After reassuring everyone from the guild, Blanc slowly walked over to Jellal.
Leaning against the cracked Magic Crystal, Jellal struggled to lift his head and forced a self-mocking smile:
"You won... What, did you come all this way to laugh at me?"
Blanc looked down at him without a trace of a victor's swagger.
Instead, he merely sighed helplessly and crouched in front of him, bringing their eyes level.
"I have no particular interest in laughing at clowns. I just wanted you to know the truth before you died."
"Zeref really isn't dead." Blanc paused, his tone matter-of-fact. "That wasn't some lie I made up to get out of trouble."
Jellal's smile froze, and his pupils trembled violently.
"So everything you've done over these past eight years-deceiving your companions, building this tower, provoking a war, kidnapping Erza..."
Blanc stared straight into his eyes as they teetered on the brink of collapse. "It was all utterly pointless."
Watching Jellal fall into deathly silence, Blanc shook his head:
"I'm guessing that when Ultear confessed the truth to you that day, you attacked before she could finish?"
Jellal's pupils abruptly contracted.
That day, after his sneak attack had sent Ultear flying, she had indeed seemed to want to say something else as she lay on the ground. But he had been in no mood to waste words on someone who was no longer useful to him, so he had ignored her.
"If you ever get the chance to see her again," Blanc said as he slowly stood and brushed the dust off his pants,
"you can ask her yourself whether I'm telling the truth."
With that, Blanc turned and walked away.
Immediately afterward, a scarlet-haired figure approached with steady steps and stopped in front of Jellal.
With Mira's coat draped over her shoulders,