Prologue: The Invasion

June X781

Sage and Ash knew something was wrong before they had even reached the guild hall of Hidden Antler. The usual thick fog that wrapped around and twisted through the forest that surrounded the guild had thinned or disappeared altogether in some places. The building was still hidden by the thick trees that created the forest, but it still felt bare and out in the open without the guild master's magic fully in place.

They glanced at each other when they came to the large front doors of the hall and heard nothing inside it, prompting them both to drop their traveling packs and run inside. They each threw a door open, showing nothing inside except for empty tables and chairs, many of which had been lying on the floor as if people had jumped up from their seats too quickly.

Sage let her dark eyes linger on a tipped over pint glass, watching and listening to its remnants drip onto the floor.

Ash was the first to move, taking a few steps inside to see if there was someone hiding, or any clues had been left for them as to what had happened. He ran a hand through his thick, black hair as he let out a worried sigh upon seeing nothing of note or help in the hall.

"Sage, what could hav-"

His words were cut off when they both felt a deep rumble and what sounded like an explosion off in the distance. Ash turned just in time to see a flash of Sage's viridian hair before she had disappeared. He quickly took off after her, just managing to catch up with her as they ran down the mountainside they were located on.

It was easy to navigate running through the trees and down the slope without tripping or running into anything, as they had done this a million times over, having grown up in the guild and in the town of Iris that was located below the guild's location. It was like breathing to them.

They finally broke out of the forest to a cliff that overlooked the town. Homes were snuggled higher up against the mountainside with trees in between each one. The lower, flatter area that neared the beach was filled with businesses, shops and restaurants. All looked normal to the pair on the cliff, nothing burning or wrecked and none of the civilians were shouting or running.

Another explosion and rumble went off, catching their attention to the left of the town.

"The fjord!" was all Sage said before she took off again.

Ash ran with her this time, doing well to keep up with her until another explosion echoed, the two feeling it rumble more violently through their bodies as they got closer to the inlet. Sage pushed herself hard, using her magic to push the earth beneath her boots to help move her faster.

"Sage! Wait!"

But Ash's words fell on deaf ears as she began to pull away from him.

She saw fog begin to wisp around her, a sure indication that the guild master, her mother, was nearby. She could hear shouting off in the distance and she could feel magic pulsing through the air. Panic began to set in, even though she was hoping that she was wrong, and this was just some sort of drill her mother put into place. She so desperately wanted to ignore the giant nagging voice in her head that was telling her that this was no training drill and she better be prepared for whatever she was going to find.

She was panting hard when she saw the thinning of the forest and a rocky cliff not far off after the trees stopped. She held her breath as she ran past the last tree, knowing this would be the last moment of hope she had before she saw what was really going on.

'Please,' she thought, 'Please let everything be okay.'

But as she came to the edge of the fjord, nothing was okay. The usually calm and indigo colored water of the fjord was covered in a full-blown battle. Ships she didn't recognize had sailed in from the opening of the inlet where it met the ocean. Thicker fog filled the area, Sage knowing her mother had created it to give their guild cover during the battle. There were spells and mages launching out of the fog, raining down on the ships. The mages that had landed on the ships were fighting off the enemies, which were heavily armored and wielding larger swords or spears. She watched as one of the spears hit a mage's chest, exploding on contact and sending them flying back into the fog.

The wind picked up for a moment, blowing the irises that miraculously grew all along the cliffs and mountains that created the fjord. The soft, powdery scent of the flowers was so out of place in that moment that Sage had to shake her head to bring herself back to the present. She noticed that the wind also caused the ships' flags to unfurl, showing off the sigil of the Alvarez Empire.

Sage barely registered the panting that came from behind her before stopping next to her.

"Alvarez?! Why are they here?!"

She didn't answer Ash's question. Relations with the empire had been tense for some time, so an attack from them wouldn't be that surprising.

'But why here?!' she thought before her eyes followed along the fjord. It donned on her that they must have hoped they could secretly sneak into the country this way and start wiping them out. She was sure they hadn't counted on anyone being here to guard this area.

"We better help them."

Sage nodded in agreement, knowing they couldn't just stand there and watch any longer. But before they could take two steps, they watched as an all too familiar golden-haired man launch out from the fog. He had himself aimed at the head ship where a woman stood at the front. From the looks of it, she was the one in charge. She looked up and smiled widely at the man coming down towards her.

"No," Sage breathed out, "No, Arlo! Stop!"

But he didn't hear her. Those clear blue eyes that she loved so much didn't even flicker towards her. The face that was always waiting for her with a wide smile was now scowling down at the enemy. She could only watch as he aimed his light-filled fist at the woman. She knew that light. She had worked side by side with that light. She knew the power behind it.

And yet, she couldn't shake this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. The woman wasn't moving away or readying herself to block it. Instead, she grabbed a spear before grinning back up at Arlo. The woman clicked her teeth and then Sage's world crashed.

In the blink of an eye, the woman had moved from the ship to Arlo up in the sky, the spear shoved through his chest. He let out a heavy cough before slouching forward.

"Arlo," Sage said, feeling like the breath had been knocked out of her.

"No!" Ash said from behind her.

"No," she echoed Ash at first in a soft voice before the rage ignited, "NO! ARLO!"

Sage had been loud enough that time as the woman looked over and grinned widely at her. She flipped back to the ship after releasing Arlo's body, letting it fall to the water. Sage didn't think as she jumped off the edge, using her magic to create discs of earth to land on and jump from. When she finally reached the water, she stayed standing on a disc hovering just above it. She pulled Arlo out from the water just as a shadow crept up over her. She looked up to see the smiling face of the armored woman.

"None of you stood a chance."

Rage bubbled up in Sage again, wanting nothing more than to smack that grin off her face; but before either woman could make another move, one of the soldiers came up behind the woman.

"Lady Dimaria, we have received word to retreat."

"Retreat?!" she said, whipping her head around to look at him.

"Yes, ma'am. The order comes from our other team. Etherion was fired on them, and the Magic Council is now threatening to use Face if we do not fall back."

"Tch, how annoying!" she said, looking around at the battle that had just started. She barely got a taste of it and now they had to leave. There was the option of pushing forward despite the warning. The Magic Council may not know about her unit yet, but if they had been serious enough to use Etherion, she didn't want to test them on using Face. She finally gave in with a sigh, "Fine, I suppose we'll need to head back home then." She looked down at Sage again, "Consider yourself lucky, not that you would have been worth the energy to deal with."

After that, Dimaria shouted to her unit to retreat, throwing off any mages still trying to fight and turning the ships around.

Sage wanted to go after her, to rip her apart for what she had done. She wanted to be sick just watching the woman get to walk away freely, to see her smiling and laughing with her soldiers like nothing had just happened. But she felt the weight of Arlo's body in her arms and her attention was pulled down to him.

"Arlo, please," she said quietly, already feeling tears sliding down her face. She pushed his wet hair out of his face, "Please open your eyes," she said, patting his cheek a few times. His head only lolled over in response. A sob passed through her lips as she hugged him close, "I'm sorry," she managed to say through her tears.

She stayed that way until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She managed to pull herself away from Arlo and looked up to see Ash. He was barely holding back tears as he bent down to their level.

She heard a loud laugh off in the distance, coming from the way the ships left. Her rage flared again, an inferno burning in her chest upon hearing that laugh come from that woman. She handed over Arlo to Ash before standing up, ignoring the smears of blood that had seeped into her clothes. She created new steppingstones of earth, jumping up to each one until she was back at the top of the cliff.

She took off running along the fjord, breaking away from the fog and the battle and the loss, letting her anger fuel her every step. She was practically gliding across the ground by the time she reached the edge that faced the open ocean. She looked down to see Dimaria and her ships heading towards a few larger ships that they must have embarked from. She could see the woman talking with her men with an easy smile, and Sage saw red.

"Dimaria!"

The ships went quiet as everyone looked up at Sage.

"I'll make sure you pay! For everything you did here today! I'll make sure of it!"

Dimaria stared up at her for a long moment before waving her off, "Sure you will."

Sage felt her teeth clench so hard she thought they were going to break before she let out a long breath. She then slammed a foot on the ground as she drew squares in the air with both hands, "Cubed Earth!" she shouted as a large, green magic circle appeared. Rumbling filled the area as two giant cubes of earth carved themselves out of the cliff Sage stood on. She didn't give the enemy any time to gawk at the cubes as she launched them towards the boats.

One fell just short of Dimaria's ship, but the other was on track to hit it. Sage watched as the woman looked surprised for just a moment before she clicked her teeth. In an instant, she moved from her smaller boat to the deck of one of the larger ships. The cube continued forward and smashed the smaller boat to pieces, taking down a number of the soldiers on board with it.

Sage's hate for this woman grew as she watched her easily move out of the way and let her men go down without helping them. The two women stared each other down for another long moment before Dimaria gave Sage a salute and turned away from her, clearly indicating she was done with her.

As the ships began to sail away, Sage felt herself slump to the ground, feeling more defeated than she ever had in her life. She glared down at the ground and punched it a few good times, bloodying her knuckles in the process.

"Dimariaaaaaaaa!"

The shout echoed across the fjord and out into the ocean, Sage being certain that the woman heard her cry one last time. She let herself crumble then and there, hating the fact that the only thing left for her to do now was to go back and face the loss that was waiting for her. But she promised herself what she said was true. One day, she would bring down Dimaria.

Author's Note

Hello!

All the details and form for this story will be on my profile. So, there won't be much info here.

But yes, this will be an SYOC story. I've seen some for Fairy Tail and wanted to do one myself as I have been rewatching Fairy Tail recently. Hopefully there will be some of you interested in this! I'm pretty excited about things and am looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

That's mostly it for here. I know this note and chapter are pretty short, but it's just the prologue for now and chapters should get longer from here. And again, all the details and form and things will be on my profile, so please make sure to go there for all that stuff.

Can't wait for your characters and to get things started!