Three days later at dusk, Hope stood at the mouth of a desolate valley. Because this was Makarov's secret mission, he had come alone.
According to the coordinates, a Dark Guild base lay inside this valley, yet all he saw were jagged rocks and withered vines—no trace of any building.
"Well hidden, I'll give them that."
Hope closed his eyes and let his mana perception ripple outward like rings on water.
Seconds later he opened his Heaven-Eye, now glowing gold, and fixed his gaze on an unremarkable gray Stone half-buried in the dirt; its surface bore runes invisible to normal sight.
It was an illusion Jutsu.
The sight reminded him of the intelligence Makarov had shared about Ivan's magic.
With a father who remained one of the Ten Wizard Saints in his old age and a son already strong enough to rival them, Ivan ought to have been formidable.
Yet in truth Ivan's head-on combat power didn't equal even half of Makarov's or Laxus's—still, he couldn't be underestimated.
Ivan mastered Phantom magic and had refined it to perfection; his illusions were so lifelike that even Makarov had been fooled.
A Phantom Mage capable of deceiving a Ten Wizard Saint was unique on the continent.
Sadly, every illusion is laid bare before the Heaven-Eye that can see the flow of mana.
Shutting the Heaven-Eye he'd "borrowed" from Richard, Hope stretched out his right hand and with one finger quickly wrote golden runes across the gray Stone.
When the characters sank completely into the rock, the exquisite illusion Jutsu was silently undone.
At once a cliff face in the canyon peeled away like a fading oil-painting, revealing an inconspicuous cave entrance.
Hope made no effort to hide his arrival; he sauntered straight into the mouth of the cave, where two guard Mages spotted him immediately.
"Hold it! Who are you?" a scar-faced man barked.
Hope couldn't be bothered to answer; he snapped his fingers and two blades of wind knocked the pair out cold. "I'll announce myself."
Behind the cave a flight of stairs led downward. Cold, damp air thick with the stench of cheap tobacco and liquor gusted up, and faint clamor drifted from below.
Hope descended the stairs.
The passage started narrow but soon opened wide; the belly of the mountain had been hollowed out into a crude yet sizable underground space.
Several dozen rough-looking men in ragged clothes drank and gambled at rough-hewn tables, and on the wall hung a guild flag emblazoned with a crow-like emblem.
According to the information, after Makarov expelled Ivan from Fairy Tail, Ivan founded a Dark Guild called Crows Tail to oppose and retaliate against Fairy Tail.
The skill level of Crows Tail's Mages, however… left much to be desired.
"Hey, punk, where d'you think you're from?!"
A burly, heavily scarred man spotted Hope, snatched up the battle-axe beside him, and a dozen more Crows Tail Mages poured out to surround their visitor.
Feeling the hostile stares, Hope looked around without changing expression; calling this lot "ugly customers" would be a compliment.
"I'm looking for Ivan."
Hope spoke calmly: "Call him out and you'll spare yourselves some pain."
"Insolent brat!" the big man roared, charging as earthen magic cloaked his axe.
Hope simply raised a hand and caught the razor edge of the axe; the spell wrapped around it was too weak for him to bother noticing.
With a casual flick he sent the brute and his weapon crashing into the Stone wall.
The display gave the others pause, but Dark Guild Mages are a hardened lot; after a brief hesitation they attacked all at once.
Fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades, Stone lances—every kind of magic flew at Hope from every direction.
Hope sighed. "Why do small fry never have eyes? You know I'm from the main-cast side, right?"
As his words fell, several Stone walls shot up from the floor and blocked every incoming spell.
The walls then shifted and stretched into giant rock hands that seized the surrounding Mages and pinned them to the ground.
In less than thirty seconds the fight was over.
Around Hope, Crows Tail Mages lay in heaps, bound by rock, struggling but unable to break free.
Just then a hidden door slid open and a medium-built man with a trimmed beard stepped out. He looked about forty, his features faintly resembling Makarov's, but his eyes were sly and sinister.
Ivan clapped, a false smile on his face.
"Bravo, truly bravo."
"Hope of Fairy Tail—I've heard of you. So the old man sent you to fetch me; seems Gajeel sold me out after all."
Gajeel's involved too?
Slightly surprised, Hope dismissed it and sized up Makarov's son. "Since you know the master sent me, you also know resistance is pointless. Come quietly."
Ivan sneered. "Go back? Why should I? I'm now master of the Dark Guild Crows Tail. Even the Balam Alliance that commands ninety percent of the Dark Guilds doesn't dare touch us!"
"Oh?"
Hope gave a short laugh. "Could it be that Crows Tail is so trashy the Balam Alliance filtered you out as garbage?"
Publicly mocked, Ivan's face darkened.
In truth, from the moment he walked in Hope could see that although Ivan had built a Dark Guild, its development was pitiful: the base was shabby and every member a hopeless misfit.
At present Crows Tail had only Ivan worth mentioning.
The awkward part was that Ivan himself lacked direct combat power; no matter how convincing an illusion, its killing potential is minimal.
Hope rolled his wrist. "Ivan, are you going to tie yourself up, or shall I do it for you?"
"Hmph—underestimate me and pay the price!"
Ivan drew a short magic wand. "Today you'll learn the cost of belittling Ivan Dreyar!"
Dozens of violet mana threads burst from the wand and shot at Hope like living serpents, weaving mid-air into a barbed net that wrapped him in an instant.
Yet the next second the netted Hope turned into a wooden log.
At the same moment, back at the cave entrance,
the real Hope, leaning idly against the wall and tossing pebbles, smiled at the Ivan who was using illusions to sneak past him.
Then… a blank card fluttered down.
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