Seph had barely gotten any sleep the night before the third day of the Grand Magic Games because she had been thinking far too hard about how the second day had gone. She hadn't had an episode, luckily, but it made her wonder if she would have one the next day when she would wake up. She wondered about her nightmares, which had gone away for a little bit like usual… and she had started crying at some point when she couldn't sleep like she usually would. It was only when she couldn't sleep and she thought of the times when she was very little, when her Mother would sing lullabies to her in order to help her sleep. Sometimes her Father would sing to her, but only when her Mother was busy.

She slept for a couple of hours before having to get up, in which Laxus obviously noticed, but he couldn't really do anything about it. She just… couldn't stop thinking about some things, so she hoped that the games would distract her from them. She was definitely distracted by the fact that many members from the Magic Council were running around, but… at least it kept her alert. Less alert than when the Master scared all of them by explaining what he meant by the event of the third day being a haunted house. Seph knew what Pandemonium meant, but he still had to go there. He had scared everyone, not just her.

Seph wasn't really surprised by what they did using magic during the games anymore, although mostly when they were creating fields for the events, but she didn't understand why the castle they created was left upside down and not simply created upright. There were a hundred monsters inside as well, so she wondered if that's just how physics worked with these kinds of things, but honestly… just the D class monsters looked fairly strong and the monsters were leveled D, C, B, A and S.

"Even though he says they're just magical manifestations, if you get attacked by them, you're hurt for real, right?" Happy asked a little nervously, in which Seph hummed a little bit to agree with that logic.

This seemed to be more of a counting game with the power of the monsters and the power of the contestants, though. They had the right to challenge as many monsters as they deemed fit and they were drawing sticks that gave them numbers. Erza got number one while Cana got number eight and Seph didn't think too much about it… not until Erza exercised her right to challenge all one hundred monsters. She didn't hesitate and she didn't stutter. She didn't even go for a necessary fifty-one so that no one could top the amount of points she had. She just… went straight for all one hundred of the monsters as if she was making a statement with it.

Even with the D class monsters looking tough, that didn't mean that the other classes didn't. It wasn't like that at all. In fact, it was almost like they grew in size and scariness as the rank of them went up, and obviously by strength as well. This was the first time Seph was seeing Erza in action, though, and with her fast Requipping-type magic, Seph had a feeling that the red-headed mage would be able to hold on. She sent an omni-directional attack out first and Seph brightened up almost immediately, clapping her hands together and lifting them up to her mouth.

"Was she trying to demolish them all at once?" Romeo asked, in which Seph quickly opened her mouth to reply. She felt bad because she noticed the First Master going to reply as well, but she talked too quickly to even be able to think of stopping herself.

"No! By doing an omni-directional attack, she learned the responses, the abilities, and the defensive capabilities of each and every rank monster that's currently there. After all, this isn't something you can just wing and I was a little shocked at her exercising her right to challenge by challenging all one hundred, but it seems that she knows what she's doing." Seph got out as slowly as she possibly could, causing a lot of people to go quiet. She noticed the First Master smiling at her and felt like some sort of fan girl, just a little bit… and then Happy spoke up to break the silence.

"Well, of course! She's Erza, after all!" He stated, bringing everyone to laugh. Seph felt her cheeks heat up upon realizing that she had probably spoke a bit too much and was going to keep quiet with a steady smile pulling at her lips, but she was asked a question not too long after Happy's statement.

"You're really into this, aren't you?" Carla asked with a light laugh, in which Seph couldn't help but nod. She felt her stutter coming back, but it was still stuck because of her joy over explaining such things.

"I've read a lot of books about strong Mages, y'know? I read one on Requip Magic awhile back, but I've never really seen a Mage using it before… I'm just excited to see it so close-up and Erza seems to know how to use it well, as her Requip speed seems a little beyond anything recorded down before." Seph explained before pausing, then adding more. "Of course, I read a lot of ancient books instead of up-to-date ones, so… I could be wrong…" A hum from behind her made her take a look, noticing Levy shrugging a bit.

"I don't think you are. Erza is pretty strong." She said, gaining many hums of agreement.

Things went silent again as everyone went back to watching Erza on the Lacrima Vision screens and Seph couldn't help but relax because she felt so… in-place. She wasn't getting shoved around for being a bookworm or pushed down with any of her knowledge or ideas. It felt pretty good, honestly.

Erza had knocked down plenty of the D class monsters, including around five of the C-class monsters already, so it would seem that she was on a roll. With the omni-directional attack, she would've also been able to calculate which armor to use against which monster and that was more than enough to get her on a roll in destroying all one hundred monsters. She had obviously taken some damage, but considering some things that Seph had heard about Erza from Laxus and the Raijinshuu, she didn't think that Erza was anywhere near pure exhaustion. It was magnificent in Seph's eyes. Erza had such strength and fast judgement when it came to Requipping against opponents… and with the confidence to back that up… She was quite a wonderful Mage.

She had already cut down half of the monsters. Her every move was polished with not a movement wasted. Even if she looked pretty beat up and exhausted, all she needed was a couple of moments to catch her breath and regain a bit of her lost magic power before rushing back into battle once again. She appeared so fearless that Seph wondered if it was true, that she was really the "terrifying Titania". She didn't appear to be scary… She was just really powerful and smart, using an A-class monster's weight against it to have it struck down.

Seph didn't know Erza all too well, but she had little to no doubt that she would be able to win against the one hundred challenged monsters. She looked so calm and so steady, even when facing the S-class monster one-on-one. It was the last monster, the strongest one, and she looked determined to defeat it. She had come so far …

Seph could see that Erza's concentration and sense of tension had doubled upon meeting the highest ranked monster. Even after being thrown around a couple of times by it, she sliced its hands apart as if they weren't bigger than her or stronger than her. They probably weren't stronger with how easily she got through them with her swords, but Seph couldn't tell quite properly from how fast the red-headed Mage was moving. She didn't just stop with the hands either, not even after being beaten down… even though she probably should've fallen, she soared much like a fairy full of determination.

That's why she was given the title of Titania… She was just like a dignified scarlet flower in all of its glory… Nobody held a candle to her.

Seph couldn't help but let a few tears escape her eyes at the sight of the determined warrior, holding her sword to the sky in victory and standing simply as if she was just setting up to be painted. She was injured, that was for sure, but she was still standing… and it was amazing.

After all was said and done, and Erza was taken to the infirmary, they set up another small event to rank the rest of the teams. It was a simple Magic Power Finder, or MPF, in which Seph had seen before and knew about, but she supposed that it was fair.

Millianna from Mermaid Heel went up first, using a peculiar type of magic, and got up to a fairly good score of 365. It was a level high enough to make someone a captain or a leader of something important.
Nobarly from Quatro Cerberus… well, Quatro Puppy… was next up got a score of 124, which wasn't as high as Millianna, but it was still a good score. It was good enough score for a co-captain or co-leader, or something of the sort.
Hibiki of Blue Pegasus went next and got a kind of low score, ninety-five, and Seph felt a little bad, but… Honestly, it wasn't that bad. He was still pretty strong in other ways, as Seph could see from before that he used Archive Magic. He was more intellectual than powerful and that was okay. Intellect was a good thing to have.
Up fourth was Obra of Raven Tail, who got a suspiciously low score of merely four. Seph didn't believe it for one second and with the tension in the air, she knew that the others didn't believe it either. He was the one who attacked Wendy and Carla, after all.
While Millianna was in the lead, Orga from Sabertooth stepped up and took the spot from her by landing a high score of 3825. It was the highest they had all seen so far, but Seph didn't know what to say besides the fact that it was the highest score she had seen ever. However, she had an odd feeling that it wasn't going to stay that way for long…
With Jura from Lamia Scale, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, stepping up to the MPF… Seph could already feel her tiny whiskers tingling from the Magic power he was letting drift into the air as he prepared himself. He put tremendous pressure on the air and came out with an unsurprising score of 8544…

Seph wasn't surprised because he was one of the Ten Wizard Saints and she knew a lot about them, and very well. She was just worried about Cana, who was flat-faced drunk at this point and still drinking from a bottle. She was supposed to be concentrating, but she was so care-free… However, the moment she stripped her jacket to reveal a mark on her arm that Seph was sure she had seen in a book before, everyone seemed to be leaning over in anticipation for how strong this would be.

Seph was nearly shocked into unconsciousness upon seeing that the MPF had been destroyed, smashed to pieces, and the counter had been forced to stop at the highest it could count: 9999. She honestly wanted to ask what this Guild was, but… She was a member of it now, so there was no point. She'd just hear a response that she would already be expecting: because it's Fairy Tail.

They moved onto the battle of part of the day and while Seph was hyped, very excited from the events that happened before; she was still a little worried that something was going to happen. She tried not to think about it as Millianna from Mermaid Heel and Semmes from Quatro Puppy took the field, but it kept nagging at the back of her mind even as Millianna won and the next pair was brought forth. It was Eve Term from Blue Pegasus against Rufus Lore from Sabertooth and Seph did her best to pay attention even with the thoughts running through her head. She took deep breaths to ground herself, merely watching with a frown as Rufus brought Eve down despite Eve doing his best to defeat the Sabertooth member.

Seph found out where her bad feeling was coming from, though, just as they announced the next match-up. It all made sense when she found out that the next match would be her partner, Laxus, against a Raven Tail member by the name of Alexei who just screamed suspicion. Lily put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from freaking out, however, motioning over to Warren before pointing up to a ledge so she could catch sight of Bisca. The woman was keeping her eye on the Master of Raven Tail, Ivan, and Lily pointed up to somewhere else, where the Raijinshuu and Lisanna were keeping an eye on Raven Tail's team members. It helped her stay at ease a little bit…

No one was going to mess with her partner and get away with it.

… That's what Seph wanted to say, but the moment the match started and Laxus got punched, she accidentally let out a scream. Everyone had jumped and she slapped her hands over her mouth to apologize, feeling Lily rubbing her back to try and comfort her. No one said anything, no one told her to shut up and deal with it like she had kind of expected even after seeing how kind this Guild turned out to be, and she wanted to close her eyes. She wanted to wait until the match was over because she felt useless having to just stand there and watch, but she couldn't… There was something that was telling her to keep watching, to stay alert, almost as if there was something wrong. There had to be something wrong because Laxus should've been balanced with this Alexei guy, but he wasn't turning out to be.

There was something wrong, but Seph just couldn't tell what it was and she felt absolutely, purely useless as she watched her partner get tossed around. Ivan wasn't doing anything… the Raven Tail team members weren't doing anything crooked… What was going on!? There was no way that Alexei was that powerful! She just had to focus, she just had to know or she was going to freak…

But she couldn't feel their souls, no matter how hard she tried, and that added to her feeling of something being wrong.

"I can't feel them!" She let out without being able to stop herself, knowing that everyone was looking at her. She was scared, absolutely and completely just terrified of what was going on.

"What? What can't you feel?" Lily asked, firmly gripping her shoulder to help keep her grounded. Seph closed her eyes, trying to see if she could feel anything that way or maybe even see their souls, but jack crud came up.

"I… I can't feel their souls! I can't see their souls!" Seph replied, on the verge of freaking out if she wasn't doing so already. She probably was already freaking out, honestly. "It's this thing I do, this kind of Magic I have or something… I-I can't explain it, but I just can't feel them or see them!"

She started to hit herself in the head like usual when she freaked out over these kinds of things. Something was obviously wrong, she had basically just told them that, but no one could possibly know what. What if she thought she was crazy…? Then, Lily suddenly grabbed her wrists, holding her hands in front of her firmly, but gently, so she would stop hitting herself. She couldn't pay attention, though, not when she didn't understand what was going on. Laxus had a soul, she could feel it before, but all of the sudden he didn't and Alexei didn't have one either… She couldn't think straight at all!

"You need to calm down. You're freaking out, so your magic is probably messing up and if you keep going like this, then you'll probably end up in another episode." Lily told her calmly, motioning as he guided her to take deep breaths and keeping her hands in front of them so she wouldn't hit herself. If she moved them to do so, he quickly put them back in place. She didn't know how to feel, but she did her best to try and calm down. "I'm sure he'll be fine, just give it time."

"… O-Okay…" She managed to get out, nearly choking on that one small word.

"Laxus!"

Seph flinched under the Master's loud voice, but still looked up nonetheless to see him holding up his hand in a certain way. She didn't know what it meant or what significance it held, but it was obviously something important. She hadn't even realized that she had been crying, but once she clicked in and felt the tears, she lifted a hand to quickly wipe them away, placing a hand on Lily's shoulder.

"… I'm okay now…" She reassured him, backing away a little bit. He caught her hand, gently squeezing it and keeping a hold of it once she squeezed it back, giving him a small smile back from his own. "… Thanks…"

"It's no problem." He responded truthfully, a little to her surprise, waiting for her to turn her attention back to the match before he went back to watching it himself.

It was just then that Seph felt something in the air before feeling a piece of Magic break, watching the match fade away as if it was an illusion—which it most likely was—to reveal Laxus standing above all the team members of Raven Tail, including the Master of the Guild. He had beaten them down like they were nothing and came out the victor. She didn't know what she had felt… perhaps a little stupid for not realizing it and breaking down into tears because she couldn't understand what was going on, but… She felt really proud and relieved as well. He was okay… Laxus was okay!

"I told you so." Lily chuckled, in which Seph's hand slipped from his. He freaked out a little bit, thinking that he had done something wrong, but then Seph suddenly hugged him tightly. He nearly fell over from the shock, but managed to hug her back a little bit before she pulled away. He was ready to tell her that it was okay upon thinking that maybe she felt dumb for doing so, but the way her eyes sparkled with relief and joy and the way her smile took up her whole face beautifully… It made him go silent.

"You were right, I feel so stupid!" She laughed, making him let out a small snort. She was hopping up and down like a child. "Of course he won, it's Laxus! Why wouldn't he!? He's so cool!"

Lily couldn't help but tune out everything else in favor of listening to the excited, joyful girl in front of him. She didn't just look that way, she sounded so… ecstatic. It just pulled him in and he had to listen until she didn't really have much else to say and the games were getting a move onto the next match of the day. It was also the final one and it was between Wendy from their Fairy Tail Team A and a girl named Chelia Blendy from Lamia Scale.

However, as both contestants took the field, the pair of them tripped over small rocks sticking up on the battlefield and ended up falling face-first into the ground. They greeted each other down there and then stood up to face each other, in which many of the spectators were laughing over the little dispute. It was a very short-lived light feeling before the pair started to fight, which left a very heavy, serious feeling in the air. They were both fairly balanced, but with Chelia's magic… She overtook Wendy just by a little bit. They both looked small and cute, but the amount of magic power they both carried was much stronger and bigger than they would first appear.

Of course, having a small body and powerful magic sometimes backfired. Seph knew that well… but Wendy and Chelia seemed to have their magic under control.

They were two wizards, both wielding Wind Magic, and Chelia might have been one rank higher, but… Strictly speaking, it was technically Sky Magic. It had to do with the air and because both Dragon Slayers and God Slayers ate their elements, Wendy and Chelia were able to re-establish their Magic Power levels by eating their air… in a way. Wendy ate enough to gather most of her magic, if not all, to use the Secret Art for her kind of Dragon Slayer Magic. It was a marvel to witness, everyone watching as Chelia fell to the ground and Wendy kept standing with all of her strength…

And then Chelia stood back up, healing her injuries with her magic as if it was nothing. Wendy could barely stand and it was hard to watch, but no one could say anything. It was Wendy's choice to keep going, to refuse to surrender… and she'd never admit it out loud at the moment, but Seph admired Wendy's brave choice to do that. She wished that she could resemble Wendy's bravery, even in the slightest, but she couldn't…

Chelia planned to end the match with one more hit to "make it easy" on Wendy, but her strongest attack… somehow missed. She had the right accuracy up until now, so why did that…? Oh. Chelia could only heal her wounds with her magic, not her magic power itself. Wendy was the opposite, unable to heal herself but able to restore another person's strength.

Wendy revived Chelia's physical strength and because of that, Chelia's magic gained too much force. Wendy had made her miss by increasing her strength! It was a really amazing strategy to come up with, especially within such the short time that she had. Both girls continued to fight, neither side giving any ground. It was a clash of little fists, tenacity for the sake of their Guilds… although their fists were small, their passion was vast, and thirty minutes passed by much more quickly than anyone had thought they would.

Wendy and Chelia brought in the first tie of the Grand Magic Games this year. They both stood and shook hands, giving each other sweet smiles that would make everyone believe they hadn't just been fighting.

Then, the third day of the Grand Magic Games ended.

Seph felt quiet uneasy when Laxus told her they needed to go somewhere, but she knew it was only because he didn't want her to be left alone at the bar with all of their other Guild mates. No matter how much he trusted them to not hurt her; he just wanted to make sure that she would be okay, so he took her along with him to go meet up with the Master. Seph had a vague clue of where they were going and who they were meeting, but not why. So, when Laxus looked so tense upon the Master arriving, she found herself being tense as well.

"Gramps…" Laxus started, his arms crossed over his chest and one foot against the wall behind him. Makarov waited patiently and Seph held onto the pant leg of the foot that stayed on the ground. "What's Lumen Histoire?" Seph had a very sharp, odd feeling that she had heard that before and who she was sure she had heard it from… She didn't think that it was a good thing, considering who she had heard talking about it briefly a year or so ago.

"You heard this from Ivan?" Makarov questioned, knowing that his son was up to no good. Seph felt like Lumen Histoire itself was no good. Laxus scoffed a little bit.

"Heard about it?" He asked with a slight growl. "All I know is that he wanted it badly."

"That brat will be the end of me…" Makarov sighed, standing with his arms behind his back. Whether it was to support his back or to show that he was not to be messed with, Seph couldn't tell. She didn't think that the Master would threaten his own Grandson or anything, but… She could never be sure anymore.

"He called it "Fairy Tail's darkness"." Laxus told his Grandfather, in which Seph felt her breath hitch. She had almost heard Laxus' voice as a different one and she really didn't want to do that…

"It's not darkness."

Seph jumped, feeling like she was about to jump nearly five feet into the air, upon hearing the First Master's voice. She clung to Laxus' leg, worried that this was something she shouldn't know about… It could be dangerous for her to know too much, but what did she have to know about that whole situation? Her entire life was one, big… kerfuffle.

"Lumen Histoire… That's our Guild's light." Mavis stated, in which Makarov quickly stepped forward.

"First Master, you mustn't!" He warned her, and she gave him a soft smile.

"I know. Only the Master of this Guild had the right to know about it." She told him, allowing him to sigh in relief. She turned to both Laxus and Seph, watching as Seph shrunk behind Laxus' leg a little bit. "Laxus and Seph, do you understand?"

"If it ain't anything weird, then I won't bother looking into it." Laxus promised her. Seph paused under pressure for a moment before nodding to agree with Laxus, even if she was curious. She was better off not knowing, after all…

"But where did Ivan get ahold of that information?" Makarov sort of asked himself, looking deep in thought. Seph knew where he most likely heard of it, but she wasn't sure if she should speak or not… She was glad that the First Master brought up a name because it was most likely that it was Precht, a former Fairy Tail Guild Master and the Master of Grimoire Heart.

"I never imagined that Precht would fall to the dark side. And now, as a result of my shallow-brained selection…" Mavis trailed off, in which Makarov quickly stepped in.

"No. It's not your fault, First Master." He reassured her, only for her to argue against him.

"It is my fault." She stated, starting to cry. The three of them freaked out at the sight of the First Master crying, none of them knowing what to do.

"G-Gramps, what do we do!?" Laxus asked, unsure if he should reach out to her or not. Could you touch a ghost!?

"I'm not crying! Not at all!" Mavis told them suddenly, although it was obvious that she was nearly bawling her eyes out. "I'm not… crying…"

"Laxus, go on, hug her!" Makarov ordered. Seph listened as Laxus yelled back.

"That hurdle's too high!"

She really wasn't prepared for all of this…

A/N: Yo, y'all, I am so friggin' excited for the Fairy Tail Dragon Cry movie! After the Steven Universe bomb ended so abruptly, emotionally and shockingly, I need some good Fairy Tail in my life. NaLu is confirmed, after all, haha! I'm very excited, just thought I should talk a bit, but I hope that you enjoyed this chapter of growing affection and trouble to come..