The path to tracking Nirvana was long. Given its nature as a magical vehicle of sorts, Nirvana's pace was far faster than theirs. While its legs moved slowly, its stride was large and it had a significant head start. Meredy and her team were moving as quickly as they could, finding themselves leaving the Worth Woodsea somewhere off on its western side. Night had fallen by the time trees became more scarce. Finding a dirt road near the obvious tracks made by Nirvana's legs, they began to take a more straightforward path in their tracking.

Eve and Ren stayed close to each other during the walk, neither attempting to pick up a conversation. Wendy held Charle close to her chest, lingering near Meredy and picking up on the mood to stay silent. Ichiya and Jura lead their group at the front, keeping a steady pace. Ultear and Jellal were the only ones willing to even attempt talking with the heavy mood in the air, discussing amongst themselves before bringing Meredy in to the discussion to plan out their attack.

"We need to destroy the lacrima simultaneously." Ultear raised her eyebrows at Meredy. "You haven't attempted it with such a large group, but do you think you could manage it now?"

Wendy bit her lip, glancing at Blue Pegasus before whispering to Ultear. "Manage what?"

"A widespread link." Meredy frowned, looking at the others. On rare occasions, she used its benefits as something akin to a telepathic link. Technically, it wasn't the same, but a weak link felt almost identical to the point where most didn't realize the difference. "I will have to manage it. Coordination will be necessary for us to succeed."

Nodding, Ultear looked over at the others. "And each of them will be able to hold their own as needed? I don't know this group, Meredy. The three of us can stand our ground against the Oración Seis, but that hardly says a thing about them."

Meredy narrowed her eyes at Jellal who was staying silent. Then, she let out a sigh and shook her head. "They are determined."

"Determination does not mean success." Jellal met her glare calmly. "Ultear is not meaning to be cruel, but we need to be practical. If we are anticipating the odds to be against us—"

"They've already lost one guild member." Meredy interrupted, turning away to avoid his gaze. "My strategy resulted in his death. I'd recommend disregarding my suggestions in your own before they cause the same result again."

"Mer, you didn't do that." Wendy's eyes were wide. "How can you—?"

Meredy shook her head. "I did." She looked over at her companion. "It was my recommendation to act as we did on this mission. I refused to allow the others to offer input that contradicted my own thoughts on how we should approach the task. Regardless of where I am now or what I am attempting to do, I think I will always lack the same moral compass others possess." She stared at the rest of the group with an odd coldness settling over her. "My plans reflect that and are reckless towards others. They will always be self-serving and will fail to account for the ideal outcome for all others."

"That doesn't align with what I've heard." Jellal crossed his arms over his chest. "Ultear says you were always the kindest of them all. You had a keen sense regarding knowing when someone around you was suffering and you attempted to sooth that suffering when you could."

Letting out a bitter laugh, Meredy spun on him. "Did I?" She stopped walking, giving him a dark smile. "Ul must have neglected to tell you that she wasn't the only one in charge of maintaining your curse. I helped. In fact, I was a frequent visitor at the Tower of Heaven to ensure it wasn't weakening." She started walking again, now that Jellal had stopped and had turned pale. "Don't act like you know me." Her eyes turned towards Ultear. "And don't pretend that you understand me, let alone care about me, when you're willing to just walk away so easily from what you've done."

She brushed past both of them, seeing the others watching them now that their volume had increased. Meredy just lowered her head, avoiding their questioning gazes. None of them pressed, but Jura did turn towards Ultear. "Meredy has told us some of her history, in order to alleviate our concerns regarding this alliance." He frowned at the time mage. "Perhaps some injuries can be mended with time, but I would not say you can simply disregard the experiences of her childhood so easily."

"I'm not disregarding anything." Ultear glared at him. "Are you assuming she's cold and heartless just because she's part of a dark guild? You're just another hypocritical wizard who thinks there's only one path that can be morally justified in life."

"Not at all." Jura shook his head. "Meredy has shown that she is willing to consider our opinions and feelings for the brief time we've worked together. She is even feeling the pain of loss from our latest failure." He narrowed his eyes at the time mage. "I'm simply stating that her history is one that is difficult to move past."

"Now isn't the time for more debates." Ren looked over at their group, shaking his head. "We're a team, whether we like it or not. Nirvana will be stopped and we can deal with whatever issues we have with each other after that's done."

Nodding, Eve looked over at them. "A bit blunt, but I'd agree with Ren." His eyes turned towards Meredy, softening slightly. "For what it's worth, I don't blame you. You don't have to help with the strategizing this time if you don't want to."

Nodding, Meredy took a deep breath and looked at Ultear. "Right. We are a team working towards a common goal." Her eyes focused on the time mage. "Each wizard here is willing to take on the risks of facing the Oración Seis and is aware of their skills. Perhaps some lack experience in combat, but all of us are determined to succeed. Plan with the belief that we can hold our own and overcome any obstacles that would get in our way of stopping Nirvana's magic."

"Ultear told me…" Ultear shot Jellal a look before he could finish his comment. Then, the man swallowed and looked at his feet. "Right. We will discuss this later, once this issue is resolved."

Their group returned to silence, continuing to follow Nirvana's tracks. After a few moments of walking, Charle spoke up. "I have a bad feeling about this. The direction we're headed in…we're headed straight for the Cait Shelter guild hall."

Turning towards Wendy, Meredy swallowed. The sky dragon slayer stiffened, holding Charle tighter. "No.." Seeing her reaction, Meredy offered her hand out to the younger girl. Wendy took it, holding it tightly with Charle still in her other arm. No one had words of comfort to offer her. Too much time had passed since they last saw Nirvana and they had yet to see any indication that they were catching up.

After a few more minutes of walking, Meredy could finally see the hint of Nirvana's silhouette in the distance. When it came into view, she started hearing faint sounds as well. It was muffled, but the group was quickly picking up their pace at the sight. "We're almost there. Time to finish this." Ren looked determined, glaring at the spell as he took off in a light jog. Eve was the first to join in the quickened pace, before the rest gradually followed suit.

Closer, Meredy started recognizing the muffled sounds as something vaguely familiar. There were faint shouts and screams, mixed in with familiar rumblings as if explosions were going off in the distance. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as she resisted the urge to freeze. Images of her parents walking off without her flashed in her mind, followed by the dead faces of the people she'd known so long ago. Shaking her head, she swallowed and instead tried to focus on differences. In addition to the rumbling sounds were more bangs and clashes, as if metal was colliding with more metal. People were giving off hoarse shouts as well, sounding less desperate and terrified and more angered instead.

Now with Nirvana before them, Meredy could make out the crowd of people in between them and the ancient spell. On the ground, she could see plenty of blood and dead bodies. Luckily, she did not spot any of Wendy's guild members, but it didn't make the sight any less unnerving. Robes of white and blue identified the fallen as rune knights, those that had come to apprehend the Oración Seis based on the original plans for the mission.

Those that were still standing seemed to be facing off against each other. "Captain, we're getting overwhelmed!" A knight shouted from the distance, looking into the crowd. He was quickly shot down with a bolt of lightning magic from a nearby mage.

"Hold your ground! Remember, we can still save them if we reverse Nirvana's spell!" Another shout came.

A man with dark black har and a scarred forehead teleported around to dodge a fire mage's attacks. He quickly used a sword to incapacitate other wizards that were attacking, teleporting again to reappear by the side of the man who had given the prior order. Behind them all, a glowing white spiral seemed to be growing in front of Nirvana.

"They're going to activate it." Jellal glared at the sight before them.

"Looks like they already have." Ultear folded her arms over her chest, shaking her head. Rune knights continued to fight amongst themselves, clashing with both magic and weapons throughout the chaos. Letting out a sigh, Ultear lifted her arm. An orb began to levitate, popping out of a gauntlet she was wearing. "I'll keep them occupied for the time being. We need to clear a path to the spell."

"We need you to deal with Cobra!" Meredy glared at her, grabbing her wrist. Looking out at the fighting, she slowly nodded. "Let me try." Not giving Ultear a chance to object, Meredy ran forward and began drawing on her magic. Glowing blue swords began to hover in the sky, appearing and expanding their radius of effect rapidly. Sweat beaded on her skin as she focused on making as many as she could, covering a large circle around her current form.

After a moment, she let them all drop with a shout. Rune knights on both sides of this strange conflict hastily made attempts to dodge the spell. Some threw magic at it to redirect some of the swords, as seen by an earth wizard launching rocks at the attack. Others attempted to grow shields, like a plant-based wizard who was able to grow a wall of vines to repel the spell. The majority realized it wasn't something they could simply run away from and dodge, not with the magnitude of the spell coming. Screams began to echo across the area as their senses of pain were directly targeted, crippling them.

"Go!" She nodded towards the others, focusing on the rune knights. "I'll follow after you soon."

"The coalition?" The man who'd given orders noticed her, frowning before quickly getting distracted by another attacking rune knight. "Let them pass!" A few rune knights attempted to keep the others out of their way with that order. Nodding her thanks, Meredy moved to stand next to their leader, deciding it would be ideal to keep at least him in the fray to maintain some sense of order.

"And I say stop them in their tracks!" Meredy turned, seeing Racer sliding down one of Nirvana's legs. Above him, Cobra was flying down on Cubellios' back. "Don't show any weakness. Brain values the strong and will only keep you around if you can prove your worth. So, try to keep up and don't even think of slowing me down."

The divide became more apparent with those orders. Rune knights began to let out battle cries, pouring more magic into the fight. Meredy could hardly keep track of everything going on around them just due to the sheer numbers of people fighting. One charged directly towards her. Stepping to the left, she sidestepped the attack. Crouching down, she grabbed a sword from a fallen rune knight and claimed it as her own.

When the knight turned around to continue his attack, this time he chose magic as his weapon. A blast of small icicles surrounded her, cutting into her skin and her clothes. Grimacing, she held her ground and walked forward through the blast. Slashing out, she cut the knight down, only to find herself tackled and pinned to the ground by some monstrous…bunny? She didn't quite know what magic it was, but an oversized rabbit seemed to be enraged and had tackled her down to the ground. It lunged forward in an attempt to bite into her neck. Twisting, Meredy managed to at least dodge enough to have it hit her shoulder instead.

She cried out, feeling her eyes water from the attack. Reaching out blindly with her magic, she felt some sort of bond form. The animal let out its own shriek in response, rearing backwards and freeing her. Snapping the connection, she stabbed the rabbit and let out a heavy breath. Wetness was now flowing down her arm, but she ignored it in favor of focusing on the chaos.

Another shout alerted her to an incoming attack. A fire mage was attempting to send a whip-like attack of blue flames her direction. Narrowing her eyes, she prepared to dodge only to feel an arm around her waist. "There's not enough time! Lahar, we need to fall back."

"No!" Meredy shouted, lifting her head to try and see her team. She wouldn't abandon them. Yet, then man grabbing her didn't give her a choice. Before she could manage to even spot the others, the sight of the battle vanished. She found herself in the teleportation mage's grasp in the middle of some street. Around her, a few other rune knights shared similar dazed looks as the battle ended without warning.

Ripping herself from his grip, Meredy spun around with a glare. "What are you doing? You're abandoning them!"

"Would you rather I left you to get blasted by Nirvana?" The man glared right back at her. "It only has a twenty minute recharge time. They managed to get off their last shot who knows how long ago and I wasn't going to take the risk of them getting the rest of us in one blow. We've only just gotten the magic council back together and I'm not going to let us lose an entire squad of rune knights in one fight."

"We will be able to return for them after we regroup and strategize a rescue mission for those trapped under its spell." The captain adjusted his glasses, walking towards her with a frown. "I apologize for the loss your guild has surely suffered from this mission, but we had no other options. Expect that your comrades will be turned against you when you next see them."

Shaking her head, Meredy stormed closer. "That's not an option. I won't let them fall under Nirvana's influence." Her eyes turned towards the man who'd teleported her away, recognizing him as the knight with the scar on his face. "Bring me back. Flee if you must, but I will not run."

The man looked at the captain, a grimace on his face. Nodding at him, the captain placed a hand on his shoulder before dropping it to his side. Then, he turned towards Meredy. "Your mission has failed. Report back to your guild. We will update you once we've managed to regain control of the situation and tell you if we require your assistance again."

"No." Meredy shook her head. Swallowing, she stepped away from the group. "I…I promised to protect her. I joined so I could keep her safe! Because we were going to be friends." Her arms wrapped around herself and her legs began to feel numb. With the loss of sensation, they collapsed and she fell to the ground, shaking. Wendy, Eve, Jura, and even Ichiya…they would all be gone. The people who were gradually coming to accept her, despite her past, would now be trapped under a spell to act just like the dark wizard she was trying not to be.

Ultear and Jellal would join them. Her eyes closed, already well aware of what both of them were like with that mindset. Her heart was pounding and she could feel her breaths coming more quickly with each thought passing through her head. She'd failed them all. Whether she planned or just participated, it wasn't enough. She was weak and helpless, just like she'd always been. Meredy hadn't really become strong at all, had she? Maybe it all would have been better if she'd just died with her parents.

A hand pressed onto her shoulder making her flinch. Her head jerked upwards, facing the teleportation wizard with vision blurred from tears. "Hey. Take a deep breath, alright?" The man was crouching in front of her, offering a small smile. "We've lost our own comrades too. But we are going to get them back."

"You won't help me." Her voice was cold, an odd acceptance filling her. Her team may have understood, but that was in a small team. The officials enforcing laws would never help her. "They're gone. I've lost them all." Even Ultear, the one she still didn't know what to think of.

"Don't say that." The man's smile widened slightly. "We're rune knights. It's our job to help." He pulled back, offering his hand. "My name's Doranbolt and our captain over there is Lahar. We'll be doing everything we can to stop Nirvana and reverse its effects on the wizards that have been targeted." Meredy stared at his hand blankly. "Care to tell me your name? I figure I should remember it, given the way you and your team fought to try and defend us at the end there."

Her eyes lifted to his face and for a moment, she debated what to say. Then, she hunched over and closed her eyes. "Meredy." Staring at her hands, she inhaled slowly. "I want to negotiate a plea bargain. In return for the information I have on Nirvana and the Oración Seis, I wish to be pardoned for any past crimes I may or may not have been involved in." She considered for a moment. "Myself and my allies who fought to stop the spell that's now taken control of them will receive pardons. Those are my terms."

Doranbolt frowned, looking over his shoulder to see the captain frowning at them. "And what exactly makes you think we have the authority to grant such a thing?"

"You're desperate, are you not?" Slowly, Meredy rose to her feet. "I am too. The people I've lost are precious to me and that means for the time being, we have the same goal." She walked towards him. "As those who enforce the law, it is you who are truly responsible for whether or not I face punishment for my actions. Perhaps it would not be official, but I would accept the simple act of looking the other way for the time being. Allow me and my companions to remain free until some other agents of the law find us and attempt to bring us to justice."

The rune knight scoffed. "That's hardly much of a deal. You expect a full pardon for information you are far too young to possess? A guild wizard knows nothing of spells such as Nirvana, even if you were recruited from this mission."

"Do you not recognize my name?" Meredy tilted her head. The rune knight captain frowned, studying her. Then, his eyes slowly widened. "I am exactly who you think I am." She stepped closer, her back and her guild mark now visible to the man who'd dragged her away from the battle against Nirvana. "My position gave me knowledge on things others my age would know nothing about." She stared at him calmly. "So, do we have a deal, or should I be preparing for another fight?"

"Sir, we need whatever intel she has." One of the knights nervously shifted their weight as the tense silence continued on for too long. "Nirvana is unsealed. If she has any info on—"

"Quiet." The captain sighed, closing his eyes. "You claimed you were willing to negotiate?" Meredy nodded. "Then allow me to request additional terms. Firstly, should you commit any sort of illegal act from the point of our deal onwards, the pardon offered would then be voided. I will not make a habit of allowing criminals to continue their actions."

"That is a fair point." She nodded towards him. "I will officially leave my guild, should we come to an agreement then."

Nodding, he folded his hands behind his back. "Secondly, I will request that you join our ranks. This will allow me to monitor your activities without a true arrest and teach you to respect the path of justice and the law."

"What? Lahar, you can't be serious," Doranbolt stared at him with wide eyes.

The captain glared at him. "We already had low numbers in our ranks previously. This event made matters worse." His eyes flickered towards Meredy. "Our intelligence says you are skilled with your magic. Perhaps you can learn to follow the correct path and use it for the proper purpose with us."

Her hands closed into fists, taking a deep breath. Wendy was gone and she had no one else to turn to. If she wanted them back, this was something she'd be able to live with. So, she met his eyes and nodded. "Very well. Any other demands?"

The man watched her, his eyes widening. "You aren't going to refuse? Most dark wizards insist on claiming we are corrupt monsters or some other such nonsense."

"It would be joining a group of people fighting towards the same cause." Her eyes flickered away from his. "A group of acquaintances with the same goal, nothing more and nothing less. It is a concept I am quite experienced with."

"Then it appears we have a deal." He held out his hand towards her. After a moment, Meredy accepted it and shook the man's hand. "Welcome to the ranks. I will get you your uniform shortly, but let us begin our discussions on Nirvana now."

"You already know what the spell does." The man nodded. "Then allow me to warn you that by abandoning my companions, you've made your situation far worse." Her eyes flickered towards Doranbolt. "Among them were two other well-known criminals, both attempting to atone for their crimes by stopping Nirvana. You'd know them as Ultear and Siegrain."

"The wizards that destroyed the old magic council?" Doranbolt stared at her. "You're saying that we're up against both of them too?"

She nodded. "Along with the entirety of the Oración Seis. We were not able to stop them before they activated Nirvana." She saw Hibiki's face for a moment, swallowing. "The spell is powered by six lacrima that rest at the base of each of its legs. They form a network that fuels everything Nirvana can do, from moving to actually activating its reversal magic. They are connected to each other as well - this makes them capable of repairing any damage done to the magical network they've established."

"Are you implying Nirvana can't be stopped?"

Meeting Lahar's gaze, Meredy folded her arms over her chest. "Not without a simultaneous attack. All six lacrima must be destroyed at the same time to avoid triggering the self-restoration built into Nirvana's functions."

"We aren't getting anywhere close to it though. The others…" One of the knights swallowed.

"That is why I said you shouldn't have run away." Her eyes turned towards Lahar. "Do you understand now? We've lost. They've gained an army along with the ability to convert anyone they meet to fight for their cause. Brain will not stop with just what he's gained now - he will make the world he imagines a reality and grow an empire of his own."

"Let's get back to Era for now then." Lahar sighed. "Perhaps the odds are against us, but we should have some means of stopping them somewhere. We will research in the archives for answers and work together to put an end to this threat, no matter what it takes." With that, he nodded towards the army. The rune knights fell into a preset formation, with Meredy being uncertain of where her place was. After a moment, Doranbolt gave her a smile and pointed to a gap in their ranks. Taking her place, Meredy followed them through the town, feeling an aching in her chest with each step.