While everyone hurried to retreat after hearing about Etherion, Blanc calmly brought up the rear. Magic stirred quietly within him as he prepared to bind and carry away the people scattered along their route.
With every step he took, thick roots burst out around him. Slumped beneath the Magic Crystal, his face ashen, Jellal had no chance even to protest before he became the first to be wrapped in a wooden cocoon, suspended behind Blanc by the roots.
As Blanc made his way down, the guards and followers whom the guild members had knocked unconscious in the corridors, along with those cowering in corners, were bound and hoisted one after another, strung together in a messy chain.
By the time Blanc reached the foot of the tower, he was dragging a long, dark mass of people behind him. From a distance, they looked like an enormous string of wrapped rice dumplings-quite a striking sight.
"Wally! Millianna!" Hughes, who seemed to be searching for something, suddenly spotted two figures among them. His eyes narrowed, and he cried out involuntarily.
Among that long string of dumplings, a square-faced man in sunglasses and a cat-eared girl lay unconscious. Clearly, the guild members had knocked them out somewhere earlier.
Erza noticed them too. She stopped and turned toward Blanc, a hint of pleading in her eyes:
"Blanc, could you let them down? They... were my companions once, too. Jellal only deceived them. Leave them to me. Once we get back, I'll tell them the whole truth myself."
Blanc had no objection. With a casual wave, he sent the two over to Hughes and Simon, and the bindings around them instantly receded like the tide.
At the shore, the boat the guild had arrived in had just enough room for its members. Trying to