Chapter 606 - 606: Divine Inheritance

Ankh's succession as Fairy Tail's Sixth Guild Master happened remarkably quickly. After a simple celebration, the matter was essentially settled.

Magnolia had already been bustling for most of the day, and by afternoon, another wave of visitors arrived—the Magic Council delegation attending the scheduled meeting.

Under Council supervision, mages from the various guilds were gradually taken away to have their identities and experiences recorded. Nearly every street in Magnolia was packed with people, with lines stretching all the way beyond the city gates.

The center of the city, however, presented a very different scene.

Kardia Cathedral had been temporarily requisitioned by the Magic Council as the venue for the meeting.

There were just enough attendees to form a complete circle around the long table: the Council's four members, the Guild Masters of Ishgar's major guilds, and the heads of several important Council departments.

A few others were obviously present as guests who would be discussing separate matters afterward—Selene, Brandish, and Suzaku's group from Diabolos.

Ankh and Laxus sat near the head of the table, directly below the four Council members in order of precedence. Naturally, that meant they spent the time before the meeting exchanging greetings with everyone who came over to strengthen ties with Fairy Tail's newly appointed Guild Master.

The Guild Masters of the major guilds already knew Ankh extremely well, so their enthusiasm came as no surprise.

Even the leaders of weaker guilds had long heard of the Fairy God of Death and his status among the Ten Wizard Saints.

As for the Council members, two were already close to him—Ur and Warrod—while the other two had received Ankh's help in one form or another.

So although Ankh and Laxus were the youngest rising figures in the room, nobody was stupid enough to pick a fight with them just to manufacture some pointless show of dominance.

Once the customary socializing was over, Council Chairman Hyberion, seated at the head of the table, formally opened the meeting.

His first order of business was to commend Fairy Tail for organizing the expedition into Elentear and successfully rescuing the kidnapped mages. He also promised the guild additional Council funding in recognition of its contribution.

It was no small matter.

The two greatest sources of internal unrest within Ishgar—the Black Magic Cult and the White Magic Cult—had both collapsed through events tied directly to Fairy Tail.

The Black Magic Cult's nationwide demon incident had been uncovered and stopped by Fairy Tail.

Then the White Magic Cult, after falling under Larcade's influence and suffering catastrophic losses during the Elentear incident, had been crippled beyond recovery.

Somehow, Ishgar's two most troublesome internal threats had been eliminated one after the other.

Hyberion also made a point of thanking Selene for assisting them.

Selene herself seemed thoroughly uninterested in the praise. She gave him a brief nod and said nothing more.

The Council certainly didn't expect the Moon Dragon God to become their permanent ally, but proper gratitude still mattered. If nothing else, establishing a friendly relationship with a dragon of Selene's strength could only benefit Ishgar.

Once that was settled, Hyberion displayed a full map of Ishgar before everyone.

His expression became serious.

"With the Black Magic Cult and White Magic Cult gone, the remaining internal disturbances are no longer significant enough to threaten the continent."

He looked around the table.

"We need to seize this opportunity."

"This time, we burn every remaining source of internal rebellion out by the roots."

From this point onward, the Council's various military divisions and Ishgar's major guilds would enter a state of readiness.

At the same time, they intended to begin reclaiming the territories Ishgar had lost.

Ankh nodded slightly.

He had already expected something like this.

Most of Ishgar's current leadership consisted of hot-blooded mages. There was no chance they would tolerate enemy forces occupying their territory indefinitely without eventually striking back.

What surprised him was what came next.

Hyberion abruptly changed the display behind him.

The map of Ishgar disappeared.

In its place appeared a detailed terrain map of the Alvarez Empire's border regions, complete with troop deployments and defensive positions marked with startling accuracy.

Ankh studied it for only a moment before understanding.

His gaze shifted toward Brandish, who was sitting nearby with her usual lazy expression.

"Thanks to Miss Brandish's assistance," Hyberion said with a smile, "we were able to produce this extraordinarily complete map."

"In practical terms, Alvarez has shown us its exposed belly."

Brandish continued staring blankly into space.

She didn't acknowledge the praise.

Hyberion clearly expected that reaction.

After all, this information would ultimately be used against the country Brandish had once served. The fact that she had provided this much intelligence at all was already significant.

Hyberion then picked up a document and gestured for his aides to distribute copies around the table.

His voice became even more solemn.

"And the key to infiltrating Alvarez…"

"…may lie with this person."

Ankh accepted the file.

One glance at the photograph was enough for him to recognize the woman.

He frowned.

"Dimaria?"

"Exactly."

Hyberion nodded approvingly before changing the display again.

A heavily blurred image appeared on the screen.

"Using the intelligence Miss Brandish provided, we were able to estimate the locations of several members of the Spriggan 12 still operating inside Ishgar."

"Fortunately, we discovered their movements in time."

"When we began investigating, the man known as the Assassin, Jacob Lessio, had already abandoned his position and disappeared."

Hyberion's expression darkened.

"By then, he had gained control over nearly every major mercenary guild in the region."

"If war had broken out while that network remained hidden, those forces could easily have become the knife Alvarez used to strike us from behind."

Ankh listened without interrupting.

Then he glanced toward Brandish and noticed the faintly speechless expression on her face.

He almost laughed.

Jacob Lessio specialized in invisibility and spatial magic. With a casual gesture, he could quietly transport large numbers of people into another dimension.

Yet when he vanished, he hadn't taken a single subordinate with him.

The Council probably hadn't frightened Jacob away at all.

More likely, the Empire had simply ordered him to abandon the mission and withdraw early.

Hyberion continued.

"However, we discovered one other member of the Spriggan 12 who has not yet left Ishgar."

"Dimaria Yesta."

His expression became grave.

"She remained near the Northern Snow Village for some time before suddenly disappearing."

"Our agents went through considerable difficulty tracing her movements, but eventually determined the final location where she was seen."

Ankh looked down at the document.

His eyes narrowed.

"Old God Ruins?"

Hyberion nodded.

Several of the older people around the table immediately became thoughtful.

"Those of you with enough years behind you should recognize the name," Hyberion said.

"It is the only known ruin anywhere in the world that offers archaeological evidence proving gods may once have genuinely existed."

"Researchers excavated numerous records there concerning a deity from the ancient era."

"Those discoveries are the main reason modern scholars were never able to completely dismiss every story of the gods as nothing more than myth."

After the Three-Continent War, however, even the staunchest skeptics in the room would have struggled to insist that gods had never existed.

They had all witnessed what happened that night.

The sky itself had seemed to collapse beneath divine power.

Ankh crossed his arms and stared at the blurred photograph of a figure entering the ruins.

"The Council must've searched that place from top to bottom years ago."

He looked toward Hyberion.

"So why would Dimaria go there now?"

"That," Hyberion replied, resting his chin against one hand, "is exactly what concerns us."

His gaze swept across the room.

"We believe Dimaria may have discovered something inside those ruins that the Council never found."

His voice lowered.

"A genuine…"

"divine inheritance."

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