As July 1st, 793 wound down, it was a lovely evening. Light summer breezes led to a warm but comfortable night filled with mixed emotions. The Fairy Tail teams celebrated their dominant performance. While teams like Saber Tooth, Lamia Scale, and Mermaid Heel were satisfied with their tallies, and were planning for more. Meanwhile, other teams like Blue Pegasus, Quatro Cerberus, and Twilight Ogre were nursing their wounds and cursing their performances. All three dreaded yet remained hopeful of the upcoming days.
Then, there were the middle-placed teams, like Crime Sorciere and the Alvarez Guild. They were in the middle, not too high up and not too far down the order. Both groups were strategizing both for the games and their own plans of things outside the games.
Surprisingly, the Alvarez guildhall is in Crocus, admittedly on the bad side of the town even by their standards. It was a rather shabby guildhall if anything. Like any wizarding guild, it had a bar and restaurant in it to make money but nothing much beyond that.
The members of the Alvarez guild, despite their best deceptions to the council, were ex-military. It was true that none of them saw action during the failed Alvarez invasion. Each of them served in the division of their superior. All of them were going under an experimental process to either develop their magic more, or instead use additional magic when the failed invasion of Ishgar happened.
Alayna Zendayan, who uses Arc of Time magic, served under Dimaria; her arc of time was nearly perfected prior to the collapse of the empire. Crystal Ambrose was the niece of Invel the Winter General, she had some ice magic, and just prior to the invasion, she decided to have an ice dragon slaying lacrima surgically implanted in her. This was like Sting and Rogue of SaberTooth. Apollo Luxbane, was the fire wizard, turn fire dragon slayer who served under Larcade Dragneel. He was the one Romeo and Zeldris faced during the City of the Chaste Tree incident. He was given a fire dragon slayer lacrima, though it was against Emperor Spriggan's orders and rather it was under the orders of Invel that Apollo received the lacrima. Ree Zay was the fourth member of the guild, he learned Memory-Make magic and was a subordinate of Neinhart. Finally, the leader of the Alvarez Guild was a man named Moreno Zendayan, an extended family member of the new emperor of the Alvarez empire, Ajeel. He used Gun's-Magic, like Bisca and Alzak Connell, his upgrade as one might phrase it, was the understanding and use of archive magic. Much like Hibiki Lates of Blue Pegasus, he was still learning and developing the magic, but it allowed him to be far more resourceful than any of his fellow soldiers.
The members were drinking and making merry in the guildhall before they planned to retire for the evening. They stayed quiet all evening, not drawing attention to themselves. By now, even Erik had returned to Crime Sorciere after spying on the Alvarez members and even with his dragon hearing could not dig up any dirt on them. Once he left of course, the Alvarez members relaxed some before getting ready to turn in for the night
Ree Zay spoke first acknowledging the elephant in the room, "Lady Alayna, I must say, your performance was remarkable today, Crystal's as well."
"Indeed, I wish you had won Crystal, but for our debut as a whole, I think we made a statement." Moreno said, proudly.
Crystal nodded her head in silence, admittedly bitter, it took her a while to finally break the silence, "I do wish I had beat that dumb fairy bimbo".
"Don't be vulgar, but you are right to want to win," Moreno said.
"Who should we put in for tomorrow?" asked Alayna.
Moreno shrugged, "Not sure, we will need to wait and see what happens when the game is announced."
"I think I should try and compete for us." suggested Ree Zay.
"I hope I get to compete soon." Apollo said.
Just then, a black cloaked figure opened the door to the bar for the Alvarez guildhall, the bells dinged to indicate that the door opened, alerting the members to someone entering.
Moreno stood up from his chair, saying sternly, "Hey pal, bar's closed".
The man then began to speak in a familiar voice to all of them, "Even for me?" This put the members on edge, as they recognized the voice from the hooded man. "It's a shame you don't recognize the military leader of the Alvarez Imperial Army,". The man took his black cloak off his head. His jet-black hair and pale face were instantly recognizable to the members.
Moreno's stern voice turned to a weak tremble, "Emperor Spriggan?"
The cloaked man sat down at the table closest to the quintet, who had turned white as a ghost thinking they were talking with one.
"How about a drink to pass the time? It would be nice to catch up and see how things have treated you in Ishgar?" the man that they called Emperor Spriggan said.
"Uh sure," Moreno said, quickly grabbing the man a wine glass and pouring the guild's best wine, a delicacy of the man they knew as emperor.
The rest of the Alvarez Guild members stood there, like deer in the headlights. Nobody dared to say anything, let alone move a muscle.
The man took his wine glass, inspecting it like a connoisseur before sipping on it. He finally spoke a minute later, "ah, Moreno, you still know how to pour a good glass of wine".
Moreno lightened up ever so slightly, saying modestly, "it is the best this guild has to offer".
The man nodded in response before saying, "barring our failed invasion, I had begun to forget what a magic guild was".
The quintet of wizards was still very uneasy about the man that had entered their guildhall. The man sipped on his wine for five, maybe ten minutes before Moreno broke the silence.
"So, who exactly are you? Didn't you, well" Moreno trailed off.
"Why aren't I dead?" retorted the man.
"Well, yeah" Moreno said, still dumb founded.
The man took another sip of wine, then saying, "I am not exactly alive, nor am I dead. One might say I'm having to live inside a host for my survival".
Alayna raised a disgusted eyebrow, muttering, "diabolical" then adding, "parasitic too".
The man jabbed back, "I'd expect no less from Dimaria's disciple", the woman glared back again.
"Alayna, we shouldn't be talking to Emperor Spriggan like that," Moreno said, scolding her, as she rolled her eyes in response.
"I heard you two are married now, congratulations," Emperor Spriggan said. The married couple nodded in appreciation.
"Excuse me for asking Emperor Spriggan, it is great that you're alive and all but why are you here?" Crystal finally asked.
"That's a great question, first and foremost I wanted to connect with my loyal followers" he said, as his tone took an ominous turn, "Secondly, I wish to take over Ishgar and I will need help."
The quintet of Alvarez wizard's mouths fell to the floor, all were shocked beyond belief at what the man said.
"As for now, I must take my leave" Emperor Spriggan said standing up, his wine glass now empty, "I will return soon. The body that I am using has several other souls that I can change between. This will allow me to infiltrate the Fairy Tail guild, as I am personally devoted to stopping Zeldris Akuna" he finished.
"Sir, what does Zeldris have to do with anything?" Moreno said in retort, "I know he defeated us when we did not put up much of a fight and we have heard some rumors about his power but"- he said as he was cut off.
Emperor Spriggan's tone changed significantly, his whimsical responses changed to one of that of a general scolding his soldiers, "Zeldris poses a threat to us all and must be stopped. Since my reincarnation I have been studying ways to defeat Fairy Tail and win over Ishgar and win back Alakatashia. From my observations he is far more powerful than even my younger brother". The quintet looked at each in a hushed shock, knowing that it was essentially Natsu who defeated their emperor and Acnologia.
"I am developing a plan, but it will take some time to complete. The pieces are nowhere close to being assembled. It may require a field trip to Alakatashia to complete if I'm honest. Though I fear that as time passes Zeldris will get stronger" Emperor Spriggan finished.
Once again, his demeanor changed, "but for now, I need to go and perform my duties as my alter ego, to plant some bad information into the guild. Zeldris is on the mend with the guild following a near disaster at the guild's s-class trials back in December. To foment the revolution we want, we must work to break apart the bonds that keep the Fairy Tail guild together. You will see me tomorrow, pay attention to the Fairy Tail suite, you will know it's me but it's best you keep your mouths shut" Emperor Spriggan said as he headed to the door, "oh and one last thing, you should probably call me by my Ishgar name".
"Will do, Zeref" Moreno said, nodding and letting off a sly but diabolical grin.
Meanwhile, in one of the rooms of the Honey Bone inn, Zeldris and his friends were sitting in his hotel room, having a nice quiet evening in their own company. Things were winding down when a chill seemed to go down Zeldris's spine, leaving a noticeable shudder.
"Is something wrong Zeldris?" Romeo asked.
Zeldris shook his head and responded, "no, just a massive chill just went down my spine", the trio could tell something troubled him, but they decided not to push the matter.
"We should stay with team B in their suite tomorrow," Zeldris added.
"Sure, any particular reason beyond being ready if needed?" asked Gabriel.
"I have a feeling it may do us some good to be away from the guild suite. Not that I don't like them or have any ill will towards them, but I should be with my team that's competing, and I ask that you be with me in return" Zeldris responded.
"We will. Always" responded Romeo, as Terre Mere hugged him closely, rubbing her cheek next to his, teasingly responding, "just like I'll always be with you Romeo dear!" Romeo blushed bright red and hugged her back. Gabriel and Zeldris chuckled, smiling happily at the couple.
"We should definitely get to bed" Gabriel said, before teasing, "knowing how Zeldris will oversleep in the morning", this elicited an annoyed but lighthearted eye roll from Zeldris.
The trio left their friend in his room, and he began to turn in for the night. He laid his head on the cool pillow as the light night breeze blew in refreshing air to his room. His mind still couldn't shake the feeling of something being off, but he still fell asleep nonetheless, his mind dreaming of many things, not many of which I can mention.