Chapter 6
The magic council
Back with the Magic Council in Era, they were discussing the latest incident that involves Fairy Tail and Eisenwald guild. Org was talking to the council, "The Eisenwald guild may be destroyed, but the root of the problem remains unsolved."
Yamjima took his turn to speak, "Indeed, the number of dark guilds rivals that of stars themselves."
Then one of the random members shouted out loud, "Then we should advise a plan to wipe them all out at once."
"But how exactly?" Yamajima questions.
Org then took out the lullaby which was in a glass case with two straps that made an x cross that was covered by a piece of paper that had weird sealing symbols on it, "We shall come up with one. I shall not allow any of Zeref's magic to fall into the hands of the dark guilds again!"
"But how was it that they required such magic so easily in the first place?" Yamjima asked.
"The blame goes all the way up to the administrative level" said an elderly voice. The council turned to an elderly man who was the same size as Yamjima. He had brown hair that had tufts which resembled cat ears, brown mustache, a light yellow cat tail, black pants, and a long light blue sleeve shirt with dark blue stripes. In his hands was a wood cane with a wide cylinder handle.
Siegrain smirked while he spoke, "At any rate, Michello… It seems like this time we were saved by that thorn in our sides, Fairy Tail."
Then the dark purple-haired woman spoke while placing her sleeve near her mouth, "They destroyed a whole dark guild with just five people. Impressive wouldn't you say?"
"Indeed Ultear, but we should be grateful for that man from Fairy Tail who defeated the Lullaby monster all by himself" Siegrain mentioned.
Soon the entire council went silent for a few minutes before a magic circle appeared in the center of them showing the event of Strife and Lullabies monster form. They watched how he cleaved an entire mountain with a single blow, how he sliced through the magical blasts that the Lullaby fired, how athletic he was, how he was able to defeat a monster in single combat with relative ease. Relative being the key word.
Each member of the council was amazed. Never in their life had they seen a young man like him have such extraordinary magical abilities and how athletic he was. The elderly members questioned if this mysterious Fairy Tail member had experienced the art of war. To see how courageous he was and how he was so used to combat.
Org coughed a little to get the members of the council's attention, "We should have this man come to court in order to get some answers."
Siegrain raised an eyebrow, "Why Org?", "You youngsters cannot tell can't ya?" Org responded, Ultear then raised one of her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"
"This man might know about how Lullaby appeared when the flute wasn't played, plus this Strife has now been confirmed as the killer of Bora's men from the boat", Siegrain who originally was smiling dropped his smile at the news, "Very well then." he said.
Fairy tail guild
Strife and his group had returned to Fairy tail after the whole Lullaby incident, Excalibur was back in his inventory, a space where all horsemen keep their weapons to be summoned when needed. "Feels so good to be back" Strife said slowly, stretching his arms, "Indeed come on let's go inside" Makarov smiled, "Aye!" the group shouted in joy.
Makarov opened the two doors and shouted to the entire guild, "we're back!", "welcome back" everyone greeted the group, "hey welcome back Bezaliel?" one random member said to Strife, "uh sorry what?" Strife said confused. "Oh you haven't heard?" Mirajane as she welcomed the group, "I hear a lot of things but being called Bezaliel is a new one," Strife replied.
"Well a news reporter saw you defeat the Lullaby monster all by yourself" Mirajane explained as Macoa showed them the newspaper he was reading, it showed a picture of Strife giving the final blow to the beast, "you see" Mirajane said.
"Well that explains how you know a lot about that monster but that doesn't explain the Bezaliel nickname?". Makarov said, "it's because Strife was described as having the night of an angel and his Shadow protected the guild Master league" Mirajane explained.
"I wonder how the real Bezaliel would have reacted to this" the Watcher telepathically told Strife, still hidden, "huh okay this isn't a joke?" Strife asked, "Is all of this genuine?"
"Of course there are even saying that you are the king of the fairies," Mirajane said, "okay that's going a bit too far in my opinion" Strife thought not the kind of guy who wanted to be king of anything.
"Strife the King of Fairy Tail, I am not quite sure Laxus is going to like that. Also I'm pretty sure Mystogan is not going to care very much about it" Gray spoke with his shirt gone missing.
Lucy then spoke to Gray, "Gray your shirt." Then he made a funny dance, " they can call me whatever they want all I do is do what I got to do". Strife told the whole guild.
"You certainly are an interesting man Strife" Makarov said, "cracking jokes one minute and then being humble the next, I would have expected someone like you to get all Gunho over your new title but you seem only to care about helping people".
"Agreed" Mirajane smiled, "Oh," Makarov shouted, getting the entire guild's attention, "I just remembered something important. Strife from this day force, you are now an S-class wizard." Then the entire guild made a surprised pose and expression including Erza and Mirajane who were more shocked than the guild. Strife took a moment to absorb this, "uh sorry what?" Strife asked, "S-Class is one of the highest ranks in any wizard Guild" Cana explained, "okay so how did i get so high up" Strife asked.
"Every member of the Guild Master Leagues agreed and asked me if you were an S-class wizard. I told them no and they wanted me to promote you to one." Makarov explained.
"So I defeat one monster and I'm suddenly S-class?" Strife asked, "People will promote anyone who defeats a big scary monster these days won't they?" Makarov smiled at Strife humour, he was acting like the Monster was no big deal to deal with.
"It would certainly seem that was doesn't it" Makarov said, "but the way you allowed Kage to find redemption and even hold it in hand" He gestured to Redemption in Strifes holster in a slightly jokey manner, "you show you believe in second chances and you are honourable, and trustworthy and have the qualities of a leader and the confidence to inspire others".
He then stretched out his hand, "so congratulations Strife" Strife kneeled down and took the hand and shook it firmly, "it's a great honor Master". Soon the entire guild cheered and clapped for Strife's promotion to an S-class wizard.
Makarov clapped his hands, "Alright then everybody, let us celebrate Optimus' promotion to S-class. We shall party all night long!"
Everyone in the guild yelled out, "Yeah!" Strife, "fight me now" Natsu then shouted. Strife gave him a look, "really?" Strife asked drawing Mercy and Natsu started sweating, "Sorry" Natsu said as he got punched by Erza and apologised to her as well.
Then Master Makarov shouted out loud, "Let's have one hell of a party, people!"
"Hell yeah!" Everyone cheered.
Later on Erza woke up and raised her upper body from the table to stretch. She saw that everyone in the guild was sleeping and made quite a mess during the party. She then heard a familiar voice, "Couldn't sleep Erza?"
She turned to see Mirajane who was just reading a book, "Yeah, you too?"
"Yup," she closed the book and looked around, "the guild made quite a mess, haven't they?"
"You got that right." She looked around, "Mirajane, where is Strife?"
Mirajane looked around, "I don't know." She then noticed the main door was open a little, "Maybe he went outside."
Erza turned to the direction Mirajane was facing and saw what she saw. "Should we go look for him?"
"Yeah we should."
The two nineteen year old ladies went out the door to search for Strife. The two searched everywhere in town to find him, but he wasn't there. The last place they decided to go was the female dormitory, Fairy Hills. The two arrived and still he wasn't here.
Erza scratched behind her head, "Where in the world is he?"
Mirajane shrugged, "Beats me. Huh?"
"What?" Erza asked
"Listen." Mirajane said
Erza and Mirajane listened carefully and heard sword swinging and water splashing. The two girls rushed over the cliff and climbed down. As the two moved closer the swinging and splashing got louder. The two reached a large rock and stood behind it. They poked their heads out to see if Strife was the one making the noise and it was.
Strife was training like crazy with his Sabers in hand, they had arrived just in time to see Strife slingshot himself up with his Ghost hand and slashed at the top of a tree "how did he do that? I have never seen magic like that," Mirajane said. "He used that skill to defeat Lullaby," Erza told Mira.
Strife was in fact getting back into practice with his other powers, he had summoned his Anarchy form back when he destroyed the mountain but he still could not summon Mayhem, his very own horse and it was now starting to get to him and his fear of something happening to his best friend grew.
He swung around with a slash from his blades and stretched out his hand trying to Summon Mayhem for perhaps the fourth time, and still nothing was happening. "Grrah" he growled in anger as he slashed three times while Dancing around a tree and tried again and yet again nothing happened, "come on" he urged rage building still.
His slashing and cutting became more aggressive and he almost cut the trees he cut in half, Mira and Erza got a little nervous of Strife growing anger. "Rrrrah where are you!?" He roared to then swing the swords in a spinning motion as he leapt at the rock Mira and Erza were hiding behind.
The two jumped in fright as Strife cut the rock clean in half, raised his head and howled to the heavens "MAYHEM!". Strife breathed heavily after his outburst, there was a caw and Huninn and Muninn descended onto the branch of a bush.
"Nothing?" He asked as the watcher appeared, "still nothing" the watcher confirmed, "wherever Mayhem is we can't find him". Strife punched the one half of the rock which cracked a little.
"Who's Mayhem?" Mira asked, "and why is Strife so uneasy about him?"Erza added, but of course Muninn heard them and cawed, "we have company" the Watcher said as he made a gesture to the birds.
Huninn flew around the bolder and cawed as he swooped at the girls giving them a good scare that made them jump out of cover and stagger. "Erza? Mira? What are you two doing here?" Strife asked.
Mirajane answered him nervously, "We didn't see you sleeping in the guild where everybody else was. So we decided to go look for you."
"Sorry I just went out to train for a bit." Strife said, still breathing heavily, "How come, I mean you are a pretty strong Strife?" Erza asked. "Erza, there will always be someone stronger out there waiting. I must be prepared for that." Strife replied, "i don't survive by leaving everythings to chance
Mirajane asked a question without realizing, "Strife, who is Mayhem and these three?" She pointed to the Watcher and the ravens
He looked at her and asked, "You heard me?" The two girls nodded nervously, "I'm pretty sure the whole town heard you" the Watcher deadpanned. Strife sighed, "he's a watcher, a friend of mine and he's my personal Raven translator for the benefit of my scouts Huninn and Muninn." He answered, pointing to the three in sequence "as for Mayhem, he's a friend of mine. lost and I'm trying to find him".
The girls could tell that Mayhem was going to be a sore subject so they decided to let it go. Erza then spoke, "How about we return to our guild? It is very late."
"Alright let's go." Strife followed the two girls back to guild in order to rest.
When it was morning everyone in the guild was helping out to clean the mess that they made during the party they had last night. Everything was going normal until a frog-like human wearing a messenger outfit that belongs to the council opened the door and called out, "Hello Fairy Tail, I am here by the orders of the council to bring the man who defeated the monster in Clover. Is he here?"
Strife revealed himself, "I'm here. Is there a problem?"
"The Magic Council wants to see you immediately." The frog human said, "the council?" Strife asked, surprised and not too keen on the idea.
Natsu stepped in front of Strife, "Why!? He didn't do anything bad!", "The council just wanted to ask him a few questions. That is all."
"Fine then I'll go." Strife sighed and turned to the guild, "I'll be fine but don't expect me to be polite to the council" Strife followed the messenger out of the building and headed toward the Magical Council.
Later on in the morning, everyone in the guild was just sitting quietly and were worrying about Strife. Then Natsu shouted to break the quiet atmosphere, "That tears it I'm going!", Lucy then tried to calm him down, "Relax Natsu."
"No, because Strife told me that I can come as long as I bring the master and a few people along. So you, Gray, Erza, Mirajane, and Master are coming with me!". Erza stood up, "Actually I was planning on going anyway.", Mirajane stood up, "So am I."
Master Makarov then announced, "no I think it best for Strife to handle things on his own" Makarov said, "WHAT!?" The entire guild yelled absolutely shocked, "I know this is difficult but Strife may not want you to hear his words" Makarov said, "I see it in his eyes so just do as I say on this one without question, please"
The others sighed without another word, Strife would be fine hopefully even if he was still recovering from the Lullaby fight despite outward appearances.
At the same time, Strife was in a prisoner cell leaning against the wall waiting for the council to call him. He was fiddling with a small golden rocking horse that he had retrieved from Mammon's vault when he and war killed the rat. Then two guards came to his cell and announced, "The council is waiting for you." Strife nodded his head and followed them. The guards opened the doors and they revealed the courtroom.
Strife noticed two weird creatures that were sitting on the floor while nine people were above them and a shadowy figure above the nine. No one from Fairy tail was there but that was more or less a good thing as there were some things here he did not want them to hear
Org cleared his throat, "State your name young man."
"Strife and that's it." Strife replied, Then elderly lady with long blond hair spoke, "That is an unusual name." "I get that a lot, that's my name so live with it. Now why am I here?" Strife demanded rudely but no one took notice, Yamjima answered him, "We just want some answers, that is all. Shall we begin?"
"Yeah let's get this over, the quicker it is the quicker I can go on a monster hunt" Strife said, "First of all, what kind of magic do you use?" Yamjima asked.
"Shadow magic, holder magic, and this will be a new one to you but I feed off conflict. It gives me strength in battle over a period of time". Strife replied, the councils had never heard of this kind of magic, "does this magic have a name?" Org asked, "Um…" Strife faltered as he tried to think of a name "Sustenance Magic" was what he came up with.
War and Fury feeds off violence and carnage while death feeds off his namesake and Strife he feeds off conflict and aggression.
"We have never heard of this kind of Magic before" Ultear noted, "no shit it's an ability your born with cannot be earned or learned" Strife replied, the council looked at each other started
"Are there any others with powers like yours?" Another asked, "once I would have said there were many" Strife said his voice sounding almost sorrowful, "now there are only four".
Everyone heard what he said and slowly asked him the same thing, "What?" Strife sighed almost regretfully, "once my people thrived and searched for a home, then a war happened and they were all killed other than me and my four siblings' '. Strife explained.
Everyone gulped hard and just stared at him. "And who started the war?" Org asked, "we did," Strife replied, just when the council thought that they could not be any more shocked.
"they had no claim to a kingdom they had their sights on, so me and my siblings went to the charred council the one who keeps order between the three kingdoms of my land, gave us immense power then we rode out and slaughter them all some of us with a heavy heart" Strife explained, "if they had continued then the balance of our land would have been upset and my people would have drowned the kingdoms in blood".
Everyone was wondering how hard it must have been to be called one of the last of your kind let alone being the last and the one who had killed the rest. If it was them they would be in a world of despair. Org slowly spoke, "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to bring up a hard subject."
"It's no trouble, it needed to be done." Strife said reassuringly even if he himself did not believe it entirely. "Any other questions?"
Siegrain smirked, "Well then how do you explain why you caused a riot in Onibus Town, fighting against the Eisenwald guild, and what you know about the Lullaby monster's appearance when it wasn't summoned?"
Strife cleared his throat, "First of all I don't know anything about why the monster's sudden appearance was not as it should have been but I can tell you I did it because it needed to be done for the balance"
Ultear then raised one of her eyebrows, "What do you mean?", Strife cleared his throat and spoke "as my time as an enforcer for the council I mentioned earlier in order to maintain the balance I lived among the one I sworn to protect, and well I will do whatever it take to protect the innocent, power should be used for that very purpose shouldn't it?"
The hearts and minds of the councils were becoming moved, they had been going to accuse Strife of the murder of Boras men however after Strifes story they were all having second thought.
"And the Balance includes the lives of humans, and if anyone threatens them especially the innocent , then I will put them down, whether it's another human or not, whether it's you or another land, but if anyone even threatens my guild, you'll have to suffer my wrath".
They were impressed by his boldness and respected his loyalty to his cause, if some were slightly angry about the threat he had made, but they could See that Strife would do what he saw necessary for the greater good he was clearly as human as the rest of them even if his actions on the boat was debatable o that.
Then the shadow figure spoke, "You are really something Strife. I had never seen anyone who speaks for what they did for the people in my lifetime. Therefore I hereby allow you to use your power to protect any innocents who are in danger. Do I have your words"
"Do you have to ask twice?" Strife asked, chuckling light heartedly.
Later on Strife returned to the guild. Everyone came up to him and asked him what happened."I threatened them and said a long speech. They were inspired and they let me go" Strife told them, causing everyone to have a surprise pose, but then Strife gave a hearty laugh and believed he had been joking so they all began to drink. However it was cut short when members of the guild started to fall asleep, it was too sudden to have been alcohol. One by one they fell asleep leaving only Strife and Makarov standing.
Strife looked around to see a man a black cloak, a magic staff in his hands and five of them behind his back, and his face was completely covered. The man looked at the standing man and said, "I'm surprised you can withstand my spell."
Makarov then spoke slowly, "Mystogan."
Strife watched Mystogan headed toward the job board and took a poster. Mystogan was heading toward the door, but he stopped to see Strife, "You are very strong to resist my magic, but I can sense a heaven burden in you" Strife narrowed his eyes at Mystagons words, When he was gone everyone woke up. They rubbed their heads and complained about how Mystogan used a powerful spell on them.
Then a dark chuckling appeared into the atmosphere, "Well so you are Strife." Everyone turned to see a man with blue/green eyes, blond backwards spiky hair, and a lightning bolt scar on his right eye. He wore Magic Headphones with a spike on each ear piece, an orange tunic with spots on it, wine-red pants, and a black coat with grey fur trimming.
Soon Natsu challenged the blonde, "Laxus! Fight me!", "No Natsu, I'm not here for you. I am here to see how strong our new S-class wizard really is." Laxus said.
"You're challenging me? Why?" Strife asked, "To show you that I'm the strongest wizard of all in Fairy Tail. That is my reason. Hearing someone is stronger than me, I shall not allow it." Laxus created a lightning bolt on his left fist and came straight at Strife.
Strife dashed to the left out of the way leaving a shadow Clone in place which drew twin sabers, "what the" Laxus asked as he blocked a slash and tried to electric punch the clone only for the first to go right through.
"You feel lucky, punk?" Strife quipped as he fired Mercy and redemption Laxus was hit clear in the chest but the pistols were set to non lethal, so Laxus was hurt but unharmed. He recovered and created two lightning bolts one on each fist. The two men went at it and punched each other like crazy. Though Strife also received the shock from the bolts, it did not hurt him that much he had endured more fatal shocks in his lifetime. The two men forced each other back and stared at each other.
Laxus crossed his arms and smirked, "Finally we have another powerful member in this guild. You are strong Strife, but don't think you can take my seat of being the strongest."
"Is that a challenge?" Strife said, "because if it is, it's not going to last long".
"We'll see." Laxus left the building leaving the guild in an unbelievable atmosphere. It was hard enough for them to accept the fact that Optimus forced Erza into a deadlock. Now they had to accept that he was able to stand his ground against Laxus. There was only one question in everyone's mind right now, "How strong are you Strife?"
Makarov spoke to Strife, "I'm surprised that you were able to stand your ground against Laxus."
"I had been through the worst before." Strife said, "no seriously I have"
"Well you should rest, Strife. You had a long day." Makarov said
"Believe me I'll sleep just fine" Strife said as he headed to his room in the guild, he had asked for one after countless encounters with Vulcans. There was a golden mini rocking horse on the windowsill, he had gotten from Mammon's vault when he killed the literal rat.
For now he sat on his bed and went to sleep, once again he dreamed, dreamed of that cloaked wraith with the spider legs for arms, it plucked the strings of the spider web and made a banjo-sounding song.
The wraith didn't turn to Strife this time, with its supposed house next to the tree with the giant web, what was it, in fact why was Strife dreaming about it.
Then there was a naying sound like a horse.
Fairy Tail Guild 3:45 AM
Strife was then suddenly awoken by the Watcher, "Strife do you hear that?" It asked and Strife could hear a rustling from the second floor. He thought it was some robbers, "let's check it out" Strife said to the watcher, but it turned out to be a small, blue cat with a green backpack strangely flying and taking a poster from the second floor. Nightcrawler had learned that all requests on that board were meant for S-Class wizards only.
"Happy? but he or Natsu aren't S-class?!" the watcher Exclaimed quietly, "well then let's follow them and see what we can squeeze out of him" Strife said, "oh and watcher, give them a scare as punishment".
The Watcher was happy to oblige when he had the chance.