
[It should be,] Seram replied, his voice echoing in the mental void. [This human possessed considerable magic power when she was alive. The forbidden technique she used, Iced Shell, did not simply kill her. It placed her physical form and soul into the rift between the concepts of Life and Death. She became the ice itself.]
[Therefore, strictly speaking, she is neither dead nor alive.]
Ankh furrowed his brows, confused.
'Then... what is she?'
[She is an anomaly,] Seram explained. [For such non-living life forms, as long as they haven't completely violated the fundamental laws—like reversing death without a sacrifice or affecting the external causal flow—the God Ankhseram generally turns a blind eye. After all, most of them lack the will to sustain themselves and dissipate into the ether before long.]
[In the world of Earth-land, and many other planes, such entities are mostly called 'ghosts', 'spirits', or 'lingering wills'.]
Ankh's lips twitched as he pointed at the enormous, glowing ice block that was currently vibrating the cavern floor.
'You call this thing a ghost?' he thought incredulously. 'It's a glacier with a pulse! And it can clearly affect the world of the living—it's holding a catastrophic demon in a headlock! How can this be ignored by the Gods?'
Seram's voice sounded somewhat awkward in his head.
[Don't forget who the God of Life and Death is... and look what state we are in now.]
There was a pause, as if the entity was shrugging.
[Now, the cycle of life and death across countless planes operates mostly on natural laws and inertia. Matters involving blurred boundaries between life and death in higher-level dimensions, including here, probably have no gods actively overseeing them..]
Ankh: '...So, basically, the manager is out to lunch, and the system is glitching?'
[In a manner of speaking, yes.]