Just as Brian was about to escape, he suddenly stopped as he looked at his monitoring screen. There, for a second, he saw the silhouette of a little girl running through the woods. Most wouldn't catch this small detail, but Brian was not one of these people.
He was a director of one of the world's largest research labs. So his observation skills are far better than any normal person's.
"This! How is this possible? I made sure this girl couldn't escape again. " Brian panicked as he used his monitoring device to zoom in on the little girl who was running desperately towards the woods.
" Oh shit, she is heading towards the town. Damn it," Brian cursed angrily as he ran out immediately. He needed to stop that little girl, Ultear, before she escaped any further. He didn't want that girl to reconnect with her mother. That would basically bring him more trouble.
Although he wasn't afraid of Uru due to his own strength as a smart man, he knew when to keep a low profile. Especially at a sensitive time like this. He didn't want another wizard with the level of one of the Ten Great Wizards coming after him.
And what's more, if Ultear really managed to reunite with her mother, then wouldn't the truth be revealed? Wouldn't that girl hate him to the bone? After all, he was the one who lied to both parties. And wouldn't that make her another one of his enemies who would cause him trouble in the future?
Brian had no doubt in Ultear's potential to be one of the Ten Great Wizard Saints. This girl was Brian's best test subject, and it was due to her that many of his research projects managed to progress at a very fast speed. If possible, Brian really wanted to make Ultear one of his pawns. He knew that it was only a matter of time before Ultear began to show her true talents. Especially so if she managed to inherit Uru's amazing ice-shaping magic. And with such a major, how could Brian let Ultear go?
He would first try to control Ultear into becoming one of his hidden hands, but if that didn't work out, he would then have to kill her before she had enough time to grow up and explore her true potential.
A dead genius is just a good genius.
Just as Brian stepped out of his hiding place, the surroundings suddenly began to change. Brian only felt a flash of magic power, and then all his senses began to shut down one after another.
This sudden shift in atmosphere caught Brian completely off guard. He could only use his magic power to try to expel whatever was causing him this problem. But no matter how much magic power Brian released, nothing changed.
Helpless and annoyed, Brian began to gather magic power into his hands, prepared for a wide-area magic spell to deal with whatever it was causing this situation. Although this might leave some of his traces, Brian knew this was no place to hold back.
If he lost his life here, then what use is there in holding back his cards? With this resolve, Brian immediately fired one of his best spells.
" Dark Rondo "
With a wave of his hand, a dark magic power wave was released, destroying everything. The secret hideout that Brain built for himself was destroyed by this magic wave. Fortunately, Brian had already finished packing his things, or else he would be bleeding with regret.
Although Brian's magic attack destroyed his secret hideout, it did serve its purpose. The magic attack made the magic particles in the air chaotic enough to allow Brian to slip past whatever magic that was affecting him.
After getting his senses back, Brian immediately used a wide-area detection magic to search for whoever was responsible for attacking him.
But to his surprise, no matter how far he searched, he didn't find anyone. This made him get a very bad feeling. There would only be two reasons for one not to be spotted during a detection spell.
One is that when the person is not inside the caster's detection range, they would not be spotted. And the other is if the other party's magic power far surpasses the magic power of the caster by a large margin, then the detection would also be invalid.
But you know his detection is not small, and he is sure that even a Ten Great Saint would be detected by him if they were in his detection zone. And even if it were one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Brian had confidence that he would at least be able to sense them with his detection spell.
And besides, the magic he was under was very strong, and normally a person needed to be at a close distance to activate such magic, or else it would lose much of its original effect.
And until now, he didn't feel any change in the space, so there had been no possible teleportation. Every space magic would leave a trace on the space.
With all these clues, Brian finally came to a conclusion that made his face very grim. Whoever used that magic on him was so powerful that even he would be no match. The reason Brian arrived at this conclusion is that he didn't think there would be a person whose magic power far surpassed a Ten Great Saint in both quantity and quality.
For him, who had never seen a dragon up close, he had no idea how broken that race is. Akira, despite being only 10 years old, had enough magic power to beat someone like Makarov. And with Akira's physique being more abnormal, he didn't face the issues like Laxus for not having a strong body.
And as for Akira's spell, well, although Brian was right about the distance having a great impact on a magic spell's effectiveness, he was wrong about one thing. Akira's spell was never something that was directly aimed at Brian. And with Akira's magic power quality, he would brute force his way in.
His Kyōka Suigetsu allowed him to manipulate the senses of his opponents. And with this function, Akira can manipulate the information everyone gets with their senses. So, was what Brian felt really the reality?
Did he really get out of Akira's control? Did he really release that Dark Rondo magic spell? Oh, better yet, did he really leave the secret base?
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While Brian was brainstorming with conspiracies, Akira, the person who led him to this state, was running as fast as he could while carrying a little girl on his shoulder. He looked 100% like a human trafficker who finally managed to kidnap a wealthy heiress who sneaked out to play.
Yes, with how Akira had his disheveled hair and burnt clothes, Akira certainly fit the description of a loli kidnapper.
" Damn you, Brian, I will fucking make you pay for this, " he cursed loudly, not even caring to act like an honest child who should definitely not say such bad words.
The reason why Akira was like this was because he was caught in the aftermath of Brian's magic spell. And in addition to that, he also got caught up in a nearby explosion that followed through, making him receive twice the damage.
Although Akira's domain managed to trap Brian in the illusion but Akira had a deep reason to get close to him.
Akira just remembered this, but as far as he remembered, the kids that Brian trained all came from the Tower of Paradise. So this meant that Brian knew the location of the Tower of Paradise.
And to recuse, Erza Akira needed this information desperately. At first, he tried using his unique skill to peek into Brian's mind, but to his surprise, his skill failed.
But after thinking about it, Akira remembered that there was another guy who had a similar ability to his in Brian's group. With Brian's level of caution, it wouldn't be a surprise if he made some countermeasures against Eric's hearing ability.
But despite this, Akira knew that his unique skill was far stronger than Eric's hearing magic. His ability can directly bypass the defense Brian set up. But to do that, Akira would need to get as close as possible.
This is why Akira went near Brian despite the danger. For his sister, Akira can still take this much risk.
Fortunately, despite getting caught in two explosions, he managed to get the info he needed. Though this new information did give him some new problems.
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