The mobile base of the dark guild, Steel Reavers, shook with the intensity of a rampaging beast. The founders of Fairy Tail and even the Steel Reavers, had to stabilize their footing as they felt the moving fortress, without warning, switch directions.
"What's going on!?" The guild master of Steel Reavers broke his pokerface as he felt the shift of movement from their base. He looked towards his two allies, "Biscuit, Baron! Forget them! Check the pilot room!"
"But sir!"
"Now!" The guild master yelled before he stomped on the metallic sheet nearby him, causing it to lift up with of the broken metal pieces and kicking it towards Yuri, then picking up a broken, spiked bar and tossing it at amazing speed towards Warrod.
This was all done like clockwork with such speed that the other two mages had to back off or else getting seriously injured. As soon as they avoided the attack, the other two mages left the room, leaving the guild master of Steel Reavers alone with the male founders.
And silence spread across the battlefield as soon as the two left. the towering man picked up one of the broken bars from the earlier break out and circled it around his hand.
With that done, he motioned his free hand out… then motioned all three of his opponents to come and get him.
Precht narrowed his eye while his mind went a mile a minute. (Wait, something wasn't right about that attack he just did. I simply assumed his magic was super strength, but something was off about what he just did. The items he threw didn't show any signs of being dented even after he gripped and kicked them. I sensed a subtle magical burst when he they were launched. Super Strength is passive by nature, not necessarily an active form of magic. So what could his magic really be? I should probably warn the others not to—)
"Don't look down on us! Warrod, let's get him!" Yuri cried out as he jumped with electricity charging up his palms.
At that moment, Precht was very close to face palming, but by some miracle of self restraint, prevented himself from doing so. (That's partly my fault, I didn't tell him in time.) However, his eye widened when he noticed the guild master stomp each of his foot, one at a time, before jumping at speeds the human eye could barely keep up with and punching Yuri in the gut with enough force to make him choke out spit and hit the wall for it to dent inward and trap the lightning mage.
"Yuri!" Warrod cried out and fired a tree trunk that slammed into their opponent's blind side. Yet Precht's eye noticed something: despite the attack making contact, their opponent didn't seem injured in the slightest. This was more apparent when he touched the wall and bounced off it, but unlike Yuri, there was no sign of damage in the wall even though Warrod put a lot into that attack.
(His magic… could it be?)
Warrod tried to shoot out more tree trunks at their opponent. However, the imposing man bounced off with speed faster than before, jumping on a different branch to avoid Warrod's attempts to counter attack and closed the distance between them. He reared his fist back—then Precht chained Warrod and pulled him out of the way before the punch connected into the wall behind the plant mage, creating a terrible tear through not only one wall, but five more behind it, creating a hole that looked out from the night sky despite being in a center room.
Warrod released a breathe he didn't realize he was holding and looked up to Precht. "Thanks man, I owe you one again."
"... I wanted to figure out what type of magic he used. I think I have a good idea what it is now." Precht stood back up and looked to Yuri. "Both of you, go after the two. If Mavis and Lara run in to them, they'll need help."
For a second, it looked like Yuri wanted to ask about him. But then he remembered that this was Precht they were talking about. "Alright, Warrod! Give us some cover!"
The bushy haired mage acted fast and quickly stood up and fired large amount of branches towards the Master of the Steel Reavers, covering him up in circle of wood that quickly began to shake and crack.
"Go," Precht walked forward. "I can take it from here."
"Get'em Precht!" "We'll leave it to you!" Warrod and Yuri respectively spoke out before chasing after their previous opponents.
As soon as they left, the makeshift prison burst open and the dark green haired man looked out, only to see Precht standing alone.
The master of the dark guild gave a cold glare before turning around and trying to go after Yuri and Warrod. However, a large amount of chains fell from above and barred his path, forcing the man to turn and face Precht.
"Let's finish our fight."
"I have no time for this." The dark guild master returned with a tone that could freeze flesh blood.
Those specific words made Precht confused even though he felt slightly threathened. "If you have no time for this, then what are you planning with the Wandering Myth?"
"That doesn't concern you. It never concerned any of you." The man spoke as he stomped his foot on the ground and continued this bizarre act.
Precht tensed into a fighting position, noting the act of him continually stomping with his right foot. "Look around you, whether it did originally or not, we're now too deep in it. So, I ask again: what do you want to do with the Wandering Myth?"
The man didn't speak, instead, he turned around, having to stop his stomping and looked back at the chains blocking his path.
Precht knew that he was about to break it down, so as soon as he turned his back, the one eyed mage got ready to attac—
Precht saw the sudden shift in his shoulders and jinked hard to the right. No sooner than he did, a strong pressure of air passed where he once stood and blasted through the walls behind him.
The blades-man sighed and stood back up by pushing on his right knee. "That proves it. Your magic manipulates Kinetic Energy."
As the last words left the mage from Fairy Tail, the guild master of Steel Reavers stopped his movements.
Precht noted the man's eyes briefly widening, before narrowing dangerously at the claim. "I was wondering why none of my friends physical attacks seemed to hurt you as much. You're controlling the impact and weight of each attack then redirecting it back to us or stockpiling it to increase the power of your attacks. That explained why you avoided Yuri's attacks and took on Warrod's." Despite Warrod's magic, it was basically him having trees wack his enemies. And this opponent could absorb all the kinetic energy there and practically make it as if he was just tapped lightly. However, it did explain why he seemed to avoid and attack Yuri so relentlessly. His magic wasn't based on physical trauma.
The best fighter of Fairy Tail felt his senses blare and quickly avoided an axe kick that created a notable crater on the floor he was previously. The master of Steel Reavers lifted his head up, and a fierce glare was seen across his face. He was no longer going easy; now he would fight him with everything he had since the secret of his magic had been revealed.
Precht gripped his energy blades then pressed on his right foot, launching him into a sprint towards his enemy. The still nameless master of the dark mages returned the action, running up with his fist reclined and already trembling with stockpiling power.
(He's absorbing kinetic energy from the steps he's making as he runs?! This magic is far more potent than I realized!) Precht knew getting hit by that would be a one way trip to next week, so he avoided it by firing an energy chain right for his opponent's face.
The opponent quickly caught the shot chain with his free hand and stepped closer in to Precht. Time slowed down, the last second before the punch was thrown, and the chain that the dark green haired man was holding formed into a snake and dug it's fangs into the space between the index finger and the thumb.
The kinetic mage filched at the jolt of pain he wasn't expecting, that allowed him to slow down with an off throw that Precht used to catch the arm of the punch, twist his back, and judo throw him over his shoulder.
However, mid air, the guild master then gripped onto the chain-turned-snake construct with enough force despite the energy fangs digging into his muscles. He yanked hard, causing Precht to suddenly be lifted right for the guild master. Precht's eye widened as he saw the guild master priming his punch still and with no option left, he summoned his blade once more—
BAM! SLASH!
Precht unleashed a swing of his blade that left a crimson gnash across the chest of the guild master, but at the same time, the stockpiled punch shot like a bullet and made contact with the side of Precht's face that didn't have an eye patch.
A moment passed after both attacks connected and Precht was seen rocketing through the wall of the room while the guild master fell into a pool of his own blood that only grew with each passing of time.
The clock ticked on, as it did, something slowly was coming out of the hole, Precht was slowly struggling to stand, losing grip and balance on a flat floor. There was a groan, followed by a hum of magic as the master of the dark guild flipped over and grunted in pain, forcing his body back together to stop the bleeding with the wide slash that reached his left shoulder to the right lower hip.
Precht heard this and forced his construct magic to reinforce where he felt his jaw broken. His last eye barely saw anything, practically making him blind, but he knew he needed to get back up, despite his brain and body telling him nearly nothing was working as it should have been.
Both men groaned in pain and slipped and fell back down on their bellies like toddlers learning how to walk. But with each fall, they both furiously tried to stand back up, knowing how much was at stake if they lost here.
Eventually, the two found themselves weakly standing up, both gasping in pain from the critical blows. Precht was leaning on the side of the hole he was busted through while the dark guild master was on one knee, gasping erratically from the slash that almost killed him.
However, their fight, brutal as it was, was never meant to finish.
An rumble from elsewhere made sure of that.
"Uhh, was it just me or did the entire mobile base just suddenly turn in a different direction?" The steam punk girl asked after stabilizing herself and Mavis from the sudden shift.
However, the smaller blonde girl looked seriously towards Lara. "You're more mechanically gifted! If this place had a cockpit to control the movements, where would it be?"
The raven haired girl blinked but answered her guild master. "W-Well you would think it would be the higher areas, but for something this complex and with how they have a working, giant, exhaust chimney, I think it's more likely for the pilot room to be just above the base level, so back near the ground floor."
"We need to go! We just fell for a trap!"
"A-A trap?!" The inventor saw Mavis run and followed after her as to not get left behind. "Did the Steel Reavers plan something?"
"It's not them who planned this!"
"What!? Then who was it?!"
As soon as this was asked by Lara, the place shook with the intensity to make the two almost lose balance which caused the two girls to stagger in their run.
To their surprise, the floor in front of them opened up and out jumped—
"Ah! It's the Wandering Myth!" Mavis pointed as the large, top hat wearing puppet spun and landed in front of them like an olympic skater.
Googly eyes met with two pairs of startled ones. The large, supernatural puppet bowed, taking off his top hat in a showy manner before using his long hand to swing back and put it a top his head.
The animated movements of the living fairy tale calmed down the two girls somewhat. However, something else flew out of the hole that the Wandering Myth opened up, and it was none other than the speed mage of Steel Reavers.
"You two! I knew it! You intruders had something to do with freeing zis creature!" The speed mage grinded his teeth as he took another running position with full intent to run over the two girls.
The very last second before the speed mage could unleash his speed, the Wandering Myth acted first, grabbing the two girls and jumping, the ceiling above them opening up as if it was never even there in the first place.
However, he didn't just stop on the floor above. The jump was powerful and more and more floors were opening up for the Wandering Myth until with one bound, the ancient puppet jumped out of the moving base and up in the air.
Mavis and Lara both saw this and despite the almost mythical magic the puppet was capable of doing, it didn't seem to be to immune to the laws of physics as he started to get pulled down by gravity.
"AAAAAHHHHH!?" Lara yelled as the three started to fall. However, Mavis noted the hand carrying her was budging out and she saw reflections of moonlight—string! She saw string shoot out of the finger tips of the puppet and suddenly the three of them jerked mid fall and started to swing!
Mavis was in awe, she had experienced flying before, but this… this string-slinging was something she had never felt or imagined from all she had seen before! While carrying both of them, the puppet was using his strings to somehow support them all.
Though… Mavis was also soon surprised, slightly impressed, and kinda worried about how Lara was still screaming up to now without even taking a breath in between. The girl had lungs despite being one of the smaller girls in the guild, and that included Mavis among that group!
As the living fairy tale swung lower, a piece of the wall opened up for the three and they all ended up in a room that was dark, dimly lit and very hot.
Yet despite the sudden shift in atmosphere, one thing that remained constant was Lara screaming her impressive lungs out with her eyes tightly shut.
"Lara! Lara!?" Mavis cried out making the girl finally stop wailing.
The puppet let the girls both down, but the black haired inventor stepped away from the large puppet and pointed. "Don't you dare! … Do that again! I felt years leave me and I already know I'm not going to live long with friends like these!"
"What? But Lara, you've been flying before. It wasn't all that different." Mavis pointed out, but seemed to ignore her friend's exasperated comment.
"Flying!? That! That was not flying! That was more like-like… falling with style!" The steampunk themed girl cried out, not knowing that almost a century in the future, a displaced boy blinked at that worded coincidence.
Mavis tilted her head slightly. "Think we can do it again?"
"NO!" Lara was about to unleash a plethora of health-viable reasons as to why she didn't want to do that again, but was cut off by something: the lack of something to be more specific. "I—where's the puppet?"
Mavis turned and noticed the living magical being was already long gone despite being the most noticeable thing in the hallway. "Hey, wait!"
Soon the two girls ran in one direction hoping to catch up with the mystic and strange being and soon found him in front of a massive room that spanned more than seventh precent of the entire width of the mobile base.
This was because an enormous furnace was in the center, and the heat was worse than before Fairy Tail was forced to use the smokescreen as a cover.
The large, imposing furnace, which at this point seemed like a fire breathing monster, had flames spewing out of the caged door and smelled like brimstone.
Yet standing in front of it was something you would not want anywhere near a fire if you weren't going to use it as fuel: wood. More specifically, the giant, ancient puppet.
The googly eyed being raised a hand as the metal door of the massive furnace started to move. The large whine of metal was heard as the gate opened up and out floated a large chunk of blue coal the size of a melon.
"I knew it." Mavis gasped. "All this time, we've been the ones played like puppets."
Lara looked at her friend with some amounts of confusion before Mavis pointed towards the puppet that was nearly three times her size. "All this time, both us and the Steel Reavers, we were all brought together by the Wandering Myth! Look how he escaped from this place without even being bothered, but instead of leaving, he came back here! He somehow even got us tangled up so his captors could be distracted while he did whatever he wanted! He used us!"
A soft clack of wood made Mavis turn around. The large puppet was towering over her, the flames behind him made shadows descend over the face once meant for silliness, giving it an impression that it was darkly glaring.
For an instant, both Mavis and Lara were frozen. This was a being with magic so ancient that it defied the rules as they knew. It it seemed that mavis had just angered—wait… why was the large puppet kneeling towards Mavis?
The dark imagery from awhile ago faded, and the large wooden being opened up his cloak, to reveal he opened up the heart in it's log shaped torso, the very one described in Mavis' story before all this.
The wooden being took out a flower, a special purple flower that Lara didn't recognize and the large puppet slowly moved it towards Mavis.
The guild master blinked and took the flower.
"Mavis?" Lara finally managed to ask despite being quite confused as to what that was.
"This..." The founder of Fairy Tail looked at the purple flower. "This is a Hyacinth. In the language of flowers it means..." She looked up to the still kneeling puppet with confusion written across her face. "It means to ask for forgiveness?"
The puppet reached in for the compartment with his heart and took out another flower, a different one than the purple hyacinth. And like that one, he handed it over to Mavis.
It was a pink, and vibrant flower, but it also looked far too exotic to be a normal flower. "This one is a freesia, in the language of flowers, this means friendship, innocence… and trust?" As that last word came up, Mavis looked back up towards the puppet. By the two small flowers she was handed, he had just both apologized and asked for her trust.
"Uh wait, what exactly is he doing then?" Lara soon got a sort of answer when the puppet stood back up, closed the literal door to his heart, and walked back towards the large, blue geo stone he left in front of the furnace.
It shattered in front of him like a cracked egg, and like before, the puppet took out something from his heart door. However, unlike the flowers, this time it was revealed to be a lab flask with a red potion inside it. The two girls, and those watching in the present, watched with anticipation and curiosity as the wooden fairy tale took a piece of the cracked rock and placed it into the red liquid inside the flask.
Everyone watched as the blue, burnt rock fell into the liquid and slowly melted away, turning the hue of the potion into a noticeable white pigment than the color it was before.
"You're making a potion?" Mavis blurted out. Knowing this knew fact only brought up more questions than answers. "I don't get it. Why go through all this to make a potion?"
The puppet turned to them all and raised his free hand. Everyone could only look on with more confusion as the puppet brought up all five of his long fingers… then folded one… then another…
"Wait, is he counting down?" Lara asked one second before there was one finger left on the puppet's hand.
As soon as she finished, the last finger folded, and again the large base shook with all the intensity to throw off everyone but the puppet off their feet.
Yuri and Warrod were running to the very best of their abilities. The lives of their weaker, but important friends were at stake, and there's no way they could let the two girls fend for themselves.
"Warrod, are you sure they went this way?"
"Wait what!? I was following you!"
And at that moment, they realized they had another problem.
"You mean to tell me that we have no idea where they went!?" The electric mage cried out in a slight panic.
The plant mage looked equally distressed. "Yuri, I don't think we know where we're going. Lara was the one who knew how to recognize the structure of this place."
"Crap! What do we do!?"
As Yuri started to look around, Warrod tried to coax his friend down. "Yuri, we're no help to anyone if we start panicking."
"AHH BLAST IT ALL!"
"Yeah see? That's not going to help..." Warrod trailed off as he realized that wasn't Yuri screaming right then. Yuri didn't have a heavy accent that was just like the guy he fought a while ago.
Both Fairy Tail mages looked down the hall where they heard the scream. After sharing a glance, the two raced down the location of where the scream came from.
As they did, they entered into a room filled with buttons, levers, a large window that showed the landscape outside—it didn't take long to figure out that this was the pilot room.
In the front center, where there looked to be a steering wheel made of metal, the man who could absorb the properties of whatever he touched was seen struggling turning the steering wheel.
"Why in da devil ain dis budging!?" The man heaved with all his weight—which was impressive—in trying to budge the wheel that refused to move.
Warrod and Yuri looked at each other and nodded once with a serious look. They raised their palms raised then jumped with war cries intended to catch their opponent off guard.
So many would be surprised that it was they who ended up getting blindsided and hit into panels at the opposite side of each other.
Baron had raced in, smacked the two and landed back down in a slide nearby Buscuit, who had just turned around.
"Wha? How'd they find us?"
"Zat is not important, Biscuit, let us deal with these two first." Baron then broke off in a burst of speed. Yuri snapped his eyes open fired a blast of electricity in front of him, forcing Baron to dodge to the right.
Warrod slammed his hands into the metal floor and instantly a green magic circle expanded around him. Tree Trunks shot out of the circle and towards Buscuit who touched the steering wheel and turned metal to make the spikes of the tree shatter on impact of his metallic skin.
"Dat didn't work den an it won't work nae!" The large man cried out.
However, behind him, Yuri noticed this and quickly blasted the metal man.
Baron noticed the attack that wasn't aimed for him and yelled to his friend. "Buscuit, look out!"
The man did so before the warning was called out. A magic circle appeared beneath the sole of his booth and he stomped on the pieces of wood beneath him. As this happened, his metallic skin turned to wood. When Yuri's electricity hit, it did no effect on him.
Biscuit turned to point and laugh at Yuri. "Ha ha! Wat are ya gonna do naAARRRK!?" However, as he did this, Warrod was able to close the distance and land a clean punch sucker punch right into the wooden cheek of his opponent. The blow made him fly—then crash right through the metal steering wheel.
All four noticed that and heard the sound of the entire mobile base slowing to a halt with megatons of metal screeching as they reached a stop.
"Uh oh." It spoke volumes when all four mages of two different allegiances had the same feelings as to what was about to happen.
The base then screamed in gears. It shot off in it's max speed, signaling this was the event that trembled the base all through out while everyone was doing their own thing.
Nearly everyone was thrown off their feet and slammed into a wall opposite of the direction where the mobile base moved. However, for Lara and Mavis, their opposite direction just so happened to be towards the opened furnace. The two girls cried out as they saw themselves heading into the fire and brimstone area. However, they were quickly caught by the magical puppet who took them in its arms and raced towards the ceiling.
"Nooootttt aaaaggggaaaaiiinnn!?" Lara cried out as she saw no sign of the puppet slowing down as it defied physics and ran closer towards the ceiling. Her suspicions were confirmed as the wall opened up for the ancient puppet and they ended up a good one hundred stories up in the air.
Also in the air was Lara's voice screaming like a banshee again as she started to panic in the air.
Mavis on the other hand noticed in the distance, the mobile base was heading towards a large cliff. At the rate they were going to go, all of them were going to die! What could…
The smaller girl's thoughts were distracted when she heard a whistling noise. Even Lara's screaming stopped as the wind around them… it almost sounded like a hundred air instruments playing something akin to the music of a forrest.
However, even while the music was playing, the mobile base was rushing right for the edge of the massive cliff. It didn't take long for it to topple over…
But the girls watching from above, and those watching in the present stared in disbelief at what had happened next.
The cliffs extended, the ground reached out, the trees grew… all into a path for the mobile base to run on, slowly making it move downward gently. Each 'platform' looked to be in the shape of a note.
"Mavis, I… I didn't know magic could do this." Lara, who was now a complete opposite to her screaming self a few seconds ago, commented as she witness the moving platforms from below perfectly support each metal foot which should have been more than a half a million pounds of steel.
"I think we're witnessing magic from the dawn of time..." Mavis gasped, her eyes shinning. "Probably… even before his time."
The dragon slayers in the present heard the guild master whisper that last sentence, but didn't understand who the first guild master could be referring to.
The music soon slowed down, and as it did, the base seemed to slow it's wild movements as well. Not only that, but as the music came to a stop, the last of the legs hit solid ground before halting once more.
Lara screamed as the puppet leapt from it's high point, as they 'fell with style' the Wandering Myth happened to pass by the window of the pilot room.
Two of the four groaning men sprawled on the floor of the pilot room heard the familiar, crazed scream that just passed by the window.
"L-Lara?"
The screaming continued even when the puppet had already touched the ground in an open area ten seconds ago.
"Lara, please!" Mavis shouted, even her ears were now starting to hurt from hearing her friend.
When the inventor finally realized they were no longer falling, she felt blood rush to her face. She stood back into the ground and looked to the puppet.
"Uhhh… thanks for saving us?" The raven haired girl stammered out.
The puppet picked up his top hat, and gave long, flourished bow before tossing the old hat and letting it land perfectly on his head.
Mavis cooed and clapped her hands together, even while still holding the flowers given to her. "That was fun! We should do that again!"
"Please no." Those watching from the orb could tell how desperate Lara was despite her soft whisper.
Mavis was feeling chipper until she recalled the dark guild base literally hanging above her. As she looked up, she saw glass shattering and she, Lara, and the Wandering Myth moved away from the falling glass.
A green magic circle appeared and a tree shot up and revealed to work as a slide for two familiar faces.
"Yuri! Warrod!" Mavis cried out as the two roughed up mages slid down the tree.
However, her smile was cut short when she realized there were shadows cast above them. "Look out!"
The two looked up and jumped off the tree before something heavy crushed it.
The other two mages of Steel Reavers slowly got back up.
"You vill be giving zat puppet back to us."
"We can't lose ere, got too much at stake." The other man spoke with equal amounts of seriousness. "Nae come here n have a go!? If ya think ya're hard enough!"
Their bold claims were cut short when a sonic boom exploded above them. As the wind died down, two men landed on the two opposite sides.
"Boss!"
"Precht!"
The two best fighters of each team looked worse than all their teammates combined. Precht had pieces of his skull patched up by magic, though that didn't do anything for the patches of still-drying blood on the side of his face where his good eye still was. The leader of Steel Reavers was clutching his chest, in some futile attempt to somehow heal that huge trail of blood across his clothes and torso.
The boss raised his hand and pointed over towards the Puppet. "Hand him over, now." His clothes were ruined, he had dirt and blood mix across pieces of his face and body, it looked like he was doing his best to stop his body from trembling, but if any of that lessened the impact of his threat, then why were all Fairy Tail members feeling a chill up their spine?
Mavis raised her hand. "We won't let you—"
Despite her amazing effort to bring back her and her friend's courage, she was distracted when the puppet stepped forward towards the Steel Reavers! Even the dark mages broke their intimidation when they saw how easy it was to get the escaping puppet back to them.
"Wait—what!?" Yuri, Warrod, and Lara cried out at how the Puppet was now in front of the older man.
However, the puppet then reached for his heart door once more. No one could see it properly since it was getting very late at night, but, in the wooden palm of the puppet was a small, purple-polka-dotted flower with red spots.
And then he shoved it right into the mouth of the master of Steel Reavers.
The sudden action caused an impressive number of dropped jaws from both sides.
Understandably, the skillful warrior was taken off guard by this. Becuase of that, he swallowed what was shoved into his throat and no sooner than he did, the puppet pulled out a hand mysteriously dry from saliva.
There was a sound of flesh rending and the guild master of Steel Reavers fell to his knees and curled over while holding his stomach as he trembled.
Before his allies could could get to him, the Wandering Myth was able to shove his giant, wooden hands into their jaw-opened mouths. It seemed like he hd forced the two of them to eat something as well.
"Uhhh… what's happening?" Warrod then noticed that the large puppet turned back towards them with three more of the flowers in his hands.
"Is he going to—" Yuri didn't get to say another word as another flower was shoved into his and Precht's mouth. Warrod stepped back, but a flower brought up by string surprised the guy and flew into his mouth when he opened it to yell.
With all men now hunched up and holding their stomachs, Mavis and Lara, along with those in the present, stared in confusion and curiosity at what was going on.
"I was not prepared for today." The combination of today's events made Lara feel minuscule amongst the cosmos.
Mavis could only silently agree with her as she watched the tall puppet step back. To the surprise of many, the master of The Steel Reavers got back up, his was still bloody, dirty and such, but he looked as good as new. His wounds were completely healed and his magic power spiked back to the amazing presence of a while ago. Since he was the first, all the other battlers soon got back up and a majority of their wounds became healed along with their magical power.
"W-What was that!?" The older man looked at himself with disbelief and soon so did the others. "Some kind of ancient medicine that heals wounds?"
"I-I think I've heard of a legend of flowers that could heal wounds by eating them, but I didn't know they were real." Mavis then looked back. It was obvious that the Steel Reavers were now back to full health along with them, but why would the Puppet do that? None of his actions made the a lick of sense.
"Healing... flowers?" The guild master eyes widened as his brain processed what he just ate and looked up to the magical being. "These flowers—can the heal even diseases!?"
That question confused all of Fairy Tail, but the puppet could only lower his head slightly and shake it, before reaching for his heart door once more. The two girls from Fairy Tail noticed that the Wandering Myth had taken out the same flask from a while ago.
"A potion?" Baron removed his googles to get a better look at the liquid inside the glass.
"Okay, I'm confused!" Yuri cried out what a majority of people were already thinking. He pointed to the ancient being then to the dark guild members. "Why does he have a potion out? And why were you guys after him in the first place?!"
Silence filled the air before the guild master of the dark guild seemed to raise his head up. "Among all the folk lore of the Wandering Myth, there is one that describes that the sap he carries in his body can cure any sickness or disease. A person dear to me has been diagnosed with a terminal and incurable disease. When we thought all hope was gone, this puppet appeared near us, jumping across the skies. We then realized that if he was real, there was a chance to save this person. And we did everything we could to catch him."
The Dark guild master turned towards the large puppet with a silly smile drawn on his head. For the first time, he sighed, his stance slackened, and he gave a solemn smile. "But why is it that I feel like he's been purposely leading us on this wild goose chase from the beginning?"
In response to such a rhetorical question, the puppet only tilted his head.
"So, all of this… was to save your friend?" Lara asked out.
"Yes," The man turned towards the puppet. "I need your sap to..."
The puppet could not speak, but his actions usually spoke much louder than the words of normal people. This next action was the puppet ripping out a chunk of his left arm after putting the flask on his head. As he did this, he showed the piece to everyone around him.
It was bone dry.
"Y-You don't have healing sap? B-But the other legends were true about you!" The Guild master pointed before looking back at the flask. "Wait, did you make that as the cure?"
Most of Fairy Tail were now feeling pity for the powerful mage as even they could feel the desperation in his voice as he asked this question.
When they saw the puppet shake his head slowly, they never would have imagined feeling pity for a dark mage as the hope left his face and soon rage started replace it.
"THEN WHAT WAS IT FOR!? WE SPENT MONTHS CHASING YOU, HAD TO FIGHT THESE BASTARDS, AND MY SON WILL DIE FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!?" That shout of rage made everyone step back. His emotions just revealed that the person dying… was the guild master's son?
A piece of ripped paper was brought up to the wrathful man's face. The anger from the older man stopped as he picked the paper out from the puppet and saw there was something written in it. As he read it, his eyes widened.
"Boss?" Buscuit, along with baron then looked beside him to see what the piece of paper said. "All dis paper says is, 'He won't die. Trust me.'"
The puppet turned towards Fairy Tail. The male members seemed somewhat tense, but they had this feeling to… walk away as the puppet came closer towards them. He stopped in front of Mavis and kneeled to the little girl.
The first guild master watched the puppet take out something from his heart door once more. However, because he was so close, Mavis noticed an inscription at the back of the heart door. She realized that what she was reading was the name that the maker of the puppet gave to the wandering myth that was lost to time.
But before she could react to it, the wooden toy had a slightly dirty monocle with rusted gold frame in one palm out to her, and a strangely familiar conch shell in the other.
The conch shell drew her in the most as she picked it up and had an overwhelming need to put it near her ear.
"Hello? Is anyone listening?" Mavis' eyes widened as she heard a voice come from the conch. But it wasn't the fact a voice was coming out of the shell that surprised her, it a very specific voice that caught her off guard. "Oh wow! This really is one of those shells that capture voices! The guys from the Red Lizard Guild were right! Hi, fairies! My name is Mavis Vermillion, age 4 and I want to meet you!"
The memories hit her like the very runaway base she was riding on no too long ago. During one day, she wandered into the beach of her home island, in search of the possibilities of fairies hiding around the island. She never found any, but along her search she had found a beautiful conch that she later learned could capture voices in them.
"Mavis, you alright?" Warrod's voice snapped Mavis out of her nostalgia and made the founder look up towards the still kneeling puppet.
"You were there?" She found herself asking in awe before she was handed the second object.
"There? Mavis, what are you talking about?" Yuri was going to ask more but then the puppet stood back to his full height.
He reached for his old, worn out, and patched up top hat… then gently placed it on Mavis' head. The puppet slowly walked some distance into the opening that they were all in.
The inventor of the group was distracted by something else in the trees at the edge of the opening. "W-When did all those animals get here?"
Everyone could see many animals from different species around the edge of the opening. From crazy looking birds with antennae and hands for feet, to—what Kain would say—normal looking deers and rabbits.
There must have been hundreds of animals, all looking towards the puppet as he made his way to the center of the clearing.
"Hey, I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but what's happening here?" Yuri asked again before he was answered by the puppet's next action.
The giant puppet stood in the middle of the open field and raised the flask over his head… only to pour it on himself.
As the potion started to run down on the ancient being, the liquid running down started to glow gold. There was a hum of magic that almost sounded like a melody as the puppet's body was covered and light and started to expand.
Soon, the puppet was gone, and as the light faded, it was revealed that a giant tree with golden leaves now stood where the puppet once stood.
The humans watching could only continually stare in confusion. The potion made by the being was just to turn him into a tree? What would that accomplish at all?
However, the animals around the opening started moving in one area. A large, white wolf walked towards the tree and on it's back was a black wolf pup, laying down but also seemingly coughing weakly.
As the white wolf got near the tree, it was able to bite on the fur of the little black pup and put him near the large trunk. The black wolf seemingly sniffed the trunk and started to lick it. Those with sharper senses noted that the little creature was licking sap oozing off the trunk.
As it licked it some more, the little pup soon stood up on it's own and then seemed energetic enough to bark and race around the bigger wolf with the opposite color. There was a noticeable smile on the bigger wolf as it put it's head down to nudge with the smaller pup.
The little pup that was no longer ill-looking started to circle around the wolf as it made it's leave form the tree.
This was cue for the other animals to swarm towards the tree, taking some leaves and eating some of it's bark.
"Wait a second! We need some of that sap!" The master of the Dark Guild spoke out as he and his men raced towards the tree and used their magic to gather some of the sap itself.
"Umm, why are they getting that sap?" Yuri could only scratch his head, obviously confused as to what was going on.
He got his answer from Mavis. "From what I gather, the puppet never had any of the healing sap that some of his stories described. But apparently for the past few months, he's been making a potion that would turn him back into a tree and properly give out real healing sap."
"Whoa what? Then let's get some too! We could sell miracle sap for a big load of cash!" Yuri cried out as he also raced towards the tree.
"Yuri! Really? We witness something as close to the oldest form of magic in the world, and all he cares about is the cash?" Warrod cried out.
Precht sighed and relaxed his stance. "Keeping some sap might benefit us in the future. It's a good idea to get some before the animals take everything."
Hearing even Precht say something sensible, Fairy Tail then went after Yuri, including the orb for the present watchers.
However, Mavis stayed behind looking at the second item she was handed: a very old but ornate monocle. Curious, she put it over her right eye.
"….!?" She gasped as she looked around with it, glancing almost everywhere with her eye under the monocle.
"All this time..." Mavis couldn't even believe what she was seeing. "Fairies were—"
"Hey! Mavis! Come on! Help us get some of this stuff!" Yuri's voice snapped Mavis out of her stupor, but it was so sudden that it frightened her. As she jerked forward and lost her balance, she accidentally drop the monocle and it's glass fell right on a rock and it shattered on impact.
Mavis looked heart broken as the glass shards now on the grass. But as the seconds passed, her frown lessened and she reached for the top hat she was given. She looked under it and a small smile appeared on her face.
"I'm on my way!" Mavis cried out as she ran after her friends, leaving the monocle behind and carrying the hat which confirmed her suspicions: the name of the Wandering Myth.
In the hat and in the door, there was an inscription that read, "To my child by love, Petto. May he grant people's wishes as he did mine. —Gep, master toy maker."
After gaining some sap, and after most of the animals left, Fairy Tail stared down Steel Reavers.
This time, some of the other men were now waking up, but instead of attacking, the guild master of the dark mages told them all to stand down.
Now? Most of the Steel Reaves, with the main three in the front, were now standing in front of a very tense Fairy Tail.
"… What will you do now?" The guild master of the Steel Reavers asked.
"What will you do now?" Yuri returned back, not liking how vastly outnumbered they were.
"Go home, cure my son." The large man stated plainly before looking towards the tree. "And to make sure no one ever says a word about this tree existing."
"What?! You wanna keep all this to yourselves, don't you!?" Warrod passionately yelled but Precht threw his hand out in front of him as a sign to tone it down.
"I admit, the thought tempted me on more than one occasion." The dark green haired guild master admitted easily but never raised his tone. "But at the same time, I owe the legendary puppet. If everyone were to find out about this tree, I can only imagine how many people would want to get their hands on it: the magic council, the other dark guilds, and desperate mages? Or even worse still: other countries?"
Everyone was surprise to hear a man from a dark guild say something like that. But it was true, if a tree existed that could cure any disease existed, there was no doubt that people would be fighting over it like starving dogs.
"It might even cause wars… forcing… fathers away from their families… and orphaning other children. I can't let that happen, even if a miracle was done for me and mine, and could do for others in my place." The guild master of the Steel Reavers said this and looked back towards Fairy Tail. "So I have decided to burn down the tree."
He raised his hand, and his followers quickly raised their magic guns. They all shot a magical blast that set the golden tree ablaze.
Yuri and Warrod made a step for the tree, but Precht stopped them again. "No, as much as we don't want to, he's right, a tree like that ironically threatens the peace of the land."
The great grandfather of Laxus gripped his hands tightly as he tried to refute that, but his subconscious knew that this was the logical decision, but his heart wouldn't let him have it. "That puppet sacrificed himself for your son, and all you can do is burn him!?"
"It's because he sacrificed himself for my son that I can't let such a noble sacrifice turn into something twisted by other people who I know will abuse it!" The man yelled back with equal amounts of anger before his tone became soft. "I wish the world was better to allow such a thing to exist in the first place, but if that was the case, we wouldn't be a dark guild in the first place."
Mavis felt saddened by the burning of the tree. Yet, the magic fire only seemed to turn that lone tree into ashes. It never spread to the rest of the field or the surrounding of the other trees.
She turned back to the master of the Steel Reavers with a stare that was far older and powerful than her body allowed her to be. "I can see why you would say that, though I don't fully agree with it. But… Fairy Tail will keep silent about this event ever happening. You have our word."
At this moment, Lara looked over to her orb and then her eyes widened. She focused back in front of her and did her best not to panic at the fact she already broke the word without meaning to. Her fidgeting hands and shifting eyes were dead give aways, it was a miracle that only the people in the present noticed this.
"Then we will keep our promise as well. Men, let's get back home." The dark guild master turned, as he did the other men did so as well and walked towards their base.
"Wait!"
The older man turned back to Mavis who seemed to have been half regretting saying that. She steeled herself after a moment of doubt and spoke out, "For a dark guild, I'm surprised how much you value others."
In response to such a statement, the guild master of the Steel Reavers gave a small smirk. "Not everyone is good at following rules made by governments rather than their own heart."
"… What is your name?" Now that Fairy Tail thought about it, they never did get the name of the powerful kinetic mage they were fighting this entire night.
"Ishamel Joob." And that was all he said as he turned back and walked away once more, the rest of his guild following after him.
Fairy Tail watched the mobile base of the Steel Reavers start, and then move away from the founders.
Lara released a breath she was holding in. "That scared me, Mavis."
"Sorry, I just wanted to know. He didn't seem like a bad person."
"As much as we would like things to be black and white, they almost never really are." Precht added in sagely.
Yuri threw his hands over his head and folded them in a casual manner. "What Precht said, but I still think what he did wasn't right, but it wasn't really wrong either."
"As much as I'd like to think of all the lives a tree like that could have saved, I can't help but also think of the people would would want to abuse it themselves, or hurt other people to get to it." Warrod added in. "Kinda makes people look bad in general."
"But..." Lara started to speak out. "Even if we're really bad, why would the Wandering Myth continue trying to help people and kids for centuries? Shouldn't it have gotten tired of us long ago?"
…
"I'm just saying the same thing Mavis basically said about the Steel Reavers: we probably all look bad, but we aren't really that bad."
A poignant silence filled the air once more until someone decided to speak up.
"… Geez, all I came here to do was maybe by some exotic goods and keep Mavis from being swindled; I didn't expect to argue about humanity as a whole after potentially meeting a being with almost god like magic and fighting a dark guild that was trying to save a child." Yuri spoke out.
"Are you saying nothing about the hell hole that was Gorge Valley? At least you kept your pants on!" Warrod pointed out.
"Oh god, I just realized I lost like half my money in that tourist trap. How am I going to pay rent for my studio!?" Meanwhile in the present, Lucy Heartfillia was feeling a kindred spirit in the raven haired inventor.
"You can take jobs like the rest of us." Precht stated with all the delicacy of a cold, spiked bed. He doubled as the treasurer of Fairy Tail, and ever since a bad loan with Yuri, he has locked down the funds like a dragon to his gold.
"But I can't fight at all! Yuri, please help!" The girl turned to the lightning mage who was now rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"I dunno… I mean, I feel for you but—"
"I can get Rita to agree to an afternoon tea session with you."
"Don't worry, Lara, money's not a problem with me! Ahahaha!" Yuri changed his tune very quickly when his future wife was involved.
Warrod chuckled at how easy it was for the girl to manipulate his friend. "So how are we going to get back to the guild?"
"Ah." Everyone else recalled that they had no money left for return tickets and they were left in the middle of nowhere.
"Bark! Bark!"
Everyone looked up tot he sky to see some familiar figures up above. Mavis gasped and screamed, "Barfy!"
The horned malamute puppy was coming back with the Alicorns they stole from the city not to long ago.
Mavis waved over to them. "We're over here Barfy!"
The alicorns all started to fly towards the group. However, as they came closer, Barfy stopped barking and swallowed hard. Something looked to be pilling in his throat.
It was then that the founders of Fairy Tail instantly realized two things: they had remembered why they were 'sold' that dog in the first place, and two: they were standing right beneath the creature with an uncontrollable gag reflex.
That night, you could hear the screams of five people after something liquid like rained downed on them.
Kain reached for the orb as it ended it's run, showing the misadventure of founders through and through.
"So that was kinda fun." He spoke out as he noticed something outside. "Whoa? It's already night time?"
Everyone in the guild looked out the windows and indeed noticed that the stars were already out. This made a good number of the members panic and quickly leave, having lost track of time watching the memories of the founders.
"We didn't make any progress in finding in how to get you home and it's already late?" Erza spoke out before looking to the brunette.
"Oh don't be sad, it was nice spending a day of relaxation after a long time. I'm actually glad we got to do the closest we can do to 'Netflix and Chill' back in my home world."
"What's Net flick?" Natsu folded his arms and tilted his head.
Kain blinked and put a hand on his chin. "Huh that's kinda complicated to explain since I've lived with it." It also seemed as if the boy form another world was fine with Natsu mispronouncing the name, even though it was more than likely he wouldn't bother Natsu with trying to remember a name he'll get wrong for a while.
"I guess I can explain some things about my world while we help Mira clean up."
"Thank you, Kain." The white haired bar tender said from a few tables down.
"No problem, now where is that broom again?"
Those remaining did start to help clean up the guild. However, a few minutes in, the door opened up again.
Many simply thought it would be one of the returning guild members seeing if they left something, but a stranger in a flowing white dress and red coat walked inside the guild and looked around. Her face was covered by a large, white sun hat so no one knew what she looked like.
Lucy, being the closest to this person, started walking up to her. Before she could get close enough, she asked, "Hello? May I help you?"
As Lucy got closer, she saw the sun hat lifted up to reveal a woman with black hair with a collective strand of gray hair. It was long as the bottom of her neck and she could barely spot wrinkles on her face, showing that she was somewhat old.
However, when seeing Lucy, the woman had a kind, warm, and young feeling smile along with her gray eyes. "Oh yes, I'm here to visit Makarov Dreyar? Is he still here?"
Lucy blinked when she realized this woman was looking for the previous master. Was this woman one of his old friends? "Master Makarov? Oh I'm sorry, miss. He's not here right now."
The woman put a hand closer towards her mouth as she learned that fact. "He isn't? But I already checked his house here, and he wasn't there." Lucy was about to say more, but it was then that she noticed that on the back of her right hand, much like Kain and her, there was a much more faded gray symbol of Fairy Tail on her hand.
While everyone was looking over, Laxus came out of the office and noticed everyone being distracted again. As he followed everyone's view and noticed the woman standing near the entrance.
His eyes widened as the old woman noticed Laxus from afar. She raised her hand and waved. "Laxus, sweetie! Over here!"
"Sweetie!? No way! Laxus' girlfriend is an old—" Erza smacked the back of Natsu's head before he could even finish that sentence.
The fourth guild master of Fairy Tail was so stunned he didn't even hear Natsu with his own sharpened senses. Instead he only said one word in response to the warm hello the stranger was giving him. "Grandmother?"
...
"GRANDMOTHER!?"
{Author Notes}
So yeah. So ends the much lighter arc: Fairy Tail Chases a Tale. (I thought I could come up with a catchier name before this arc would end. I didn't. I'm sad.)
Has anyone ever noticed that in a story named after magic and fairy tales, it has so little references to any fairy tales, even Japanese ones? Like I feel that is a huge and missed opportunity.
So the Wandering Myth's name is Petto, and if you put it with Gep, you get Geppetto, the name of the toy maker who made Pinocchio a very famous story for kids. It's very obvious, even though I didn't try to hide it, that this arc was a different take on the Pinocchio story in the Fairy Tail Universe.
As I said before, until I deleted it because no one liked reading it, this was meant to give the world of Fairy Tail a far more 'mystic' feel to it. In this chapter, you see me try to touch on that, with Petto using magic that's so different, but somehow supernatural in a place filled with magic. Petto's 'magic' was more like him talking to the world and it would listen to him. It's why he could make walls act as if they were never there. Also, that feat with the mobile base, if he needs bigger guns, he can ask the world for help through it's most ancient of languages: music. I really wanted to capture the feel of the mystic side of magic, because as a kid, I've always been in awe of how… beyond such a thing really is. I hoped I was able to show some of that here.
Now, with this extra arc out of the way, we can tackle the big one around the corner.
That's right folks! The next arc is the Oracion Seis arc!
You know what that means, right? It means we finally get to see Wendy in this story, the anime loli requirement!
*FBI Guns being pointed*
I was joking!
*FBI: (Hesitantly draws back guns and makes aggressive finger to eye signs) We're watching you, punk...*
With that out of the way, I like to think of the Oracion Seis as like a half way point before the Seven year skip, which I like to think of "that" as the "unofficial" halfway point of the Fairy Tail series as a whole, which would mean that we're potentially a quarter of a way done with this story? (Not really with all those original arcs I'm planning. Saying that aloud makes me realize this might run even longer than the actual manga. Well crap.)
But it's still a mile stone. I'm only like what? A year in and I'm already reaching 300,000 words and starting the Oracion Seis arc? I feel like I should be proud of that too and you guys should also feel proud. It's your support that makes me keep this up for an entire year! My success in this story is also all of yours as well!
Anyway, I hope you are all excited for the upcoming Oracion Seis arc, I even asked for a little help with it. You'll see why very soon.
Have a great day guys, and please support the fic with favorites, follows, and reviews.
Extra: Hey, wait a second.
"Now that I think back," Yuri said aloud while everyone was flying on their way back to Magnolia after a slight… mishap. "Didn't the puppet give you two things Mavis? What were they?"
"He gave me an old voice conch that I played with as a kid, and the other was a monocle. Unfortunately, I dropped the monocle on a rock and it shattered, so I had to leave it there." The girl easily answered.
"What was the monocle for?" Warrod seemed interested at the random object.
Mavis opened her mouth, but no words came out as she seemed to struggle to form coherent speech.
Precht seemed to figure it out. "That monocle, I sensed a bit of old magic in it. It allowed you to see something didn't it?"
Mavis said nothing, but she was never good at hiding her facial expressions, so it was easy to read her face as a yes.
The raven haired inventor of the group seemed to have something click in her brain. "Hey, now that I think about it: the Wandering Myth was smart enough to plan everything that happened tonight. Do you think he let himself be seen in Gorge Valley so they could make a quest, and by proxy attract you?"
"If the Steel Reavers believed he did the same for them, I suppose it's not out of the question." The founder of Fairy Tail answered back vaguely.
"But you wanted to capture the Wandering Myth because you wanted to see if fairies were rea..." Warrod's voice died out as he was about to state that. All the other members suddenly had the puzzle pieces fit perfectly in their minds.
"Mavis," Precht began. "What did that monocle allow you to see?"
The blonde haired girl seemed frozen despite holding on to the horned puppy in her arms. However, a second later, she smiled and said, "That's a secret!"
The men of the founding group groaned. "Of course it is." Yuri rubbed his head. "Still though, if you're not going to tell us, what about your question? Did you at least get an answer to your question?"
Mavis thought back to when she had the monocle. As she viewed through the lens, she saw something she couldn't believe: fairies of all shapes and sizes. Sparkling, golden sprites with little wings, flying around the tree.
One of them suspiciously looked like a friend she had been living with in Tenrou Island so long ago and waved at her.
Yet, fairies were as different as people: some had no wings, some had more than two wings, some had antennae, some had butterfly wings, some were fat, some were muscular, some had really big heads, and they were all so diverse.
But her question, 'Do Fairies have tails?', was the one she was most focused on, and lo and behold, her question had such a simple answer.
Some fairies did have tails and some didn't. It felt anticlimactic to her life long question, but she was strangely okay with that.
"Yep!" At that moment, in the night sky, Mavis smile was so bright, one could almost mistake it for a star along the sky.
Warrod ended up giving a soft chuckle. "So what? Now that Mavis nows the answer, do we cancel Fairy Tail since it was made for that not so eternal question?"
"NO!"
"I'm kidding, Mavis! I doubted we would stop it even if we did know." The future god of Ishgar raised his hands to defend himself from a small girl.
Mavis huffed, causing everyone else to laugh at their leader's cute reactions.
"By the way, I see that you're no longer wearing the hat he let you have," Precht looked up to Mavis. "Where is it?"
"Oh."
Back in the fields of where a tree burned, there was a lone top hat in a field of ash. Faeries gathered around the hat and watched as the ashes around started to shift and move despite there being no breeze that night.
The ashes all formed into a giant eight-feet tall wooden puppet with googly eyes and a silly smile and the large being bowed to the fairies who all cheered and whooped at the presence of the old being.
The googly eyes of the ancient being fell on the top hat not to far from him. He reached for it with his long, wooden arms, he dusted the hat off and placed it snuggly back on his head.
It would be odd to see a patched up top hat on top of a wooden puppet, but there was just something that felt right about a magical being wearing something that, despite being so worn out, still felt as warm and as soft as if it had just came off the head of a man who loved the best in life.
Petto, the Wandering Myth looked up to the moon in the sky. … Before walking in a random direction, to where he could be needed next.
"I left it where it needs to be." Mavis finished her answer.