With this chapter, we're finally entering the games themselves! The match-ups between the guilds are chosen through a website that randomly generates numbers, but as I mentioned earlier, you will be able to vote on who you would like to see in each match-up either through private messages or leaving a review.

Motivation had been high at first, but as time dragged on, the mages of Fairy Tail were unsure if they were even making progress. Coating the walls with Aries' wool and Gray's ice had worked for a while, but even with using that to negate the invisibility of the walls, it seemed like every turn that they made led to a dead end. Lucy in particular was worried that the maze had been designed to give them the most difficult path – after all, between their effectiveness in the X791 Games and Natsu beating the champions of the X792 Games with no effort, Fairy Tail was a strong favourite to win this year, so maybe the people running the tournament thought that something like that would make it more dramatic.

"ARGH! This is getting us nowhere!" Natsu looks around, but there aren't even many other teams to see. They had spotted Gajeel's team as they were leaving, as well as briefly seeing Blue Pegasus a few minutes ago. Erza thought she had caught a glimpse of a familiar head of blue hair from a distance (though she dismissed it as a coincidence), and they had occasionally crossed paths with a few other teams that were quickly dispatched, like members of Dullahan Head and Carbuncle. However, there was nothing indicating how they were supposed to get to their destination.

"I agree. It feels like we've been wandering in circles." Erza shuts her eyes, considering their options.

Gray looks lost in thought, but his eyes light up as something comes to mind. "Well, if the normal methods aren't working, why don't we solve this problem the Fairy Tail way?"

"The Fairy…" Natsu slaps Gray on the back, a little harder than he needed to – he nearly sent Gray tumbling to the pavement. "Great idea, Gray!"

"…No problem." While Gray was tempted to pick a fight with Natsu, every second counts – they'd hate to be eliminated before the tournament began.

Planting his feet on the ground, Natsu takes a deep breath. "Fire Dragon King's…" A massive amount of flames erupt from his mouth, hitting the barrier. "…ROAR!" Somewhat impressively, the invisible walls manage to hold out for a handful of seconds before shattering like glass. The shards of the wall, now visible but transparent, scatter all over the ground, and a path towards the center of the city lies open before them. "Let's go!"

"Hurry up, guys!" Gray takes off running – already, the wall is slowly but surely starting to reform. Without further hesitation, the rest of the team follows him.

Wendy glows with an aura as she gathers magical energy. "Ile Vernier!" The entire team is surrounded by a green light, as Wendy's enchantment increases their speed. They zoom through the hole in the maze, passing by the Trimens and Jenny Realight, who are checking on a badly burned Ichiya – clearly, he happened to be standing in the wrong place when Natsu used his attack. Their eyes widening in horror, the members of the Blue Pegasus team take off after the Fairy Tail mages, with Ren carrying Ichiya on his back while muttering about how it's not like he wants to carry Ichiya or anything.

Ahead of them, Thibault and the team of Twilight Ogre are running through Natsu's bypass as well. "What luck! Truly the gods are on our side! Now Twilight Ogre will make it to the Grand Magic Games, and show-" That's about as far as he gets before his entire team is frozen solid by Gray, who couldn't let an opportunity like that pass them by.

Before long, Natsu and company skid to a stop in front of Mato, with Lucy and Wendy panting and gasping for air. The other three, as expected, don't look to be winded in the slightest. "How'd… we… do?" Lucy looks up at the pumpkin-masked king.

Mato pulls out a clipboard and jots down a note. "Seventh place!"

Despite being close to missing out, Erza looks satisfied at that comment. "All right – we've improved since our first attempt!"

The pumpkin-headed mascot grins at that. "Yes, yes! I look forward to seeing you compete this year – to be honest, it wasn't as exciting without all of you around in the previous tournament. So far, the line-up has improved tremendously, so I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am!"

Lucy bows in gratitude. "Thank you for putting this on again – we promise we won't disappoint!"

Natsu tries to look over Mato's shoulder to see who else has qualified, but Mato clutches the clipboard close to his chest. "Yeah, thanks, old king guy!"

Mato seems to be more flustered by the comment than by Natsu's attempt at seeing who he's up against. "M-Mato! It's Mato-kabo!"

The pink-haired dragon slayer laughs. "Whatever you say, Matokabo!"

Much to Natsu and Wendy's horror, a small airship has been prepared to return the teams to their lodgings – the center of the maze doesn't have the roof, allowing the airship to fly over the maze and back to where they started.

Lucy looks out the window at the mages who are still working their way through the maze. "Wow, everyone looks like ants from up here! I wish we had our own airships!"

Erza takes in the view as well, brushing her hair out of her face. "Master says that he's planned to, but the airship budget keeps going towards covering the cost of repairing property damage."

Lucy chuckles nervously, realizing that such a line of reasoning should have been obvious. Destroying things is Fairy Tail's specialty, after all. "Oh, right…"

After a mercifully quick ride, Fairy Tail Team A returns to the apartment where they were staying. While Natsu and Gray excitedly babble about who they'll be up against, and what the events might be like this year, Lucy drifts off to sleep, relieved and exhausted. Nothing wakes her – not even when an argument over whether Natsu could beat Laxus turns violent, or when Erza knocks Natsu and Gray out, or when Erza climbs into Lucy's bed in the middle of the night, as is tradition when there's a sleepover.

After a hard-earned sleep, the Fairy Tail mages gather at Domus Flau, the traditional stadium for the event, around noon. Due to remodelling, the stadium had been significantly upgraded – not only was it much more durable now, but its size had expanded considerably, both to allow more room for the competition and more seating for spectators. Merchandise booths, run by both the organizers of the Games and the individual guilds themselves, are scattered throughout the arena, allowing fans to buy posters, figures, signs, and other memorabilia of their favourite mages and support the guilds. (The sole exception is merchandise featuring Gray Fullbuster, as every single piece was sold almost the exact moment that the stores opened to one especially dedicated buyer)

Despite the increased seating, the audience is jam-packed. In the royal gallery, Princess Hisui herself has arrived to watch the Games in person, along with their special guest Emperor Invel. Once most of the seats have been filled, Mato appears with a massive light show, gives his usual opening spiel about friendly competition, brotherhood, and the bonds between nations before moving on to introduce the teams.

"In eighth place, we have the stallions of the sky, the azure wings that sparkle in the darkness. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… BLUE PEGASUS!"

"MEEEEEENNNN~!" Ichiya is clearly no worse for the wear as he, the Trimens, and Jenny all strike matching poses. Sparkles are everywhere, dazzling the audience as they enter the arena and make their way toward the center.

In the commentators' booth, Chapati and Yazima have taken their usual places, along with guest commentator Nichiya, who had been too traumatized by his previous experience with the tournament to take part in this one. Yajima chuckles at the sight. "Flashy as always, aren't they?"

"As to be expected of such a manly team!" As tears stream down his face, Nichiya gives a thumbs up to the Blue Pegasus team as they reach the center. Somehow sensing this, Ichiya turns to give a thumbs up to the commentators' booth in response.

"In seventh place, we have the fairies who spread far and wide on their tiny wings, only to return to their home when we needed them the most! Our next team is… FAIRY TAIL TEAM A!"

Natsu raises his fist in the air as his team heads out, and this time, he gets the exact response that he had expected in the X791 Games. The crowd roars with approval, screaming the names of their favourite competitors from two years ago. "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!" The cheering lasts long after they reach the center, and it takes a while for the crowd to calm down before Mato can continue.

"Sixth place is a guild we all know and love. The ferocious beasts have revealed a softer side, but almost nothing can stop the skill of… SABERTOOTH!"

Sabertooth's team walks out, greeted with cheers as loud as or louder than Fairy Tail's. Rogue, Orga, and Minerva were all expected, but to some surprise, the last two members of the team are Yukino and Sting.

Natsu points at Sabertooth as they make their way over. "Hey, wait a minute! I thought guild masters weren't allowed to participate!"

The pumpkin man looks shocked for a moment, but he pulls out a list from his pockets. "Actually, as of earlier this week, Rufus Lore was promoted to the guild master of Sabertooth. Since Sting is not the current guild master, he is allowed to compete-kabo. There aren't any rules about former guild masters competing – otherwise, Ms. Scarlet wouldn't be eligible either!"

Erza crosses her arms, thinking it over. "It seems a little underhanded, but it's still following the rules. I see no reason to oppose this decision."

In the crowds, Makarov looks shocked. A vision of a team consisting of himself, Gildarts, Erza, Mirajane, and Laxus flashes before his eyes before it vanishes into the void. "You mean we could have done that?!"

Yukino looks nervous as the Sabertooth mages reach the center. "The pressure of being the guild master will get to Rufus-san once the tournament's done, and he'll give the job back to Sting-san."

Minerva sighs dramatically, tilting her head back and placing her arm over her eyes. "Such is the curse of having an immature guild master, I'm afraid."

"Hey, I'm not immature! I just wanted to compete against Natsu-san again! It won't go as easily this time."

Natsu's look changes from annoyance to excitement, almost as if a switch was flipped. "Bring it! I've gotten way stronger too!"

Orga grumbles, a bit annoyed – both at their placement and at the fact that nobody seemed to be paying attention to him. "Too bad Rufus wasn't with us – he would have made the trip through the maze much easier." Rogue doesn't say anything, preferring to stay out of the spotlight. Given that his future self was responsible for nearly destroying the royal capital the last time they competed, he'd rather not risk reminding people of that fact.

"In fifth place, we have the graceful women of the seas – MERMAID HEEL!" Unsurprisingly, the line-up was unchanged from their previous team in the Grand Magic Games. While Beth had been badly wounded during the fight against Alvarez, she had managed to make a full recovery. Most of the team keeps the same pace, but the dramatic effect is ruined somewhat as Millianna races across the field to give Erza a giant hug.

"Er-chan! I knew you'd make it!"

Erza chuckles, stroking Millianna's hair as the rest of her team makes it over. "Glad to see you too, Millianna."

"Erza." Kagura nods to her fellow sword fighter, blushing a bit. Memories, both of her actions in the previous Grand Magic Games and her attempts at making up for giving Jellal mouth-to-mouth by kissing Erza on the lips, come rushing back at the sight of the redhead.

Finding this behaviour adorable, Erza pulls Kagura into the hug as well. "I'm looking forward to this. Now we can have a friendly competition, instead of worrying about the past." Kagura's face becomes even redder, but she says nothing.

"Fourth place is the destroyers of the many-headed serpent… the warriors of love… LAMIA SCALE!" Their line-up remains the same as well, to the concern of many of the mages gathered. Some had hoped that Jura would be too busy with his duties on the Magic Council to take part, but clearly there was so little going on that he had no problem with making time for this.

As they reach the center of the arena, Chelia trips, falling flat on her face. Wendy rushes over to help, but stumbles over a rock and falls as well. This gets some laughter from the audience, but also scattered applause – given their youth, a lot of kids look up to those two, and they're both fairly popular competitors as a result. This is especially the case after their battle surpassed everyone's expectations and blew the audience away, no pun intended.

Lucy looks around the gathered mages, a little confused. "So who's left? I figure Mira's team made it, but there are two teams aside from that."

A shocked look appears on Natsu's face as he does a mental checklist of who's already present. "Maybe Quatro Cerberus got in the top three!"

Minerva, Yuka, and Arana stare at Natsu, dumbfounded. "Not possible." Given Quatro Cerberus's performance in previous years, it was clear that Bacchus was the only member who was even remotely competent.

"Our third place team is a newcomer to the Games. They only recently became a legal guild, but they made a huge impact in the war with Alvarez. They are the hunters of evil, the vanquishers of darkness… Here they are, at the Grand Magic Games for the first time, CRIME SORCIERE!"

"WHAT?!" Shock runs through all of the mages assembled, but nobody is more surprised than the mages of Fairy Tail. Even more surprising is the line-up. Meredy is to be expected, as is Hoteye, whose massive frame dwarfs the rest of his team. However, Cobra and Angel aren't exactly known for being team players, and even more surprising is that Jellal himself is getting directly involved.

Yajima looks down at his notes, announcing the justification for this to the arena. "Thanks to their efforts in the battle with Acnologia, along with their ceaseless attempts at saving the lives of countless Ishgar citizens, all members of Crime Sorciere were granted a pardon, and the guild gained its legal status."

Erza looks at Jellal, a little annoyed considering that she just called Sabertooth a little bit underhanded for having their master participate. "Aren't you the master of Crime Sorciere?"

"We are all equals at Crime Sorciere – we have no strict hierarchy." Jellal averts his gaze. "Though for the purposes of this tournament, Macbeth is officially considered the guild leader – he seemed the least likely to abuse that power." They glance at Macbeth, better known as Midnight, in the audience, who appears to be sleeping as Racer is sulking beside him.

Hoteye waves to the crowd, and miles away, in a small town, someone recognizes him on a massive vision lacrima that had been set up in the town square.

"R-Richard?" Tears run down the oddly polygonal face of Wally Buchanan as he realizes that he is looking at his brother. After he had been taken away from the Tower of Heaven, Wally had assumed that his brother had died, but even though the years had changed him, there was no mistaking that face. Immediately, he sets out to gather his few belongings and head for Crocus – no cost would be too great for him.

Back in the arena, Kagura clears her throat, and Jellal looks over to see her standing there. Millianna glares at Jellal, but says nothing as Kagura speaks to him. "Even if my opinion of you has changed, I will not hold back. I will not kill you, but I will do everything in my power to beat you."

Jellal nods. "Good. Keep that conviction – whatever helps you to fight at your best." He glances at Jura. "Hopefully, if we do get to fight, it won't be interrupted like last time."

"Last time?" Jura looks confused, but then it clicks. "Ah, Mystogan. You were quite a worthy adversary – what happened to make you give up?"

Meredy suddenly turns her head to look in another direction entirely as Jellal looks down at the ground. "It's… a long story."

"In second place, we have a guild whose strength is unquestionable, no matter how they fare in the rest of the tournament. After all, very few guilds qualify for the Grand Magic Games, and even fewer can claim to have two teams involved at the same time! It's the elite… FAIRY TAIL TEAM B!" One of the guards hands Mato a note. "Excuse me, I guess it's now FAIRY TAIL TEAM ONE!"

Gajeel, Laxus, Juvia, Mirajane, and Cana walk out, Gajeel cackling like a madman as he does so. Cana's already started drinking, much to the dismay of Laxus, and Mirajane gives a big wave to Fairy Tail's Team A from across the field.

"Glad to see we all made it!" Mira turns to face Jenny, a sweet smile on her face hiding something more sinister. "Glad to see you too, Jenny! Feeling up for any more wagers this year?" Jenny growls, but says nothing.

Orga grins, glad to see Laxus once again. "You didn't get to see the power of Lightning God Slayer Magic, but this year, I'll be happy to show you!" Laxus completely ignores Orga, staring into space. "Hey! Listen to me!"

Gajeel points at Rogue, grinning like always. "Oi, Ryos! You guys made it too, huh?"

"…I keep telling you, Gajeel-san, it's Rogue now." Rogue remains downcast and fairly quiet, despite Gajeel's obvious attempts to rile him up.

"Whatever you say, Rouge!"

"Meredy?! You should have said you'd be here!" Juvia runs over and gives Meredy a giant hug. Despite his attempts to remain stoic, Lyon starts blushing at the sight of the two women.

Meredy chuckles as she clutches Juvia, looking over at her team. "I would have, but someone thought he would surprise Erza by showing up unannounced."

"Last, but certainly not least, we have our final team. They shattered all previous records into pieces by completing the preliminary round in eight seconds flat! You may not know their names, but you are undoubtedly aware of their strength!"

The gate for the final team opens, and the assembled mages stare in shock at the sight. There's no way that this could be happening, but the mages in question were too distinct-looking for it to be anyone else. The five mages cross the field, seemingly disinterested in the murmurs spreading through the crowd like wildfire as Mato continues his introduction.

"They are the winds of change, the imperial shields, and some of the strongest mages on the planet by any definition! They are… TEAM ALVAREZ!"

The war with Alvarez may have decimated the Spriggan Twelve, but the line-up is still a formidable one. Brandish is front and center, looking bored as always, with Ajeel Ramal and Dimaria Yesta on either side of her looking extremely smug. Rounding out the team are Jacob Lessio and Neinhart, who look more apprehensive about being in the tournament. Jacob keeps trying to avert his eyes from all of the scantily-clad women to no avail, and Neinhart is looking around nervously, clearly feeling like he was forced into this. Direct combat is not his strong suit by any stretch of the imagination, and in a straight-up fight, most of the mages assembled, even the little girls, could probably beat him.

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?!" Many of the mages, mostly the impulsive ones, yell out the question at the exact same time. Mato looks down at them, confused.

"Didn't you hear my speech? About brotherhood, the bonds between nations, and so on?" Many of the mages shrug and grumble – they had zoned out a bit, preparing for their introductions. "Perhaps a word from our special guest, Emperor Invel, will help to explain."

In the royal gallery, Invel stands, now decked out in the ceremonial robe of Alvarez's emperor. It was mostly a transitional role until a leader could officially be decided – as an immortal, Zeref had no reason to leave a last will and testament or name a successor – but seeing as Invel handled the day-to-day operations of the empire anyway when Zeref was off wandering around the world, he was a strong favourite to gain the position on a permanent basis.

Invel clears his throat before speaking into a microphone. "We agreed to participate in the Grand Magic Games to show that there are no hard feelings between our two nations. In spite of what may have happened between the mages of Alvarez and Ishgar, we can put that behind us and take part in a friendly competition." He looks down at his own team as he puts emphasis on the word 'friendly' – clearly, some of them were less than eager to participate, or wanted to lord their supposed superiority over everyone else. "Building a bond of trust may take a long time, but hopefully this will give us the materials that we need to start."

Even though most of the mages are still unconvinced, Lucy walks over to Brandish, giving her a hug. Brandish returns it, despite Dimaria glaring daggers at Lucy behind her. "I'm so glad I get to see you again! I'll be sure to do my best, so no hard feelings no matter how this turns out."

Brandish's lips curve upwards in a small smile – barely visible, but for her, this is huge progress. "Right, no hard feelings." After squeezing the green haired mage tightly, Lucy returns to Fairy Tail Team A.

"Now that our teams have gathered, here is the schedule-kabo!" The pumpkin-headed mascot gestures to a massive screen beneath the royal gallery, where the order of events appears. Blank screens are beneath each of the days, their purpose unclear.

Day One: ? + 1 vs. 1

Day Two: ? + 2 vs. 2

Day Three: ? + 1 vs. 1

Day Four: ? + 3 vs. 3

Day Five: ? + FINALS

"YES! There are a lot of fights again!" Natsu cheers at that – he wasn't a fan of the specific events from previous years, given his bad luck to wind up competing in Chariot, but the fighting was consistently fun.

Jellal eyes up the specific matches. "The three versus three should be interesting. It's shortly before the finals, so we'll have to be careful there."

Ajeel narrows his eyes, already annoyed at the set-up of the games. "Why does this gotta be so dragged out? Just have us all fight right now, give Alvarez the trophy, and get it over with!"

Neinhart chortles at Ajeel's arrogance. "As I recall, didn't it take only one of the mages assembled here to beat you? You shouldn't be overconfident, Ajeel."

"Look who's talking! You were beaten in one hit, fancy-pants! Why are you even here?"

Brandish points at both of them. "You're both giving me a headache. Be quiet." Realizing that it's probably best not to anger someone who should shrink them to the size of ants, the two Spriggans wisely decide to back down.

Mato continues once the mages and the crowd have quieted down. "As always, we'll have a one day break between the fourth and fifth day. Scoring is the same as last year – ten points for winning the battle portion, or five points each if the match isn't decided in thirty minutes. In the events, the first place team gets ten points, second gets eight points, third gets six points, and fourth gets four points. Every place below that gets one less point, with eighth getting zero."

Cobra shrugs, a bit annoyed at all of this – nobody said there would be math. "Seems way too complex, but as long as we win all of the events, we'll be fine."

"A quick refresher on the rules – killing is not allowed, and anyone who breaks this rule will be responsible for the disqualification of their entire team. Outside interference and using illusions to alter the results of matches will not be allowed – this should be obvious, but given the actions of a certain guild two years ago, we figured it best to specifically state this, and security will be paying closer attention to make sure that these rules are followed." Mato gestures to the crowd, where guards are scattered throughout with their helmets modified to contain special lenses. "Also, stopping time is forbidden, and there are spells in place to recognize if this happens."

"WHAT?!" Dimaria is fuming. "That's unfair! That literally only affects me! This competition is rigged!"

Brandish sighs, slightly amused at Dimaria's outburst. "…Actually, Invel suggested it. He said you relied too heavily on freezing time before and didn't use your abilities 'properly', so you'll have to figure out how to fight without it."

Ajeel laughs at Dimaria, clearly unsympathetic towards his teammate's plight. "That's what you get for not showing up to meetings!"

Unaware of Dimaria's rage or ignoring it, Mato continues. "This rule was put into place at the suggestion of Emperor Invel, and the royal family of Fiore saw no reason not to agree with it. It would certainly make for a dull match if everyone was defeated in an instant!"

Even finding out that her own ally is behind the ruling does nothing to change Dimaria's mood. "Invel, you bastard!" Wendy, Kagura, and especially Chelia are taking a lot of enjoyment out of this particular ruling and Dimaria's reaction to it.

"As in previous years, spectators are allowed to vote on who they want to see compete! To get you wracking your brains about who you want to see battle it out, we will preview our first set of matches!" Below the listing for Day One, the names of various teams rapidly cycle, flashing by faster than most can follow. Eventually, one at a time, they come to a stop, settling on the schedule for the day's one-on-one matches.

Fairy Tail Team One vs. Lamia Scale

Sabertooth vs. Blue Pegasus

Crime Sorciere vs. Fairy Tail Team A

Mermaid Heel vs. Alvarez

"Every seat has a magical communication device attached, where you can vote on the eight fighters you would like to see! Many of these are familiar faces in the Grand Magic Games, so you can choose to re-enact old rivalries, set up matches that you wanted to see in previous years, or test any of our newcomers against an old favourite! The choice is yours, and the results will be shown once our first competition has been completed!"

From his seat, Makarov looks down at the arm-rest, which has a phone-like communication lacrima attached. The lacrima displays eight blank spaces with a "VS." symbol between them, and tapping on a space brings up a list of fighters for each team.

"With all of that in mind, let the first day of the X793 Grand Magic Games… BEGIN!"

Feel free to either use the reviews or private messages to vote for who you want to see in the match-ups! I'd prefer reviews so it's completely transparent in terms of who wins, but if you'd prefer to send a private message, go for it.

I'm also willing to take suggestions as far as the competitions go (for example, Hidden or Chariot from the main series); I already have some planned out, but if someone has a better suggestion, I'll definitely incorporate it and credit whoever brought it up.

Next time, the competition will finally begin! Depending on the length, each day may be spread out over several chapters, but we'll see how it goes based on the match-ups.