"He's something else…" Aira said as she placed her hands over Kair's body, using her healing magic to heal the angel mage, who was now in her normal form.
"His exceed is annoying…" Luke scoffed.
"I need to get stronger…" Kairi mumbled as she winced, feeling Aira's healing starting to do its work.
"You are okay though, right?" Heather asked with a bit of concern.
"I'm fine…" Kairi nodded.
"You'll get him next time, no doubt!" Aira said with an affirmative nod.
"You all better start training, actually," Reve said as he walked into the main room with a newspaper article.
"Eh?" Luke blinked a few times. "What'cha got there, Reve?"
"Read it, and find out, Cloud…heh…" Reve then tossed the paper to the copycat mage, who caught it.
Luke then started to read from paper, a smirk slowly coming across his face as he read. "Grand Magic Games starting soon! No doubt all guilds in Fiore will come to the X792 Grand Magic Games in attempt to see which guild is truly number one in Fiore! With the knowing rivalry between Fairy Tail and White Eclipse, we're bound to see some interesting matches! More details to come…"
"Grand Magic Games, eh?" Jack grinned slightly. "Heh, I'm glad I'm around to witness it this time!"
"It's coming pretty soon, but I recommend we start planning things out, no?" Zalen asked as he fixed his glasses.
"First thing in the morning, I want to see you all training." Reve demanded.
"You can count on that!" Luke grinned. "It's about time we get to show EVERYONE that White Eclipse is number one!"
"I'm with ya there!" Cygnus grinned, nodding.
"You all know the saying!" Kuro said as he walked in from his room, only coming out because he heard White Eclipse hyping themselves up. "It's White Eclipse…"
"Or second place!" The members shouted in unison, throwing their fingers in the air in the shape of a W.
.
.
"Why aren't my attacks connecting!?" Cynthia growled in agitation as all of her fire based attacks were deflected by the masked Alex.
"You cannot defeat me like that…" Alex replied while shaking her head, her sadistic smile hidden by the mask that covered her face. Alex turned her attention in the incoming Eve, and shifted her entire arm into a deadly blade, parrying Eve's slashes with relative ease, jumping back to gain some distance.
Cynthia couched down, red fire trailing behind her arms. "Wing Slash of the Omega Fire Dragon!" Cynthia then lunged forward, landing a hit on Alex as the red fire slashed her, sending her sliding back.
"You hit me…!?" Alex gasped, the idea of Cynthia being able to hit her, let along her hurt, seeming foreign to her.
"You're not invincible!" Cynthia replied as a smirk appeared on her lips.
"Neither are you…but…" Alex looked to Eve, then to Cynthia, and sighed slightly to herself, seeing this battle a difficult one. "I suppose I'll just have to return at a later time, then…" Alex turned around, then sprinted off, leaving the two girls standing there in bewilderment.
"What…what just happened…?" Cynthia blinked a few times.
"I do not know, but I do know that the intruder is gone, and that there is little point in pursuing, as there was no damage done to anything within the Council building." Eve nodded, and then started to walk off.
"W-Wait…you're going back down there?" Cynthia sighed.
"I must." Eve nodded before walking back down the basement.
"I…Okay…" Cynthia frowned and started her trek home. "…I have to take a train, don't I…"
Outside the magic council HQ, within Era, Alex took her mask off, growling slightly. "She's actually gotten stronger…that will make carrying out father Aiden's wish a little more difficult than I intended…" Alex then started walking throughout the area, planning out her next move until the other members of Cosmic Star appeared.
"Alex!" Gaia growled slightly, realizing it was the white-haired one instead of the usual red head.
"Oh, hi, Gaia," Alex mumbled as she gave a wave.
"What are you doing here?" Yakuza asked while chewing on a piece of ice.
"I don't really have to explain myself to any of you, do I? Something here caught my interest, and I decided to check it out," Alex replied.
"You see why I hate this one?" Daryan groaned.
Gaia reached over, flicking Alex's forehead, causing the white hair to vanish and replace with the red hair. "Enough of that."
The red hair Alex looked around tiredly, yawning. "Morning…Where are we…?"
.
.
"You did what?" Jellal asked with widened eyes as he glanced over at Ultear.
"I had to apologize to that guild somehow," Ultear replied.
"You're lucky they were generous…" Jellal sighed. "Anyway, we need to think on what we are going to do next."
"Tartaros and Silent Sanctum are the real issues here, right?" Meredy asked as she brought her knees to her chest.
"There hasn't been much Tartaros activity latey…" Jellal brought hand to his chin as he began to think about it. "When you think about it, I'm not quite sure it's a good thing, either…"
"Silent Sanctum has gone pretty dark as well…" Ultear crossed her arms, tapping her foot on the ground.
"They have Siegrain under their control; I bet they're just waiting for a chance to strike…" Jellal replied, grunting slightly.
"So what do we do?" Meredy pouted slightly, unable to come up with any ideas.
"It wouldn't be a good idea to snoop around either of those two guilds…the three of us wouldn't be able to handle it; not after what happened to Meredy and I…" Jellal let out a sigh.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens then…" Ultear nodded.
.
.
Heather and Cygnus were now facing off, not in a fight, but a different kind of battle. The two wanted to see whose poison was the strongest, though Luke and a few others already predicted the outcome. Heather filled a cup with poison, and then slid it over to Cyg, narrowing her eyes at the demi-god. "Drink up."
"You think I won't?" Cygnus smirked slightly, grabbing the cup off the table and chugged it down within seconds, placing the cup back on the table. Though he was practically unaffected, the demi-god found himself stifling a cough, because the poison was a little spicier than he thought it would be. "That all? My turn." Cygnus then filled a cup with black poison, and slid it over to Heather, who took one whiff, and started to fan the scent away from her.
"Ugh…what kind of poison is this…?" Heather said with a disgusted face at the smell.
"You don't have to drink it if you don't want to. Just remember the bet," Cygnus said with a smug grin.
"Tch," Heather grabbed the cup, and drank all of the godly poison, placing it down after. "Boom."
Cygnus stared wide eyed; completely in shock that Heather was able to down his poison. "I…"
Heather coughed, but she held a victorious smirk nonetheless. "No subs for a week! Boom!"
.
.
Inside Tartaros castle, the members of Silent Sanctum, minus Aloysius, met with Daityas and his members, along with the two Grimoire Heart members residing in the castle, mainly as slaves for the most part, Rustyrose and Zancrow. "Impressive palace you have here, Daityas," Jikan said with an approving nod.
"Ah, Master Jikan, I'm glad to see you could make it," Daityas grinned slightly. "And your members as well."
"Of course, I wouldn't be one to miss this," Jikan nodded, looking towards the members of Tartaros after. "Oh…I see Ur Mlikovich is alive and well…Quite funny, seeing as how Ultear Mlikovich is also doing quite well, I must say."
"Ultear?" Ur looked towards Jikan with interest. "And how is she doing?"
"Oh, she's fine, quite youthful; though I'm afraid she's aligned herself with the wrong crowd…" Jikan replied. "It's only a matter of time, however. But, I don't believe you called us down here to talk about Ultear, of course."
"That would be correct; the real matter at hand is this," Daityas started as he began to walk across the room. "Since Grimoire Heart is out of the game, Silent Sanctum and Tartaros are the two most powerful dark guilds in Fiore, and beyond. I am well aware of the temporary alliance your guild had with some of my members several months ago, which is why I am here to request a formal alliance between our two guilds, so when the time comes, we will be a near unstoppable force, of course."
"I would be a fool to dent this preposition." Jikan merely replied. "And how does the one in the back feel about all this?"
"As if I give a shit what he thinks." Daityas scoffed. "He's the one who's choosing to sit and do nothing with that book of his. I'm the one making Fiore and the rest of the world fear our name."
"Hah. So be it." Jikan said with a small laugh. The inner workings of Tartarus didn't really effect him in the end. But he was amused by the conflict.
"An alliance with Tartaros again? Sweet!" Byron grinned.
"Yay, more playmates for Sora!" Sora exclaimed excitedly and threw her arms up into the air happily.
"Excellent. Feel free to acquaint yourselves with the other members, and I'll let you know when we make our first move."
.
.
"That was crazy…" Cynthia groaned as she pushed the front doors open to Fairy Tail, only lasting about three seconds before she was tackle hugged to the ground by Wendy. "Wah! Wendy!"
"You're back!" Wendy said with a happy grin. "Nothing bad happened to you while you were over there, right?"
"Well…I met some girl named Eve, and she and I fought some intruder!" Cynthia nodded. "Other than that, nothing happened!"
"So, Siegrain kept his word then?" Erza asked rather curiously as Wendy and Cynthia stood up.
"Mhm! He did, I was kinda surprised, but it doesn't seem like the Council is after me anymore!" Cynthia nodded, a huge grin plastered on her face.
"That's great!" Lucy clapped her hands together rather excitedly.
Makarov cleared his throat, a grin appearing on his face as he held up a newspaper article. "Now that we have that wonder news out of the way, I'd like everyone to take a look at this!"
"What's it say?" Natsu asked as he rushed over to Makarov, eying the newspaper. After scanning the paper for about three seconds, only three words caught the Salamander's attention as a large grin appeared on his face. "GRAND MAGIC GAMES!"
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about it!" Wendy grinned.
"Heh, another chance to show everyone that Fairy Tail is number one!" Gray smirked, but he was already down to his black boxers before he even started speaking.
"Giehe, I've been waiting quite a while for this…" Gajeel said with a smirk as he placed a fist into his palm. "It's about time we finally showed those White Eclipse chumps who's in charge here, ne?"
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Gajeel!" Natsu grinned.
Just then, the door to Fairy Tail opened, and who be it but White Eclipse to stroll in like they owned the place, well, that was more Reve, but regardless. "Well, well…getting hyped up are we?" Reve said as he smirked at all the Fairies in the guild.
"Second Family!" Cynthia said with a larger grin.
"YOU NEARLY KILLED US ALL WE DON'T LOVE YOU." Reve shouted.
"YES YOU DO!" Cynthia replied.
"…Anyway…" Reve coughed. "Don't bother trying, White Eclipse is gonna take that number one spot, you know."
"That's what you think!" Lucy shouted, a smirk appearing over her lips as the blonde spoke with confidence. "We kept our number one spot against you once, and we'll do it again too! Against all the guilds!"
"What she said!" Macao said in agreement.
"Heh, that's cute…you think things won't change after over half a year…" Reve rolled his sleeves up, his classic disrespectful habit.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Reve," Luke said with a grin. "If they want us to embarrass them, let them."
"That's the spirit, Luke," Reve chuckled.
"You two really think you're hot shit, eh?" Laxus asked as he raised a brow. "Just because you tied with Erza, and managed to gain a victory over me?"
"When you put it like that, you're really making us sound better than basically every other guild," Reve replied. "But don't worry, Laxus, I'll get you too, since you seem to be so upset about it."
"You'll have to beat me first!" Natsu replied.
"Oh, I can do that again if you'd like?" Cygnus said as a confident smirk appeared on his lips.
"You wanna go, Cygnus!?" Natsu shouted as his fist engulfed in flames.
"I would, but there's someone else who has a score to settle with ya, right, Tak?" Cygnus asked as Takeru appeared from Cygnus' shadow, his arms crossed as he looked towards the Salamander.
"You beat me once, we tied, and now, in our next fight, it will be nothing but a victory for me, and White Eclipse," Takeru nodded.
"I'll take you on right now, Takeru!" Natsu's angry disposition turned into a smirk; he loved the thought of going against Takeru once again, and he already promised to himself that he would defeat the Shadow Dragon Slayer again.
"Not yet, at the Grand Magic Games, Salamander," Takeru grinned smugly, knowing Natsu was impatient, and that the wait would kill him.
"Ara ara…" Mirajane sighed. "You honestly think Fairy Tail will lose? I find that kind of cute…but I suppose that everyone has to have the wildest of dreams sometimes…"
"Heh, well said, Mirajane," Freed nodded in agreement.
"Couldn't have said it any better myself, baby," Bickslow chuckled as he let his signature laugh.
"A Man will not lose to someone such as White Eclipse!" Elfman nodded, holding his arm up in a manly fashion.
"I'm more a man than you, because I beat you, remember?" Cygnus's smugness rose to an all-time high and this only angered the beast takeover mage.
"A Man will fix his mistakes, understand!?" Elfman growled at Cygnus.
"Easy there, Mr. Man," Luke said while waving a hand. "We're not here to cause trouble, we're just here to tell you how things are going to pan out in a few weeks, got it?"
"Oh, and Titania…" Reve smirked as he pointed his hands towards Erza in the shape of a gun.
"Reve…" Erza cut her eyes towards the gun requip mage, glaring towards him.
"Things won't go like they did in our fight; I'll have six shots ready, and they'll all be for you….bang…" Reve "clicked" the trigger on his handgun, smirking.
"Besides, you all know the slogan," Takeru nodded. "It's White Eclipse…"
"Or second place!" The mages shouted confident grins, after words, the White Eclipse members left Fairy Tail.
"I forgot how much I hated those guys…" Gray scowled slightly.
"Heh, that's good, Gray," Natsu said as he stepped onto a table, flames covering his body. "It seems like White Eclipse has forgotten what Fairy Tail can do! You know what it's time for right!?"
"Aim for the number one guild in Fiore once again!" Makarov said with a large grin! "Show those brats how we do things!"
"Exactly!" The flames on Natsu's body flared intensely as he grinned. "I'm all fired up!"
.
.
"Are they all gone?" Tobias asked as he, Ruika, Kiora, Maggie, Ur, and Daiyas stood near the White Eclipse guild.
"Yes, they all went to brag to Fairy Tail…" Ruika nodded.
"Excellent…" With a slight grin, Daityas led the way to the guild, but he didn't go inside. He went to the side, where a grave was sitting, labeled: "Arcturus".
"This is it? They buried him in the snow?" Ur asked, the cold of the mountain causing her to strip unknowingly.
"Ur…clothes…." Kiora grunted.
"…Meh," Ur merely shrugged and Daiyas began digging in the grave. Actually, he wasn't digging, he was just using his hellish flames to melt the snow, eventually coming across a jar of sand.
"Here he is…" Daityas said with a large grin as he pulled the jar out of the snow, and kicked some new snow to cover the digging sight. "Arc, it's been a while, but, welcome home…"