Walking beside Lahar, who was disguised as a member of the White Magic Cult, Ankh quietly asked, "Did the memories you extracted include the exact locations where they're holding the civilians?"
Lahar gave a subtle nod without looking away from the road ahead.
His lips barely moved, yet his voice reached Ankh clearly.
"Yes. But there are a lot of guards around those locations. If we attack carelessly, won't we put the prisoners in danger?"
"Not if we kill the guards fast enough."
Ankh's answer was perfectly calm.
Lahar immediately understood.
Without drawing attention to himself, he gradually led the disguised group away from the route they were supposed to follow and toward one of the large detention facilities holding ordinary civilians.
The deviation was noticed almost immediately.
Several patrol squads turned toward them, and the guards stationed outside the prison grew visibly tense as the group approached.
"Hey! You lot!"
One of them shouted angrily.
"This isn't your patrol route! Get the hell out of here!"
Lahar ignored him and kept walking.
By now, the other patrols had realized something was wrong as well.
They began converging from several directions while shouting,
"Stop where you are! We're inspecting your unit!"
"Inspect my ass!!"
They were already close enough.
Gajeel was the first to drop the disguise.
His arm transformed into an enormous serrated iron blade, and he swung it horizontally with terrifying force.
The huge steel saw tore through the formation of cultists and sent bodies flying as screams immediately erupted across the street.
The White Magic Cult members reacted at once.
Seeing their companions cut down, they shouted in fury and charged.
But by then, the entire infiltration team had discarded their disguises.
They surged forward like a pack of beasts finally released from their chains.
Natsu rushed out first and fired a roar high into the sky.
Flames exploded above Snow Village, forming a brilliant signal visible from far beyond the walls.
Wendy immediately began applying enchantments to strengthen everyone, while Erik refused to be left behind and charged ahead of Natsu and Gajeel.
Four Dragon Slayers tore through the cultists together, smashing through formation after formation.
Against the overwhelming force of Dragon Slayer Magic, none of the ordinary defenders could even slow them down.
Elsewhere, Erza and Kagura filled the battlefield with flashes of steel, their sword strikes sweeping through the enemy ranks from opposite directions.
Sorano and Mirajane activated their respective Take Over forms, one drawing upon angelic power while the other unleashed demonic might, and the two completely different transformations devastated everything in their paths.
Ice, extreme speed, spatial distortions, masterful martial arts, and even the perfume attacks of a certain suspiciously enthusiastic man all erupted across the battlefield at once.
The White Magic Cult's tightly disciplined forces collapsed almost immediately.
Against overwhelming individual power, even the most rigorous military formation could be broken apart with a single strike.
Outside the village, the Magic Council forces saw Natsu's signal and launched their own assault on the gates.
Caught between attacks from inside and outside, Snow Village's supposedly impenetrable defenses shattered in moments.
"Move! Rescue the civilians!"
Lahar's commands rang repeatedly through the streets as Council soldiers poured into the village and began taking control of key locations.
Natsu smashed apart the prison entrance with one punch, freeing wave after wave of civilians who had been enslaved inside.
The operation proceeded almost suspiciously smoothly.
The brainwashed mage forces Ankh and the others had expected to encounter were nowhere to be seen.
The fighting ended with remarkable speed.
Every civilian held in the prisons was rescued, while cultists who continued resisting elsewhere in the village were ruthlessly eliminated by the Council troops.
The sight quickly broke the remaining defenders' willingness to fight, allowing the Council to seize full control of the settlement.
Only one place remained untouched.
The cathedral at the center of Snow Village.
Ankh stood before the enormous sacred building as snow swirled around it.
In sheer scale, the Northern Cathedral was even more imposing than Fiore's nationally famous Kardia Cathedral.
After exchanging a glance with the others, Ankh stepped forward and kicked the heavy doors open.
BOOM—!
The doors flew inward.
Ankh charged into the cathedral first, while everyone behind him followed with magic circles already glowing around their hands, looking less like a rescue team and more like a gang arriving to collect a debt.
Then—
"Report! Ankh-sama! Captain Lahar! Nobody was seen leaving through the rear of the cathedral!"
"The basement is empty!"
"No hidden passageways either!"
Council soldiers who had been searching the surrounding structure hurried in from both sides, one after another delivering the same kind of report.
Lahar looked surprised.
"Did the White Magic Cult move all the captured mages before we arrived?"
"No."
Ankh immediately headed toward the center of the cathedral.
"Remember what we suspected before?"
There stood an enormous statue depicting an unfamiliar deity.
In Earth Land, genuine gods were almost impossible to find, yet religions still flourished.
Most worshipped legendary figures who had gradually been elevated into divine beings through generations of storytelling and faith.
Curiously, organizations that genuinely worshipped real gods were often much smaller.
Dimaria's homeland, where a remote tribe worshipped the God of Time, was one such example.
True divine blessings were exceedingly rare.
Benefits supposedly granted by invented gods, on the other hand, could always be arranged by the people running the religion.
Ankh examined the unfamiliar statue and studied the marks around its base.
"This was moved here recently."
He sounded certain.
Whatever deity the Northern Cathedral had originally worshipped, this clearly wasn't it.
The White Magic Cult must have replaced the old statue after taking control of the village.
Mirajane walked closer and tilted her head.
"This statue feels… strange."
Erza studied it as well.
"It doesn't really look human. The proportions are unusual."
Natsu shrugged.
"It's a god statue. Why would it have to look human?"
Juvia continued staring at it for a few moments before suddenly saying,
"It looks like a doll."
Everyone immediately turned toward her.
Juvia flinched.
"Y-Yes. A doll."
Gray leaned closer, now genuinely interested.
"She's right. The body has very obvious angular joints."
He rubbed his chin.
"Could the White Magic Cult actually be worshipping some kind of alchemical puppet?"
"Forget the statue for now."
Kagura, far more concerned about rescuing her missing guildmates, quickly dragged the conversation back on track.
She looked toward Ankh.
"Ankh-nii, can you tell where they went?"
Ankh nodded.
He raised one hand and fed Magic Power into the base of the statue.
A gemstone embedded there suddenly blazed with light.
Ankh seized that energy with his magic and forcibly stretched it outward until it formed a glowing doorway.
"A portal."
Jellal visibly relaxed for a moment, only for his expression to become serious again almost immediately.
"So there really was another layer to this."
He looked toward the Gate of Light.
"Are we going in?"
"Of course."
Ankh answered without hesitation.
"If we don't, there's nobody else in Ishgar I'd trust to handle whatever's on the other side."
He turned toward Lahar.
"You stay here and support us from this side. We'll go investigate."
"Understood!"
Lahar nodded firmly.
"Everyone, be careful!"
He understood his role perfectly. For the Magic Council, handling logistics and maintaining control of the rear was already the most useful support they could provide.
Ankh led the group into the Gate of Light.
One after another, everyone disappeared through it.
A wave of disorientation from spatial transfer swept over them.
Then it vanished.
And when their vision cleared, the scene before them was almost impossible to believe.
Soft clouds stretched beneath their feet.
An endless sky extended toward the horizon.
And all around them was a density of Magic Power so overwhelming that simply breathing felt different.
Everyone stared in astonishment.
"This is…"
"Another world?"
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