The abandoned broadcast station loomed ahead—gray, skeletal, and eerily silent. It stood just outside Oshibana, tucked against a cliff that overlooked the valley. If Erigor activated the speakers there, he could spread destruction across the region in seconds.
"He's already inside," Erza said, scanning the structure from a nearby ridge. "We go in fast. No hesitation."
Cael adjusted the strap on his glove. "What about backup?"
"There is no backup," she said. "We're the only ones close enough."
Natsu cracked his knuckles. "Perfect. I'll toast him."
Lucy sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm the only one here who doesn't want to fight a death mage?"
Cael looked at the building, eyes narrowing behind his tactical goggles. "There's movement on the second floor. Two… no, three signatures. They're setting something up."
Gray nodded. "Then we need to move. Now."
They burst through the front doors, splitting into two pairs. Erza took Natsu to the upper floors while Cael and Lucy swept the lower levels. Dust filled the air, but the floor trembled with the hum of active magic.
"This place gives me chills," Lucy muttered.
"Magic sensors are going haywire," Cael replied, checking a small mechanical tablet. "They've already started feeding energy into the lacrima arrays. They're converting sound into weaponized magical frequencies."
"In normal words?"
"If they finish, everyone within broadcast range will be deaf… or dead."
Footsteps echoed down the hall.
Cael shoved Lucy behind a column just as a pair of Eisenwald mages rounded the corner, scythes raised. He threw a pellet at their feet—blinding white smoke burst outward. In the confusion, Cael grabbed one and slammed him into the wall while Lucy summoned Sagittarius to pin the other.
When the air cleared, both enemies were down.
"Not bad," Lucy said, panting.
"Functional chaos," Cael replied with a grin. "Now let's keep moving."
Upstairs, Natsu and Erza stormed through opposition with brute force and steel. But Erigor wasn't waiting for a fight. He had something else in mind.
"Let them play downstairs," he sneered from the top floor, wind magic swirling around him like a storm. "Once the spell activates, none of them will matter."
Beside him, a modified speaker array hummed louder. The spell lacrima pulsed with power—charged with dark magic.
Meanwhile, Cael and Lucy entered the control room on the second floor. A wall of runed wires connected to the speakers.
"Too many threads," Lucy whispered.
"No time to trace it all manually," Cael said. "We'll have to brute-force a short."
"You're saying explode it?"
"Only the transmission rune. If we hit it just right, the rest of the spell won't trigger."
He pulled a cylindrical device from his pouch—his version of a magic disruptor. It looked like a pipe covered in blinking runes, patched together from scraps and instinct.
"You're trusting that thing?"
"I built it this morning during breakfast," he said.
Lucy blinked. "That's not comforting."
Cael carefully slid it between two conduits. "Cover your ears."
He activated it.
A pulse of unstable magic slammed into the system. The entire room flickered with blue light. Sparks flew. Runes cracked. The primary lacrima fizzled—then shattered.
"Transmission blocked," Cael said, sighing in relief.
But just as he turned around, a blade of wind sliced through the door.
"Not bad," a voice said from the smoke. "But you're too late."
Erigor stepped through, staff crackling with wind magic. "The main broadcast is already set. This was a decoy."
Lucy's eyes widened. "You're lying—"
"No," Cael said, his mind racing. "He's telling the truth."
The entire building shook. A distant rumble came from outside—the cliff.
Erigor grinned. "The true lacrima is positioned at the edge. All I needed was time."
Cael cursed. "Lucy, go find the others. I'll stall him."
She hesitated.
"I said go!"
She nodded and ran.
Erigor advanced, hurling compressed air blades. Cael barely dodged, pulling up a reinforced buckler made from scrap metal and magic plating. It cracked but held.
"You're not a proper mage," Erigor sneered. "You're just a fool with toys."
Cael smiled. "Maybe. But I learn fast."
He activated a wrist-mounted launcher—another prototype. It fired a magnetic disk that clamped onto Erigor's staff, sparking violently and throwing off his aim.
Erigor growled, the wind growing wild around him.
"I'll tear you apart!"
Cael stood his ground. "You're not the first storm I've faced."