Chapter 112: Brain and the puppet

"Are you sure about that?" Hibiki asked.

"He is right, they are coming, I can feel it." Erza said and summoned a sword.

Jura and everyone else walked to the front of the villa, the figures of six people were approaching it.

In the middle were a tall man with dark skin, silver hair that reached down to his shoulders, and dark cold eyes.

He wore a white large coat with black fur at the edges, his chest was bare and the guild emblem of Oración Seis in black was imprinted on it.

Black marks in form of multiple lines could be seen from his face down to his hands.

He also wore blue pants with fur wrapping around each leg. (AN: I have no idea how I am supposed to call nor describe those things on Brain´s pants…)

In his right hand, he held a large staff that had a skull at the end, which was holding a lacrima in its mouth and was wearing a headpiece made out of feathers.

Beside him was a young man with spiky black hair at the top and long white hair at the bottom.

He wore a black leather vest with white fur trimming, a white armlet around his right bicep, and a black choker around his neck.

He also wore a pair of yellow pants with black designs on them and burgundy boots; there are spiked bracelets on his wrists and skull earrings in his ears.

His guild mark was on his right shoulder in red.

He seemed to currently be asleep with his head leaning forward, hiding his face, and was sitting on a flying carpet.

To the right of him was Angel, a furious look on her face that just screamed murder.

To the left of Brain stood a tall man with broad shoulders.

He was taller than both Brain and Jura by a fair amount, his body seemed to compose of geometrical parts with sharp angles.

He had long, orange hair that reached down passed his shoulders, bright blue eyes with long eyelashes, a prominent, flat nose, and full, red feminine lips.

He also lacked eyebrows.

His torso and arms were massive, while his legs were rather skinny, and his head seemed rather small in comparison.

(AN: Oh god damnit, another person that skips leg day.)

He wore a loose black shirt, with light sleeves adorned by a series of dark merged rhombuses, a large, white-collar closed on the front going down to cover his shoulders and a sash tied around his waist, visible under it, and simple light pants tucked inside light boots, with the parts circling his calves being reminiscent of leg warmers.

Circling his neck was a large necklace made of red beads, which had a pendant hanging from it, this took the shape of an eye flanked by two small, wing-like protrusions.

He also carried around a book in his right hand, which had a large, dark letter "J" on the cover.

Before he stood a tall, lean young man with a giant yellow mohawk in the middle and short black hair around it.

His eyebrows were also yellow and extremely long that were jutting outward and a long pointy nose.

He wore a red and white racing suit; the vest was mostly red while the rest was mostly white.

The last member was a slim young man of average height with dark tan skin and spiky, upward-styled maroon hair; aside from a tuft covering his forehead and two bangs framing his face and purple slit-pupil eyes.

He had slanted eyes similar to Natsu a rather flat nose, and prominent canine teeth.

He also sported a simple circular earring on his ears.

His outfit consisted of an elaborate whitish coat with purple inner lining and cuffs intricately decorated by silver-colored motifs, and many studs lined up the chest, the high collar, and the sleeves, which have armbands seemingly made of metal around them above his elbows.

Below it, Erik wore a dark shirt, and he also a pair of crimson leather pants held up by a studded belt, with more similar belts circling diagonally the upper parts of his legs.

Wrapped around him was a massive purple snake.

These were the members of Oración Seis.

The six people stopped about five meters before Jura and the others.

"I knew that the group that would be sent after us would be small, but I have to say I am disappointed." Brain said while looking at everyone.

His eyes ended up on Erza.

"But I still have a little thing to settle with you people from Fairy Tail."

Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were a bit confused by his words, as far as they remembered, they had for once done nothing that would draw the hate of Oración Seis onto them.

"Hahaha looks like they don´t even understand what they had done." the man with the snake, Cobra said.

Brain laughed a bit before saying, "Indeed, Cobra, these fools have no idea how they have made our plans much more complicated. Do you remember a certain person called Jellal?"

Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy became shocked, especially Erza.

"How… HOW ARE YOU CONNECTED WITH HIM?!" Erza yelled, both shocked and angry at the same time.

Seeing Erza´s raging emotions, Brain laughed again.

"Because it was me that taught him magic in the first place, or how do you expect for him and his little followers to learn it while being cut off from the outside world? Those fools from the cult of Zeref have only the most elementary kinds of magic, and even those are only worthless."

Many years ago, at the Tower of Heaven, shortly after the revolt.

A single ship was sailing closer to the lone tower that was stretching onto the heavens.

Brain stood on top of the deck of the ship, he had traveled a long way here.

Originally, he had come from the country called Isvan, a country that was rather at the east of Ishgar, most of it was covered in snow throughout the whole year.

There he was the head of the Bureau of Magical Development, a magical institution that on the surface worked under the council and mainly researched everything that involved magic.

They had developed multiple magical creations and even developed new kinds of magic.

However, beneath that surface, it was an institute that tried to increase the magic power inside the human body through experimentations, mostly on young children.

The experiments would then later be sold over the underworld, onto dark guilds or individuals that needed mages.

But Brain had also a personal goal, gather people with powerful magic power to use one of his spells called the Six Prayers, to seal something away.

This continued until a mage called Ur arrived at the institute with her daughter.

The child was suffering because of the high magic power that she had, her body was unable to control it nor was it able to endure it.

Ur had begged them to save her daughter, but Brain and the researchers tricked Ur into believing that her daughter had died during the treatment, while in reality, they had faked her death.

For years they had experimented on her body to increase the amount of magic power that was inside her body, of course, they had already stabilized her body.

However, one day the girl escaped but returned a few days later, strong hatred and anger burning in her eyes.

After this, the girl didn´t complain about the experiments, instead, she welcomed them, she craved more power.

Brain thought that the girl would be a perfect fit to be one of his Six Prayers, however, something happened that he would have never imagined.

The girl generated so much magic power that the machine was about to explode, destroying the institute with it.

Deciding that the trouble wasn´t worth it, Brain gave up on the girl and left the girl behind, so that someone else could pick her up, a man called Hades.

He then traveled the continent, trying to find the members of the Six Prayers, and as luck would have it, Hades contacted him about the Tower of Heaven and the recent revolt.

He also told him that the slaves were mostly children and some of them had a talent for magic.

Brain didn´t even hesitate and traveled to the tower.

And after a long journey, he had arrived.

As the ship came closer to the half-finished tower, he could see how some of the former slaves were currently working on it.

'Fools, they don´t even realize that they traded their freedom for the same enslavement that they had rebelled against, the only difference was that the cage was prettier.' Brain thought, the irony of the situation was amusing to him.

As the ship docked onto the harbor, and Brain exited the ship, he could feel the stares from the slaves, they were afraid, as they should.

"Who are you? Why have you come?" the voice of a young boy coming from nowhere asked him.

Brain smiled, such simple tricks were not enough to trick nor scare him, he knew that the boy was just a puppet, and he had gotten permission to use him as well.

"I am Brain, just a wandering mage in search of young mages that I want to train." Brain said while bowing respectfully.

"And with whom might I have the honor?"

"I am the master of this tower, the champion of Zeref, Jellal. Well, Brain, I allow you to enter the tower, let´s talk."

The doors of the tower opened, and Brain walked inside.

He continued to walk up the tower while looking at the slaves that he was passing by.

Shortly after, Brain entered a sort of throne room, except that the room was mostly made out of large tubes and a strange throne stood in the middle of it, however, no one was sitting on the throne.

Brain didn´t care about the look of the room, what was important to him was the hope of finding some worthy candidates for the Six Prayers.

"I welcome you to the Tower of Heaven, now, why have you come here."

Said the young voice, coming from behind Brain.

Brain had felt that the young boy had appeared behind him, but he didn´t react, he wanted to give the boy the illusion of superiority.

"As I had said before, my name is Brain. I am a wandering mage, and I am in search of a few apprentices, five to be more precise. All I want is to look through the slaves here and see if any of them meet my requirements."

Brain could hear how the young boy mowed from behind him and appeared before him.

"And why would I grant you that wish?" Jellal asked with a curious look.

Brain smiled; he knew that the boy was interested to see what he had to offer.

"I can feel a good amount of magic power inside of you, if I can find five people that meet my standard, then I will teach you magic as well."

Jellal narrowed his eyes and contemplated the other.

"This is an interesting offer, but before I accept, I think that it would be fair to see what you can do. Do you agree?" Jellal asked.

Brain had nothing against it, in fact only an idiot would have accepted without checking what Brain could do and making sure what he could learn.

"I would have been surprised if you hadn´t asked."

Brain pointed his staff toward one of the walls and gathered a large amount of magic power into it.

"[Dark Capriccio]"

A beam of darkness was fired from Brain´s staff and pierced the wall with no difficulty at all, and then proceeded to pierce through three more walls and injured six people.

"Magic is not only about power, but how you use it. Magic is a mystery with unlimited possibilities, you only need to know how to use it." Brain said with a wide smile.

His body began to flicker and split into two.

Jellal laughed when he saw this little trick.

"Such a little tick won´t fool me, you disappoint." Jellal said and with the move of his hand, send a wave of energy toward both Brains.

But unexpectedly, the wave of energy past both Brains and slammed into the wall behind them.

"What…?" Jellal exclaimed in confusion.

"Like you said, disappointing." Brain said as he appeared behind Jellal out of nowhere and hit Jellal with his staff.

Jellal landed hard on the ground, blood coming out of his mouth.

"Bastard…" Jellal cursed while whipping away the blood.

"This is what I meant with strength isn´t everything. Tricking your opponent, outsmarting him, is also a way to use magic. But you are only a brat, who doesn´t know a thing about magic… Should I just kill you now and be over with it? I wonder?" Brain said, disappointed by how easily Jellal fell for his little trick.

What Brain was simple, create two projections while making himself invisible, he didn´t even hide his magic power.

And while the projections talked, he walked behind Jellal and waited to see how the boy would move.

"I will make you pay for this, but only after learning everything from you." Jellal said with a smile, his eyes filled with greed and wrath.

"Good, then as promised I will look through the slaves to see if any of them meet my standards." Brain said and walked out of the room, his eyes cold as ice.

He would hold up his end of the bargain, fully knowing that the boy was simply a puppet that the old man had created, but maybe he could him as well, only time could tell.

Jellal, on the other hand, seethed with anger, he was the chosen of Zeref, and yet he had been humiliated like this, he would get his revenge, but for now, he had to be patient and learn as much as possible.