Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 70 - A Rebellion Splintered

The Hisui and Mest gathered the rebels around the massive structure, with only a few of them aware of just what they were looking at. They were in a massive cavern, one that'd been mostly caved in but was repaired sometime later thanks to the work of Iron Rock Jura, a person Hisui had been struggling, immensely, to get a hold of lately.

Jura and some of the other more powerful wizards were out on their escapades. She wished to have them at her side for this assault, but something inside her knew they wouldn't be needed...yet. Not until they had to really take on Crocus, and beyond that, the Twilight Division.

They stood in one massive clump around the structure, gawking at it and some of the bloody murals around the cavern. They'd been painted by Hisui, though none were true artwork. It was the old splotches and stains from the blood of the Oni guard she had to defeat to secure this place. It was completely off the grid, not on any map the Empire had.

It was her first base of operations upon escaping prison, upon realizing her magic to its fullest extent.

She made her way down the makeshift stone steps that formed a small ring around the structure as Mest vanished and reappeared before it, excusing himself in front of Cana and Max to turn on its auxiliary system, creating a lacrima map of the kingdom. While there was far more to it, showing some of the other territories of Ishgar, only that of Fiore lit up bright enough to be visible.

"What are we doing here, Hisui?" Makarov asked. "Are you trying to get us all killed?"

Hisui rested her hand on what he was talking about.

"You're playing with fire, Hisui," Jellal said.

"I'm playing with embers," Hisui said. "And you know that." She leveled her gaze on Makarov. "There's no harm to it, Makarov. They were destroyed and decommissioned in the invasion. What you're looking at now is a memory, with just enough power to help us out. It's like a memory of what used to be, of what once made our enemies tremble."

"I still don't get it," Natsu said. "It's a big old pillar, so what?"

Hisui touched down with the rest. They parted so she could approach the control dais next to Mest.

"I imagine it was a well-kept secret once," Hisui said. "Makes sense. If the rest of the wizards on Ishgar knew these were around, they'd probably throw a fit. Maybe rebel."

"But what is it?" Gray asked.

"It is known as the White Inheritance," Hisui said. "Face."

"A bomb," Makarov said, "that wipes out all magic in its vicinity. If set off we'd be left without magic for the rest of our lives."

"Then what the heck are we doing here?" Happy exclaimed.

"The Face bombs of Fiore, Bosco, and Stella were destroyed in the initial Alvarez invasion," Hisui said. "While Zeref used less than half of his forces, he let a few of his generals slip through."

Her eyes locked on one particular person.

Irene.

"The bombs are not only gone in those three countries," Irene said, startling a great many of the wizards in the room. "They're gone around Ishgar. August and I saw to that."

"I imagine that didn't sit well with foreign dignitaries?"

"Without Face, what can they really do about it?"

Hisui rolled her eyes. "Regardless. The bombs were left inert but there is enough magic power in them to run rudimentary lacrima. I figured no one would be crazy enough to come to check on the bombs after they'd been destroyed and began my work from here, using tracking lacrima I stole from the palace to begin finding wizards. It's how I found Mest, how I found the survivors from Fairy Tail. Eventually, it was how we learned of you all."