Chapter 541 - 541: Interrogation Time

In the mountains outside Altair, deep within a stretch of forest rarely visited by anyone, a small group sat around a campfire eating dinner.

The people who looked like ordinary campers were, naturally, the members of Team Natsu.

With Dragon Cry stolen, Altair and the surrounding cities had quickly gone into lockdown.

Traveling openly back toward Fiore by train or ship was no longer an option.

Unable to enter any nearby city and lacking suitable transportation for the moment, Ankh and the others had fallen back to the rendezvous point they had chosen outside Altair and settled in while deciding their next move.

They were also waiting for Natsu, who was still somewhere inside the city.

Ankh sat beside the fire grilling fish.

Erza leaned against him with a strangely absent expression, while Wendy stared at the fish with such obvious hunger that she looked ready to start drooling.

Gray glanced toward the dark forest and sighed.

"Natsu's taking forever. Think something happened to him?"

Carla spread her paws.

"With his strength, even if he ran into someone he couldn't beat, escaping shouldn't be a problem. Happy's with him too."

Gray nodded.

A short while later, blue ripples suddenly spread through the air beside them.

Everyone immediately looked over.

A watery portal opened, and Natsu and Happy came rushing through.

"You finally made it back."

Gray complained instinctively, but the moment he noticed Natsu's filthy, battered appearance, his expression changed.

"What happened? Was there actually someone strong inside the city?"

Natsu wiped his face, visibly irritated.

"It was Bluenote."

"Bluenote?"

The name sounded both familiar and strangely distant.

Everyone thought for a moment before finally remembering him.

Grimoire Heart's former second-in-command.

A powerful mage who had once managed to fight Gildarts for a time on Tenrou Island.

"He got stronger?"

Erza looked puzzled.

Ankh turned toward Natsu as well.

As far as Ankh remembered, the current Natsu should already have surpassed the Bluenote they had fought years ago.

Unless the man had made some enormous breakthrough since then, he shouldn't have been capable of giving Natsu much trouble.

"That guy was scary!"

Happy immediately started waving both paws.

"He suddenly turned into a demon, and then Natsu couldn't even fight back!"

Natsu instantly rounded on him.

"That's not what happened! I could've beaten him if you hadn't kept yelling at me to retreat!"

Erza frowned.

"He transformed into a demon?"

"Was it some new magic? Something similar to Mirajane's Demon Soul Take Over?"

Natsu shook his head.

"I don't know what it was."

He struggled to find the right words.

"It didn't feel like Mira's Take Over at all. It was more like… he'd actually been completely rebuilt into a demon."

"Even his magic changed."

"It became a Curse."

Ankh folded his arms, his expression turning thoughtful.

"If all the surviving Seven Kin are part of the Black Magic Cult, then whoever is behind that organization may be far more dangerous than we thought."

Wendy's eyes widened as something occurred to her.

"Someone who can turn humans into demons and give them stronger powers…"

Then she suddenly gasped.

"Wasn't Minerva-san changed like that during the Tartaros incident?"

Now that she mentioned it, Erza remembered as well.

Six months earlier, Minerva had fallen deeper into darkness and allowed Tartaros to alter her body into that of a demon.

he had later been defeated during her battle with Kagura.

After the war, the Magic Council had naturally investigated her.

She had, after all, fought against Ishgar while aligned with Tartaros.

Fortunately, Minerva had only recently joined them at the time and had not committed any major crimes beyond participating in that conflict.

With the members of Sabertooth repeatedly speaking in her defense, she avoided imprisonment.

Perhaps being beaten back to her senses during that battle had finally forced her to reconsider her life as well.

Afterward, using research and technology seized from Tartaros by the Magic Council, a method had eventually been developed to restore her human body.

Lucy immediately understood what Wendy was suggesting.

"You think the Black Magic Cult stole the demonification technology the Council confiscated from Tartaros?"

She hesitated.

"But wouldn't we have heard about something that serious? There haven't been any major incidents at the Council recently."

Ankh shook his head.

"Whatever the exact explanation is, Tartaros is definitely connected somehow."

He paused.

Then his gaze slowly shifted toward the campfire.

"And if we want answers…"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"We already have a much better source sitting right here."

Everyone followed his gaze at once.

Their eyes landed on one particular spot beside the fire.

Zash, tightly bound from head to toe, was lying there with his eyes closed.

Or rather—

pretending to be asleep while very slowly trying to burn through his ropes against the campfire.

"…"

The entire group stared at him.

Erza's expression immediately darkened.

"You really never stop trying things, do you?"

She strode over, grabbed Zash by the back of his clothes, and hauled him upright.

Zash's eyes snapped open.

Blood-red light immediately flared within them.

'Got her!'

Excitement surged through him.

Three seconds passed.

A dry leaf drifted through the night air.

Erza, who was staring directly at him, did absolutely nothing.

Zash's triumphant smile slowly froze.

"Huh?"

Erza had one eye closed.

Behind her, several members of Team Natsu were now wearing dark sunglasses, all staring at him with completely unimpressed expressions.

Then Erza slammed him face-first into the ground.

Natsu and Gray immediately joined her.

What followed was a righteous three-person beating.

Zash's miserable screams echoed through the forest.

Lucy wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and smiled awkwardly.

"You really can't let your guard down around this guy for even a second."

Carla folded her arms proudly, still wearing oversized sunglasses.

"We already know how his magic works. Did he seriously think we wouldn't prepare for it?"

Zash's hypnotic eyes functioned much like the eye-based magic used by members of the Thunder God Tribe.

The effect required direct visual contact.

Which meant sunglasses were enough to block it.

And in Erza's case, one of her eyes was artificial anyway, making the trick even less useful against her.

Once Erza, Natsu, and Gray finally finished venting their irritation by kicking Zash around, Natsu grabbed him by the collar and hauled his bruised face upward.

"Talk!"

"Why is the Black Magic Cult working with Stella?"

"And who's really behind them?!"

Zash's face was swollen beyond recognition, but he still managed a stubborn snort.

"Black Magic Cult?"

"Why would His Majesty or I ever cooperate with an organization like that?"

"Oh, cut the crap!"

Gray's expression darkened.

"You're a fanatic who practices Black Magic yourself!"

The three of them immediately looked ready to resume the beating.

Ankh raised one hand and stopped them.

He looked at Zash, who was doing his best to appear fearless, and slowly smiled.

"Leave him to me."

Then he glanced toward Erza.

"Coincidentally, one of my companions picked up a few interesting interrogation techniques over the last six months."

Erza blinked.

A faint golden light suddenly appeared behind Ankh.

Within it, a familiar feminine silhouette slowly emerged beside him.