Chapter 211: The True Culprit Behind the Scenes—Ultear

Chapter 211: The True Culprit Behind the Scenes—Ultear

The thunder that lit up the heavens and earth collided with the darkness that devoured everything, and the powerful explosion instantly spread in all directions. The magic crystal tower was directly broken into several segments from the middle.

The entire small island also gradually disintegrated amid the collision of darkness and thunder.

Fortunately, George had already used telepathy to inform Erza and the others of the countermeasure strategy before the attack.

Before the two sides' magic collided, Hugh had already activated his playing card magic in advance, storing the injured ones inside the playing cards.

Then Juvia, who was in the best condition, took Hugh and dove into the sea to avoid the aftermath of the magic collision.

"Good thing I'm tough enough, or I wouldn't have been able to withstand it!"

As the thunder and darkness subsided, George cast healing magic on himself with his wand.

If he hadn't used giant magic to enhance his body at the critical moment, his situation would've been much worse than just being injured.

"You little punk, acting all cocky—bet you're not so arrogant now."

Looking down, the island that was originally larger than a town had, under the aftermath of the collision, been reduced to the size of a football field.

As for Jellal, he was lying charred all over on the island, seriously wounded and unconscious.

The forbidden magic Purgatory Shatter that Jellal cast and George's ultimate version of the electromagnetic cannon were of similar power. But George was much tougher than Jellal, and with timely healing, he came out mostly unscathed.

"My magic crystals!"

Looking at the shattered remains of the magic crystals on the ground, less than one percent of the original amount, George felt an immense heartache.

There was no helping it—in that kind of situation, he simply didn't have time to split his attention to protect the crystals. Most of them were destroyed by the aftermath.

"Better than having none at all."

Consoling himself, George packed the remaining magic crystals into his box and stored them in his re-equip space.

These crystals should last him about two years. He would figure something else out when they ran out.

"George! George!"

Just as George finished packing up the crystals, Erza and the others surfaced from the sea.

[Translator: sauron05]

When they saw George standing safely on the football field-sized island and Jellal seriously injured and unconscious on the ground, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Swimming to the island, Erza drew a new magic sword, then gritted her teeth and pointed it at Jellal.

"Today, I will end this completely and fulfill the destiny of these eight years."

Originally, when she came to this island, she still held on to the thought of saving Jellal and bringing him back to the right path.

After all, Jellal was once so gentle and kind, and he had been captured by those dark mages in order to protect them, which turned him into what he is now.

But after hearing Jellal's words earlier, she understood that he was beyond saving. Only by completely ending Jellal could they prevent him from causing greater destruction in the future.

So even if her heart still wavered, she absolutely could not go soft.

"Hold on, don't rush."

George stopped Erza when he saw this.

From Erza's account and Jellal's words, George felt something strange about the whole matter.

According to Erza, Jellal was originally very gentle, kind, and righteous. He was suddenly transformed after being captured by dark mages, driving her away and taking up the mission of resurrecting Zeref.

But Jellal said he heard Zeref's whispers, which told him what true freedom was.

Analyzing this from a normal psychological development perspective, this was completely impossible.

A person's change in character and beliefs should go through a process—at least a few months, and based on Erza's description, someone as strong-willed as Jellal wouldn't change in anything less than a few years.

If there was one possible explanation, it would be something like the Soul Snatch Curse he had used—using spiritual magic to affect someone's mind, which could lead to such a rapid personality change.

So he suspected that Jellal had been subjected to some sort of spiritual magic after being captured by the dark mages—possibly a long-term mental manipulation.

Otherwise, judging by Jellal's strength, if he hadn't been constantly influenced, he should have quickly recovered on his own.

"Legilimency!"

George pressed his cat paw on Jellal's head and activated both telepathy and Legilimency.

Normally, Legilimency requires the target to be conscious and involves eye contact to peer into their soul and read memory fragments.

But George didn't need to bother with all that. He directly used his psychic ability to invade the opponent's mind, enhancing the effect of Legilimency.

"There really is something here."

As soon as he entered Jellal's mind, he immediately noticed a subtle spiritual energy entrenched in Jellal's brain.

"Come out of there!"

George burst forth with psychic power, forcibly dragging that spiritual energy out of Jellal's mind, causing it to reveal its true form in Jellal's sea of consciousness.

"It's you!"

Seeing the form of that spiritual presence, George's face instantly showed an expression of surprise.

Because he recognized this person—or more precisely, had encountered them once.

It was the very same Ultear from the Magic Council—the one he had met when he went to Clover Town to repair the city.

"I really didn't expect the plan to ultimately fail at the hands of a cat like you."

Ultear looked at the massive beast-like George appearing in Jellal's sea of consciousness. Knowing that the spiritual energy she had left in Jellal's brain was no match for him, she simply left behind a sentence and then faded away on her own.

"He really was being controlled. The one controlling him was a female mage from the Magic Council named Ultear…"

Withdrawing his hand, George explained Jellal's situation to everyone.

Everyone was shocked by this revelation. Erza, Simon, and the others looked at Jellal with a gaze that changed from disappointment and hatred to pity.

The gentle and kind Jellal they once knew had never truly disappeared in their hearts. Knowing he had been controlled into doing these things, they naturally no longer resented him.

As for Natsu, Lucy, and the others—they were kindhearted people. Since none of their companions had died in this battle, they weren't particularly bothered.

"Heal to Perfection!"

Jellal's injuries were severe. To prevent him from dying, George cast basic healing magic on him.

After learning the truth, George had a few thoughts.

Since his goal was to become the future master of Fairy Tail, strengthening the guild was essential.

The stronger the guild, the greater the benefits he could reap in this world.

If one day Fairy Tail became the most powerful guild in the world, he wouldn't even need to leave the guild—the mages of the guild performing missions around the world could bring him all the resources and magic he wanted.

So, he thought that if Jellal could return to normal, recruiting him and Simon into the guild might not be a bad idea.

(End of Chapter)