Alex tapped his jaw in thinking on what was going to happen, but he would need to figure it out fully as he worked on copying the magic style of Ivan Dreyar, in piecing out how the doll worked, but not connected to the madman. What he managed to find out through fragmenting the magic to its baser nature, it was connected to Laxus, but it had no ground normally as it had to be applied on the daily and had to be applied while the subject was distracted.
Even then, it wasn't an physical mark, it was mental, so what would have worked in doing this as a constant source for this magic to take hold... Alex deadpanned in realizing the same thing with a facepalm, the only constant to Laxus was his music, he wore headphones that played his selected music often through those things and how hard would it have been to have him distracted by his music enough to never notice the slight influence of Ivan on his mind.
The answer was not that hard, if Laxus did the Battle for Fairy Tail and was excommunicated, then Ivan would have the perfect reason of pointing out the weakness of Makarov and convincing his son to join him in getting all of the power, but then why would Laxus show up on Tenrou Island, there were some flaws in that trail of thinking and it would be bad to get lost in his theory, so he focused on what he could understand now.
So, cutting the link between Ivan and Laxus was good, but nothing will really change unless this battle is changed to something more positive or was stopped altogether. He shook his head in heading out, joining the guild for their preparations of the Harvest Festival and the Miss Fairy Tail Contest...
Kenith had set up a spot for Alex, Freefall purring under his touch as he spoke to the Contest starting off the Festival. "Turn up anything?"
"A few things, it depends on if it is good or bad." Alex answered in taking the seat as Cana strut her stuff to the wolf-whistles. "Ivan was subtlety influencing Laxus since his excommunication, using his paper dolls to turn Laxus to a darker side while Laxus listened to his music."
"Oh, that is not good." Kenith answered as Juvia used her Water Magic to charm the crowd. "Do you think that is how Laxus changed in such a way, because his dad was trying to undermine Fairy Tail like that?"
"Possibly, but even so, there are still flaws to that, it only seems to be undermining Makarov and we 'know' that there is nothing about Makarov that seems like it is a hard-fought secret to keep." Alex rolled his wrist in answering as Ur took to the stage herself and cheekily made a winter breeze through the guild with a smile, even a bit of teasing of Gray with an ice Juvia on his shoulder. He folded his arms in continuing. "I haven't noticed any changes yet, what about your end?'
"The stone has been tampered with and only the Fairy Tail mark seems to key in on those locations, they seem like battle arenas." Kenith huffed as he continued with Mirajane making things weird. "My guess is they have been set up last night or so in preparation for the battle, Laxus wanted to force his grandfather into checkmate."
"Which also removes our present Dragon Slayers." Kenith nodded as Erza lit up the contest once again with her Requip power. "I thought it weird to find mental blocks inside both of Gajeel and Natsu, their bodies making it only recently that they were planted, exactly when their dragons vanished, but I was feeling a much older presence on those blocks, my guess going to at least three to four centuries old on it, it also had a hint of Celestial Magic to it." Kenith nodded as Levy came to appeal to the crowd.
"With that in their bodies, it would be no wonder if runes went up and they couldn't exit the building, they would be in place to keep the selected individuals trapped inside and keep Makarov from getting out." Alex nodded as Bisca pulled off a sniper shot on a few coin, while in a swimsuit. Alex nudged Kenith and he nodded in standing up as Evergreen appeared over Lucy and then stoned her.
"Showtime." Both of them were on the ready, as Laxus appeared with the rest of the Legion of Bickslow and Freed and explained that there will now be a contest to test who is the strongest in the Guild and the captive girls, all turned to stone by Evergreen's Stone Eyes, would be insurance that they don't go breaking the rules. Before Natsu could declare that he would take on the challenge of beating Laxus, another voice spoke.
"Laxus Dreyar, I expected much more from you, the great-grandson of my dear friend, and I do not approve of your blatant hatred for your own grandfather." Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose as all of the Guild froze as he spoke.
"Do not be where I think you are... Do not be where I think you are... Do not..." He growled as he yelled, whipping about to Kenith. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SITTING ON MY BROTHER"S SHOULDER!?" Sure enough, sitting on Kenith's shoulder with bobbing legs, was First Master Mavis Vermillion, her long hair cascading down her back and dressed in a pink, frilly robe as she lightly smiled.
"Because he is most comfortable and I can't really take a seat on your drake, I am certain that I would never get out the aches I would get from sitting on his mount."
"You...!" Alex growled in frustration before Makarov spoke, clearing his throat as he spoke to Laxus.
"Laxus, if you had come to me for this 'battle tournament', I would have approved, I would have been upset that my children would be fighting, but I would have accepted it, but I think that if the First Master appeared to lecture you, I would not go through with it, it is not worth the headache and emotional trauma that will come from facing off with the Fairy Tactician. On a side note..." Makarov yelped in pointing at Mavis. "HOW ARE YOU HERE, FIRST MASTER MAVIS!?" She turned as she smiled.
"I am here, because I have been awakened and I wished to see how my guild had been faring." Her smile slipped as she spoke. "Still, I am quite upset to find that, while Precht Gaebolg is doing who knows what with his wandering now, Yuri's son and his grandson are feuding over who is strongest, are we that low to be counted as brigands to argue on strength?" She held an ethereal presence as she leapt off Kenith's shoulder and walked with grace. "For any who are not aware of my being, I understand, but I am First Master Mavis Vermillion, I was... a founder of the Fairy Tail and I cared for my friends that I had gained..." She breathed as she looked back up. "...Enough to use a powerful Magic to save Yuri Dreyar's life, and the price is one you would never know, but it has existed since ancient times." She frowned as Alex grumbled before he spoke.
"Darn it, Mavis..." He turned from folding his arms in speaking. "Fairy Law is a watered-down version of the spell Law, it is watered down because Law is a Black Magic spell and its power is so intense that it comes with a curse." He breathed as he continued. "I, myself, had found books of the curse and who is the wielder of it and no one here has that power, never should have that power."
"Oh, and you think..." Bickslow barely blinked with the rest of the guild when Alex appeared right in front of him, his gunblade in hand and dangerously close to Bickslow's throat as he spoke, not even looking at the man with dull eyes.
"The curse is the Contradictory Curse and the one who wields it, the God Ankhseram who was worshipped in the ancient city of Mildian for power over life and death, takes high offence to those unbalancing the scales of life and death, those who decide to control who lives and who dies." A chill surged through all as Mavis watched Alex as he spoke. "Mavis contracted it along with her eternal youth which can be restored, given time, because she decided that in saving Yuri, she must kill the evil of an ancient relic known as the Tenrou Orb in the form of a skeletal blue dragon, right here in Magnolia eighty-eight years ago."
"That could be..." Evergreen barely got her words out to a revolver planted at her forehead when Bickslow could suddenly breathe with the steel against his throat, Alex still not meeting eye contact as he stared at the flooring.
"This could be false, it could be myth, but shouldn't you all fact-check that with Mavis first before trying to disprove it?" Alex's voice was hollow, cold in tone, as he continued. "Kenith, I am leaving for a bit, keep the Guild going while I am gone, okay?"
"Of course, Alex, we will be waiting for you." Alex nodded with his fingers up and snapped, he vanishing as Kenith breathed with tying a blindfold over his eyes and pulling out his cutlass as he spoke. "Eyes are overrated anyway for me right now. Rupture, Toketayama!" Gajeel was the first to react in ducking under one of the tables as the cutlass transformed into a freaking magma hammer.
"DUCK AND COVER!" And that is how the Thunder Legion and Laxus were met with utter defeat at the hands of a blinded Wizard with a molten hammer in his grip, the guild still intact from the battle that tore through the wanna-be revolution...
Alex breathed as he teleported elsewhere, the forested world and ruins telling him that he had landed on Tenrou Island and he breathed. "Welp, better than in the middle of the ocean, and I still haven't told anyone what had happened last teleport session." He shook his head with taking to a wander about, the monsters doing well in avoiding him as he continued to walk, he even walking right past a black-haired man in a robe before both paused and spoke, neither looking at the other.
"Congratulations, I guess, Zeref."
"For what... you being the one to kill me?"
"No, on August, I was surprised that a man with the curse could even have a child, let alone with a eternal child." The greenery started to die out as Zeref spoke.
"I have no family..."
"That is where you are wrong, Mavis gave life in her comatose state of life, she wasn't killed, just had her spirit removed from her body for a great deal of time, the curse having left her when you two shared in your love, but you are not free, you still tried to raise your own brother from the grave, a matter of necromancy," Alex spoke with hands in his pockets, still unaffected by the Death Curse trying to get its claws in him. "It's stupid, how many people believe that you are a dead man, fallen to the ages, yet your works continue to follow us throughout; The Demons of Zeref, the R-System, even that weakling Lullaby." He spoke with turning his head to the side, glancing at Zeref's back. "I have taken my time, I have read up and I have even gotten the grasps of Law itself, but I only ask one thing out of you, its true nature or its counter..." Alex faced forward as he spoke. "Would you be willing to remove all of your works from the world, untether your own brother from his presence as a Demon of Zeref known as Etherious Natsu Dragneel, would you be willing to love Mavis for real... in exchange for the Ankhseram Black Magic to be removed from your body..." Zeref hummed before he spoke.
"What have you to gain from doing this?" Alex shrugged as he spoke.
"Nothing, nothing whatsoever, but I suppose a favor is in order, so I have two." Alex raised his hand with two fingers up. "First, have Irene Belserion meet me here so I can remove her Dragon Root, if I store it with a phylactery of her choosing, then she will be mortal again, no longer bound to immortally." Zeref nodded as Alex put down a finger in speaking. "Second, meet with August and tell him that you now know and to apologize to him for neglecting him for all of these years, he is an old man now while you are still young."
"You have given me simple, but difficult tasks to perform, but I will... try, if you can lift the curse." Alex hummed with a nod as he turned and walked into the death, toward the Black Wizard and rested his hands on the robe as he spoke.
"This could have some feedback, so brace yourself..." Zeref nodded as Alex breathed and a magic sigil formed on Zeref's back, Alex going through it in quick and swift success, frowning as he spoke. "I got to hand it to Ankhseram, God or not, this is one spell I would rather not fool around with too much, but how desperate someone can be to revive their fallen loved ones or even controlling the fate of others, I am surprised with how Gods seem to keep all of the power, the best answer to defeating a God, bring in an antitheist, for Gods are nothing without worship and a antitheist makes it clear that they believe in no Gods." Zeref breathed before Alex bit his lip in speaking. "Here comes the final step, let's hoping this isn't too much energy..." He undid the last sigil and it all clicked as Zeref howled to a wellspring of power erupting from his body, tearing through the sky, as Alex was launched back, the process exhausting ten minutes of Zeref screaming from the pain before he breathed in kneeling down.
"The world... it feels... lighter now and..." A loud rumble filled the air as Zeref fell to his face with pained noises. "I am hungry! Why was it so much less painful as a immortal than being mortal, am I dying!?"
"If you are dying, then I am twelve feet under..." Alex voiced with raising a finger out of his hole in the ground before plopping it back down as he spoke. "Somehow, I envisioned releasing curses and freeing someone from it to be less explosive... Ah well, here's hoping that, when I remove the Dragon Root, I won't need hearing aids later, even with ear plugs in for the task...
Kenith breathed in handling the Thunder Legion Tribe, much of the guild taking shelter under the tables, with the girls as well as Kenith did not spare Evergreen in a bluff, his blinded sight somehow blazing a hateful glare into her soul before she got taken out with a fist to the face, he bashed the idols of Bickslow aside easily and showed intense strength in grabbing onto the helmet and crushing it with one hand, dropping him with a cracked helm.
Freed was swift in trying to stop Kenith, but even his Absolute Shadow was no match for the sheer strength and power of Kenith, before the blinded Kenith raised his hammer at Laxus before he tossed it aside as he spoke. "I have defeated your Legion, but I am not done, you want to be the most powerful, then you should know that while you can cause the world to erupt in flames, even when the materials of the world takes in your thunder..." He dashed with Laxus going Dragon Force to keep from getting ripped apart, he gasped in pain as his arm was pierced with sharpened nails as scales covered Kenith's arms and his robe back was ripped open to a pair of leathery wings from his back as Kenith finished, his jaw gritted as his teeth turned into fangs. "Your lightning will only pounded on my back, steadfast and strong, for I am not just a fighter, you face the heir of the Geo Dragon Hylus... His eyes blazed with energy as he roared. "I AM KENITH ARCTURUS, AND I BREAK THE THUNDER ACROSS MY BACK!"
Laxus quickly got his arm free and soared out of there, his magic gathering into his hands to get a shot off before Kenith appeared with the pound of his wings and slammed into Laxus hard as he roared. "Geo Dragon's Golden Charge!" The spell slammed into Kenith, but it did nothing in stopping him from drilling into Laxus and smashing into the ground, he standing up as his wings receded and his robe restored itself as he held up the arm of Laxus and dragged him back to the guild, the guild still under the tables as Kenith returned, tossing Laxus onto one of the tables as he spoke. "Punishment or not, a guild that doesn't stand together falls together. This division is only meant to be done among listening ears, not done as a physical problem, it's called talking to people about your opinions." He released the arm in going back over to the hammer and picking it up, it reverting back to his cutlass and he walked out of the guild with his blade returning back to its hold.
Levy paled at the level of ruin that had followed in the wake of Alex's departure as she spoke. "He wasn't this destructive when he beat you, he didn't just rip you apart, did he, Gajeel?"
"Shrimp, I can say for a fact that he wasn't, he was freaking casual about it all, but I guess it was a reality check they gave me, both in battle and in the guild, they work with the worst of behaviors to show what NOT to be, but are willing to better everyone else who are willing to learn." Gajeel answered with covering her with his body.
"That's good to know." Ur answered from another table, her arm slung over Juvia's shoulder and pressing her against her chest. "He also showed a focus on threats, if the Eye Magic they were using was any meaning, Evergreen's Stone Eyes would have kept the girls in stone and endangered us if he had gone for anyone else. Bickslow's Figure Eyes would have controlled him if he wasn't blindfolded, and Freed's Dark Ecriture may allow him to make runes in the air with his hand or blade, he'd still have to overcome Kenith and that kid is a one-man battalion, if I ever did see one."
"And I thought that Laxus was just caught off-guard when he kept getting a smackdown." Gray voiced, sadly being on the other side of Ur's hold. "If Kenith could use that much power and strength and come out of the fight without so much as a scratch, then how much does Alex have, really?"
"I don't know, Gray, and I don't want to find out, okay?" Natsu cowered from the upper floor, he in the least wrecked up location of the guild as Happy whimpered an 'Aye' from behind his shoulder while Lucy spoke, having joined Levy under the table.
"I mean, we saw what they could do, but I don't think they would direct it right at us, unless we were doing something VERY stupid." Team Natsu nodded as one and the Guild got the feeling that they would have to be sure of that strength before they could complain about their own problems again...