"Celestial Spirit Magic..."
Lucy looked at the golden key in Angel's hand, her face showing surprise.
"You're a Celestial Spirit Mage too?!"
Angel brushed the dust off her white feather dress.
Her fair face was now slightly dirtied from being dragged through the wall, and she revealed a gloomy smile as she stood up.
"Oh my... I've been discovered," she cooed, her voice sickly sweet. "The Wizard Saints truly are troublesome..."
Though she maintained a calm facade, Angel had already clenched a red signal flare in her hand behind her back, her nerves stretched to the breaking point.
With just one brief encounter, she knew she stood no chance against the man before her—Ankh.
A casual wave of his hand had sent her flying through a stone wall like a sack of sand, let alone engaging in actual combat.
Knowing her own limitations, Angel was well aware of her capabilities.
While it was said that each member of Oración Seis possessed power enough to destroy a guild... many of the mages present here (Jura, Erza, Ankh) could likely do the same.
As the physically weakest member of Oración Seis, Angel had no confidence in fighting multiple S-Class opponents at once.
She was already planning her escape to call for backup.
"Coming out on your own saves us the trouble of finding you!"
Natsu eagerly raised his fist, flames igniting as he charged forward, roaring fiercely.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
"Scorpio!" Angel commanded.
"YEAHHH!"
The rock-and-roll styled Scorpio shielded Angel, his mechanical scorpion tail erupting with a massive burst of sand and soil.
"Sand Buster!"
Boom!
Natsu's punch collided with the sandstorm.
The impact stopped him cold, unexpectedly filling his mouth with dirt.
"Pfft! Gross!" Natsu coughed, backing away.
Seeing Natsu at a disadvantage, Gray assumed a stance, releasing waves of chilling air.
"Ice Make: Lance!"
Nearby, Lyon and the others also activated their magic.
In an instant, the room lit up with multicolored magical brilliance.
Gritting her teeth, Angel hid behind Scorpio and waved her key once more, ignoring the drain on her magic.
"Open! The Gate of Gemini, Gemini!"
"Puri puri~"
Two small, floating blue creatures appeared.
Following a brief, chirping cry, the magic released by the allied mages fell like a torrential downpour.
Boom! Crash!
Expensive floor tiles were blasted into pockmarked ruins.
Thick clouds of dust billowed upward, and half of the mansion's ceiling collapsed under the explosive shockwaves of the combined assault.
Lucy, who had summoned Sagittarius to attack with arrows, stared into the thick smoke and couldn't help asking.
"Did we get her?"
Natsu sniffed the air, wiping dirt from his tongue. "No, not yet. I still smell her perfume."
As he spoke, a red light shot skyward from within the smoke.
Fwoosh!
It burst into a red marker firework in the air outside the broken roof.
"It's a signal flare! Finish this quickly, take down that woman first before reinforcements arrive!"
Hibiki, spotting the signal in the sky, calmly shouted to everyone.
No sooner had he spoken than Jura unleashed astonishing magic power.
He clasped his hands together.
"Iron Rock Wall: Pillars!"
Two massive stone pillars erupted from the ground behind Angel, crashing fiercely toward her to crush her.
"Boom!"
Unexpectedly, after the pillars collided, there were no screams or cries of pain—instead, it sounded as if someone had steadily caught the pillars.
Crack.
The dust cleared.
Lucy's eyes widened in shock, and she gasped upon recognizing the person holding the pillars.
"That's... Ankh?!"
There stood "Ankh," raising both hands effortlessly.
The enormous, heavy stone pillars were suspended in mid-air not far away, stopped cold.
Behind him, Angel clutched her head, staggering to her feet, panting heavily.
'Damn it...' Angel thought, sweat dripping down her face.
'Gemini can only copy mages with similar magic power to my own.'
'Copying a Ten Wizard Saint has already overloaded me instantly.'
'If this continues... I'll probably exhaust my magic and lose consciousness in seconds.'
'And Gemini couldn't even extract any memories from that man—did he use encryption magic on himself? Or is his mind just... empty?'
Jura turned to look at the real Ankh on their side, then back at the copy.
His thick eyebrows furrowed tightly as he analyzed: "What kind of magic is this? The ability to mimic mages?"
The archieve floating beside Hibiki appeared and he explain it.
"Based on the Celestial Spirit Magic she just used, that should be the Gemini Celestial Spirit, said to be capable of copying the opponent's magic, appearance, and memories."
"But it can only copy opponents with Magic Power similar to its own limit, so we just need to hold out for a..."
Before he could finish speaking, Natsu had already rushed forward excitedly shouting.
"I'm not even afraid of the real Ankh, let alone a fake like you!"
"Fire Dragon—"
"Bam!"
As expected, Natsu was violently thrown back by the fake "Ankh" using a Gravity Push.
"Gah!"
Happy raised a K.O. sign and sighed. "Aye, just as expected. Natsu got wrecked again."
As Natsu went flying, the real Ankh immediately followed up with an attack.
"Interesting copy."
Ankh intensified the gravity in his palm, infused with a hint of Death Wave.
He abruptly struck out.
"Gravity Cloud-Dispelling Palm!"
The overwhelming pressure, like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, accompanied by boundless gravity, surged toward the fake Ankh.
The fake Ankh assumed the same stance and struck out with the same move.
BOOM!
When their palms met, it was like two giant magnets of the same polarity repelling each other—a violent repulsive force surged toward both of them.
The difference was, the real Ankh faced the oncoming gravity as if receiving a massage, his hair barely moving.
The fake Ankh, however, was sent flying like a ragged doll.
He crashed hard into the ground, carving out a long trench through the villa floor.
"Pli pli pli..."
The fake Ankh reverted to its original form as the two Gemini twins.
They let out a weak, faint cry before dissolving into specks of starlight and vanishing into the air.
Angel gritted her teeth in frustration.
'Useless! It had drained all my magic power and only bought such a short amount of time.'
Ankh, meanwhile, confirmed his suspicion: Gemini could only replicate the Titan Gravity magic, but couldn't use either of the other two Divine Power magics (Life or Death).
He wondered whether it was a limitation of Celestial Spirit Magic or a limitation of Angel's own mana pool.
Angel collapsed weakly onto the ground.
Scorpio, too, was forced back to the Celestial Spirit World due to depleted magic power.
"Gotcha!"
Lyon immediately activated his magic.
"Ice Make: Prison!"
He trapped her inside a sturdy, transparent pillar of ice.
As Lyon looked at the trapped Angel, he felt that things had gone surprisingly smoothly.
And also...
"...That person's strength truly lives up to Gray's respect," Lyon muttered, staring intently at Ankh.
This was the first time he had directly witnessed the power of a Wizard Saints Mage other than Jura and his master Ur.
Having joined the guild not long ago, he had already encountered so many powerful mages.
As Ur's disciple, Lyon's pride also weighed heavily on him under such pressure.
'Moreover,' Lyon noted, 'this man's height and build somewhat resembled Ultear's mysterious partner...'
Just as Lyon was lost in thought, his vision suddenly blurred.
Crash!
The solid ice pillar abruptly shattered, sending ice fragments flying everywhere.
"What?!" Lyon's pupils contracted sharply.
Gray shouted urgently, "Lyon! What are you doing?! Don't let her go!"
But before Lyon could explain, Angel, who had been lying on the ground inside the ice, seemed to glitch.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished into thin air.
"Urgh!!"
Thud.
Before Lyon could react, a powerful kick struck his back from nowhere.
It sent him flying uncontrollably into a pillar.
"Lyon! Enemy—"
Seeing Lyon ambushed, Gray rushed to his aid.
But he had barely taken a few steps when a dark shadow flashed past him.
Smack.
A solid hook punch connected with his left cheek, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"Being slow isn't a good thing."
A mocking voice echoed like a ghost at the villa entrance.
A man with spiky yellow hair stood there, casually carrying the unconscious Angel over his shoulder.
He wore red-tinted sunglasses, had yellow eyebrows, a sharp long nose, a jaw guard, and sported athletic wear that gave the impression of a sprinter.
"One of the Oración Seis," Hibiki identified, his face pale. "Racer."