Minerva’s decision was indecision. She didn’t know whether to stay, or to go. And ultimately wanted the option to choose after Jiemma’s own fate with the law was decided. Angel was more than happy to delay in Gazania. It wasn’t particularly close to where she and Yukino had lived, but it was a possible place Yukino would be and she did want to look for her. Wendy wasn’t about to leave Minerva after what they had gone through together. Arthur got the very distinct feeling that neither he nor Jellal actually had the suffrage to vote here. They were staying in Gazania for at least a few days.
Arthur might not. He had every intention to fly to Magnolia on Enif, and figure out enough to make sure that plan ‘take 2 middle school girls to Fairy Tail’ was acceptable with the guild there. But he wasn’t taking Wendy or Minerva there until well ultimately until Minerva had been given a bit of time to decide her future.
But the first day was spent with Angel twisting his arm, and threatening to cry at him, into hunting for Yukino across the city, and bribing city officials to give him information. It didn’t go well. He’d never bribed someone before and didn’t really know how.
He had intended to go to Magnolia on the second day, but Angel, deciding if you wanted a job done right you had to do it yourself even if you were a heavily wanted fugitive and it involved walking into city hall and talking to people, left him with babysitting duty. Since Angel had taken them touring the sights of the town yesterday, this somehow broke down into a training session at Minerva’s suggestion. The young mage was eager to really see what sort of magic had defeated her father, especially since it seemed to fall within the range of Territory Magic for which she had both the practical grounding and natural talent to learn.
Once they’d found a hill outside of time, and started working on magic, Arthur was yet again reminded that he was rather inept in a fight. Minerva couldn’t actually touch him when his Territory - Armor was in effect, the barrier which surrounded him prevented her spatial magic from affecting him by sealing him into the domain created by his own magic, a ‘space’ over which Minerva had no power, and which she lacked the strength to punch through like Jiemma’s blast magic had been able to. Minerva literally could not beat him, he could simply dominate her magic with his own, even when warping her directly she could barely resist; less even then Jiemma had been able to due to her not yet fully grown container for ethernado.
Despite this the fight was obnoxiously difficult. Partially it was that he was trying not to hurt her. He wasn’t using his magic to simply blow her up and win. But when it came to actual hand to hand combat skills she was staggeringly better than him. And she was a 13 year old child. It was embarrassing. Not for the first time he really considered taking Born to Bash. It’d give him a chance to beat Scorpio and obtain Angel’s support in dealing with Grimoire Heart. He’d no longer be where he had to abuse magical superiority not to get beat down by middle schoolers. Still he only had 300 CP, it was getting harder to get more, and getting Enchantment magic might still cost him 300 CP if he didn’t find a way to learn it here. There was honestly too much he wanted for him to feel comfortable grabbing Born to Bash.
After showcasing what he could do with Territory - and how poorly he performed in a hand to hand fight - for a while with Minerva he summoned Orion to give them a more fitting challenge. Orion was both weaker and a much better fighter, less reliant on overwhelming magical superiority. He was an enemy that would push them to think around their problems, and allow Arthur’s Archive to observe, record, and begin to analyze.
Arthur noticed quickly that Minerva only seemed to be using her Territory magic to teleport herself, teleport Wendy via swapping positions with her even if it meant into Orion’s squeezing grip, and warping space around her hand. She used Territory in very minimal ways - her combat training definitely outstripping her actual magical knowledge. Wendy was playing support mostly, even when she’d have been better off using her dragon roar which did stagger Orion on multiple occasions. It made Arthur feel a bit better about his own performance watching them. But he was also realizing that Minerva now knew a whole lot less tricks with her magic than in the Grand Magic Games, and Wendy was still not comfortable fighting on her own as a dragon slayer. Orion soon had managed to contain them both in his belts, and Arthur had to convince him to fight them again. He won more quickly the second time, and Arthur let him return as he was obviously done with fighting them.
Still Arthur wasn’t done making them fight things. Wendy was… not happy about this form of ‘play’, but Minerva seemed if anything dangerously used to it. This time he let them ‘play’ with Aries. She was the least likely to hurt them, and while she wasn’t eager to fight something like Orion she should provide good data, and he was close to being able to really give it… at least for Minerva.
The fight with Aries took a lot longer than even the first fight with Orion, and did not actually end with a win for either side, but Arthur being moved by Aries’s obvious dislike for the situation to end it early. He’d managed to get some stuff ready in his Archive. Enough for one day he expected.
Archive could directly upload spells into people’s minds. It wasn’t easy, and it could create a temporary overload, but Wendy was much more accepting of his reason for the sparring once she’d heard the full explanation. He had been analyzing Minerva’s fighting style and figuring out what he could teach her and - what he saw as - the best order and way to do so.
He cheated in the act of teaching, simply zapping it into Minerva’s brain, but once her brain rebooted, she was happy enough for the new spells. Wendy was excited by the idea of learning some dragon slayer magic that way. Carla was more concerned about possible side effects of brain zapping.
Minerva was rather excited when the zap was complete. She could be strong. Like this she could get strong exceedingly quickly. She knew how to do things she’d never done before. Teleporting someone without swapping positions. Creating explosions with her space. It was sort of exhilarating.
The third day Minerva considered going home. People had to think something had happened to her. At the same time using this to disappear was appealing. Jiemma had raised her to be ruthless and strong, at least for a certain definition of strong. Arthur had beat him, defeated him and an entire guild almost simultaneously and he was definitely not strong.
Still she could go back to her father’s guild. They’d probably take care of her there. But if father was released she’d be back to him in a heartbeat there. And… Minerva’s hand moved to her arm. It’d been covered in bruises at the Vampire Kiss arena. From the beating she’d received for making a mistake in training. When Orion had managed to catch her she’d been scared, and when Orion had done so faster the second time she’d been certain that she’d be made to ‘learn with her body the punishment for defeat’. Instead she’d been taught new magic and bought ice cream. She was still waiting for Arthur to show his true colors. But… Jiemma was her father. It felt natural to go back to him. Right even.
Still she hesitated to go to the guild. Once she went back there, that was it. She’d have made her choice, and there was obviously so much more Arthur could teach her. She wanted to learn it all.
And then there was Wendy. Like Arthur, Minerva had difficulty understanding her. On the one hand she was emotional, prone to cry and complain, and with a tendency towards frivolity. On the other she had stood up to Lilith’s magic when Minerva couldn’t, and had, Minerva hated to admit, proved more useful against Orion and Aries than she had.
Wendy had wanted to get some - non-violent - exercise, and Arthur had heard that the woods near Gazania were good for gathering herbs and the like. So Minerva had admitted to some familiarity with the woods, not voicing just what sort of context it was. She didn’t like the woods; they brought back far too many memories of time with her father and punishments for her weakness.
When Wendy came running from one of the beasts that lived in the forest, Minerva expected Arthur to scold her. She should have been able to bring it down with a single roar, Minerva knew it. Instead Arthur simply handled the creature before ascertaining that Wendy was ok.
And for some reason he kept asking if she was ok, or wanted to go back. Like they could just turn around without collecting the herbs he’d wanted to check on. It was ridiculous. Almost like his herb lore. He could recognize only the least magical herbs, but he talked about ways to put them together which sounded miraculous and magical, and entire theories of potion crafting and alchemical properties that Minerva couldn’t make heads or tails of. Yet he needed her and Wendy to help with even the most basic magical herbs.
Wendy knew a fair bit. Apparently she had done herb gathering jobs for Cait Shelter before. The pride she took at such a thing irritated Minerva, especially when the younger girl still obviously knew nothing about dealing with the sort of dangerous creatures that lived in these woods. Especially given the way she seemed to be attracting them, Minerva had never encountered so many in a day.
Minerva wondered a bit if Arthur was just playing dumb, and letting Wendy feel useful. It’d make sense with how he was letting her instruct them both on wilderness survival and dealing with the creatures of the woods. She had been feeling pleased at her own usefulness before that thought struck her. And with it all that pleasure started to sour. She was still worthless and weak.
And a part of her worried Arthur thought that. He didn’t call her that but he asked questions like “How well do they handle being up in the air?” And made her realize things she could have been doing with her magic, like simply teleporting enemies up into the sky and letting them drop. He never outright said she was stupid, or weak, or pathetic, but he kept pointing out things that she could possibly do with Territory, encouraging her to try them out when the opportunity arose.
It was not at all like how her father treated her. Of course it still felt like she was being treated like a child. He was ultimately babysitting her, and she knew it. It grated more than a little, reminding her once again of her weakness, and why her father wouldn’t let her join a guild yet. But Wendy had been part of one for years, and she was every bit Wendy’s equal. Or at least she felt like she should be. She definitely didn’t need a cat to take care of her like Wendy.
The moment Arthur - too lazy to walk back from the hike - teleported them back into the room, he was surprised to have Jellal up and in his face.
“When are we going to find Erza?” The blue haired amnesiac demanded. He was getting antsy about the fact that they had not yet gone to Magnolia.
Arthur sighed. “Wendy, Minerva, can you give us a moment?” Arthur himself was antsy about the fact that Minerva knew he was keeping the renegade ex-councilman here. She’d seen Jellal and Angel undisguised and unlike Wendy she wasn’t an implicated accomplice.
Once the two girls had left the room, a long ‘discussion’ began. Arthur had just promised to get Jellal to Magnolia town tomorrow, when Angel entered.
“We need to throw them off of our trail,” She said. “They’re bringing in serious magic. My transformation won’t hide me from the council much longer, and they’ll find Mr. No Memories quicker still.”
“So saying we can’t stay here any longer?” Arthur asked.
Angel laughed. “With your ability to teleport? No, I’m saying we need to make them think we’ve left. You up for a little day trip tomorrow?”
“I promised to take Jellal to Magnolia with Enif,” Arthur answered.
Angel sighed. “That’s fine, just continue along the way to Hargeon afterwards, or first. Or well… Hargeon is close enough. We might have to stay the day away from Wendy and Minerva, but I think they can look after themselves for a day.”
Arthur had hoped to deliver Wendy to Fairy Tail when he returned, but he sensed that wasn’t a wise topic to broach with Angel at the moment. Still it might have gone some ways to getting things back on their proper track. It didn’t mean he couldn’t ask Wendy about it, but it was obvious Angel wanted to keep Wendy around as long as she could.
Jellal took three steps away from Enif and then fell down. Arthur was a Hardy Sort, but he didn’t exactly enjoy the ride to Magnolia either. Still he’d finally bit the bullet and went, bringing the blue-haired fugitive with him. They’d ended up stopping at Hargeon for an hour ‘on the way’, after Enif overshot Magnolia entirely.
Arthur went up to the Guild Hall alone. He’d need to explain the situation with Wendy and Minerva to the guild, that was going to be fun. And then he needed to facilitate Erza and Jellal meeting each other.
The first part was less painful than Arthur worried. Explaining the situation took time, but Wendy’s was simple enough. Minerva’s was more complicated. And Arthur merely brought hers up in connection for why Wendy hadn’t gone further, not choosing to mention his own role in the attack on Vampire Kiss which precipitated the whole situation. There was of course still question about both of them, though Team Natsu could at least vouch for Wendy there, and that couldn’t be resolved until Minerva made up her mind among other things.
Erza was a little put-off when he asked to speak with her alone, but she agreed to the private conversation. Once they were out of earshot, she looked him in the face.
“If this is a confession, I must inform you that-” She began.
“Jellal is alive,” Arthur cut her off. The S-ranked mage was momentarily stunned. This was not the news she was expecting to hear. “His memories are beyond vague, only really remembering that ‘Erza’ was important to him, and that he did horrible things of some sort. He doesn’t remember anything from when he was possessed.”
“Possessed?” Erza asked.
“A dark spirit connected to the cult of Zeref, it should be gone now,” Arthur said.
The red haired S-Class mage looked at Arthur as if judging him and his words. It’d be too easy to just forgive Jellal because he was possessed; it was too close to what she hoped to have be true for her to believe it without at least some hint of suspicion.
“Just give me the word and I’ll bring him to you, so you two can talk,” Arthur said bluntly. He’d been riding Enif and then talking to people for too long.
“You can do that?” Erza said, fear and hope mixing in her voice, visibly on the edge of tears.
Arthur snapped his fingers and Jellal appeared. “I’m going to go for a walk,” He said, and disappeared, leaving them to talk.
Arthur walked along the streets of Magnolia. He summoned Aries to join him; he had no need to be alone, while simply walking and seeing sights and figured she might enjoy it as well. Besides, it might help her get a tan.
It wasn’t exactly unpleasant walking next to a cute girl, even if Aries was conspicuously cute. Such cuteness brought unwanted attention.
The man who moved to block their path was massive, topping over 7’ tall, and broad of shoulder even proportionate to that height. He was completely bald, missing several teeth, and with a rather impressive musculature. He wore an open vest which showed he had more hair on his chest that Aries had on her at all and she was wearing a wool dress.
“Hey, cutie, what are you doing with a little, chubby wimp like him,” The man asked, sticking his tongue out between the gap in his teeth, and flicking it against his upper and lower lips.
“E-e-eh, s-s-sorry?!” The spirit froze up, at the sudden confrontational stance from the man.
“Leave the lady alone,” Arthur stated.
“What’d you say little man?” The massive hulk said straightening his back to loom over Arthur.
“I said, leave the lady alone. And get out of my way,” Arthur glared at the man, he’d let his territory armor fade, but even without it his magic power reinforced his body far more than even a giant’s muscles would.
“You little pipsqueak!” The man growled. He then pulled back his hand, palm forward, and slammed it towards Arthur’s face. A barrier formed of his Archive magic - he’d had the system up and running in full data collection mode - caught the blow. Arthur’s Territory magic caught the man next, teleporting him across the street.
“I’m sorry,” Aries said, huddling up around herself a little. “I should have stood up and fought him. It’s a spirit’s job to protect their contractor, not the other way around.”
“I didn’t need protection from that cretin,” Arthur said. “And I didn’t tell you to fight him. So you had no obligation to do so.”
The pink haired sheep-girl smiled a bit at that.
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It was about an hour later that they returned to the Guild. Maintaining Aries at a non-combat level was rather simple all things considered, the biggest cost being in summoning her initially. “You know, I should have thought of this earlier, but this was the Guild that Leo joined while he was in the human world, and his key holder is here. She could have summoned him so you two could have time together.”
“That’s alright, I enjoyed today,” Aries said, placing a hand on his shoulder and then pulling it away with a little squeaked apology.
“You don’t need to apologize for treating me like a person and not some slave master,” Arthur said, patting her head. “See I touched you without asking first, so why couldn’t you?”
She looked at him and smiled a bit brighter. And Arthur continued. “Still if you’d like to meet her, we could see if she wanted to meet you.”
“I’d like that, I think,” Aries said, looking down at the ground.
Lucy and Aries had been speaking for a bit, before the blond looked at Arthur. “So what other celestial spirits do you have?”
Arthur’s fingers twitched, teleporting one of the keys from the pouch on his belt into his hand. Except that it didn’t teleport. His hand reached to his bag and alarm showed on his face. The pouch was there, but something - or someone - had cut a hole in the bottom of it.
Panic immediately began to set in.The hole was far too clean to be an accidental tear. For a few moments it was a garbled mess of panic. At least until Lucy came up with the suggestion of using Natsu and her nikora to track the scent of Aries’s magical energy which should be in her key as well.
Natsu was initially hesitant to help. Arthur had brought Jellal back. Jellal had made Erza cry. That was one of the biggest no-nos in Natsu’s book. In the end Erza - who was rather thankful to have had the chance to talk to Jellal and see that he was maybe himself again - convinced Natsu to help, and they split up into three teams. Lucy and Aries, Erza and Natsu, and Arthur and Jellal playing tactical command via Archive.
Of course, Arthur wasn’t truly reliant on Natsu or Lucy’s success. He’d been recording Magnolia with his Archive all day. And it could tap into magical information. By the time that Lucy had found where the lingering scent of Aries’s key went in two directions, Arthur was well into the process of expanding on his Archive, building it up bit by bit with new functionality. It could scan things. He just needed to increase the range, isolate Aries’s signature, and scan for her key. The Archive had a good fix on her signature after scanning it for more than an hour.
Before he’d finished figuring out how to program it into the magic, he got the message from Lucy asking for backup. Arthur opened turned his Archive to the most recent map image from Lucy, and he extended his territory. Archive told him where he was and it was in three dimensions, and showed him an almost real time image of it. Creating his space there was easy and then he just swapped where he was with where it was.
It took Arthur only a few moments. But he was already too late. Loke, mage of Fairy Tail and in truth the Celestial Spirit Leo the Lion leader of the Zodiac, stood on top of the man from earlier that day, and 2 other men were cowering.
The three men were all part of a thieves’ guild that operated in Magnolia, and soon Fairy Tail was turning them over to the authorities. It had just been a minor little side event. Still Arthur knew he had to learn from it. Be more careful with his keys in the future, and find a way to make sure they couldn’t be stolen. Also to make better use of his Archive. It’s be a few days’ work, and he was still at his heart lazy. He resented it.
Then there was the issue of Natsu’s blood. He’d gotten it. He should go back to Guiltina the moment he got Wendy settled. Help his friends. Do his duty. But he still wanted to go after Grimoire Heart, and there were new bounties dealing with Edolas. Really tempting ones. He wasn’t sure how he could bring magic to Edolas, maybe the other world that Selene was causing to be too full of magic? It had magic to spare… but that didn’t make it produce its own magic. He had no idea to be honest. Maybe Enchantment magic could do it?
That one he put aside. It was ultimately the other that drew him in. Befriend his duplicate in Edolas and he’d get the ability to split himself into two. Crush them in battle and he’d get immunity to his own clones and copies. Kill them and such clones simply couldn’t be made. All three were tempting, though the idea of killing himself - even another version of himself - was something that made him hesitant. Still he was beginning to think about how he could ensure he ended up in Edolas.
This meant he was zoning out a bit while Natsu talked to him and he was supposed to be befriending Natsu. But he also needed to get back to Angel before long, and Jellal had finished talking to Erza.
“So why’d you save Jellal anyway?” Natsu asked as Arthur was putting away the blood into the icy magical tool to keep it preserved.
“He was possessed. He deserves the chance to make amme… no screw that reason. He was possessed. He doesn’t deserve to die for the sin of being too weak as a small child to prevent a group of religious nutjobs from forcing a dark spirit into his body that controlled him. If he wants to do his best to do good to make right what happened during it more power to him. But he doesn’t need to make amends for something like that.”
Natsu looked at him, blinking a bit. The blue cat, Happy, looked up at Natsu. “I think he forgot we are here.”
“Oi! I was trying to answer your question, just got sort of angry at myself partway through. Look, he’s a brilliant mage, and a good guy, I couldn’t just let him waste away in a coffin when I could save him.”
“I just keep wondering, how you knew he was possessed? Didn’t you come from another continent?” Natsu asked.
Arthur looked at him dumbfounded. Natsu’s too much of an idiot to realize that inconsistency! Or maybe it’s just that Natsu was book dumb and that made it easy to flanderize him as stupid in general. Arthur couldn’t remember how smart the idiot was supposed to be.
“It was the only thing I was able to recover from Brain’s archive magic,” Arthur lied through his teeth, before he even thought about telling the truth.
“Oh,” Natsu said, seemingly accepting that fib. “Is he really on the level?”
“Erza would be a better judge of that than I would,” Arthur said and he saw Natsu’s face go dark. Natsu didn’t really like Jellal, and part of that was that he had made Erza cry; an unforgivable sin.
“She’s happy today,” Natsu said with a sigh.
Arthur shrugged and the silence stretched on awkwardly. Arthur knew he was supposed to befriend Natsu, but small talk was scary. “So… uh…”
“How long will you and Jellal be staying?” Natsu asked.
“I need to talk to him about what he wants to do.” And with that Arthur excused himself and escaped.
Erza was waiting for him. Her face was hard, not that Arthur had ever seen her without a hard face. Her eyes were sharp, and Arthur had to wonder if he could make magical prosthetic eyes that actually worked - but protected you from gaze attacks - if he took the Edomagic perk. Her hands rested on the hilt of her sword, and Arthur felt like approaching her was equivalent to approaching a lioness.
He hesitated.
“I needed to tell you, thank you,” She began, and Arthur immediately began to relax. “Thank you for bringing Jellal here. Thank you for continuing to help him.”
Arthur’s natural response was to say you’re welcome, but such a simple response was too curt and by the books. “You’re welcome. I just was doing what I had to do," He said. It was the first thing that came to his mind.
Erza nodded like his response was a natural one. “You’re a good person,” She stated. “You’re making enemies to help my friend,” Arthur flinched, he’d been trying not to think about what was going to happen when the Magic Council inevitably found out and moved against him. “Even now you continue to help him, and for that you have my thanks. If there’s ever anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask. We at Fairy Tail don’t forget our debts, or our friends,” She reached a hand forward, and Arthur did the natural thing, moving his own hand to shake it.
“Soon I have to be going back to Guiltina, he’ll have to find his own feet before then,” Arthur said.
“I’m sure he will,” Erza said with confidence that reassured Arthur.
Angel was not pleased they were later than she’d hoped. And she was doubly not pleased that Arthur had let Aries get stolen. She understood though. The plan had always been to take the time needed in Magnolia. They would just have to go to Hargeon tomorrow.
“So we need you two to take care of yourselves today,” Angel told Minerva and Wendy with a smile painted on her face. “You two can handle that right?”
Wendy looked torn as she glanced at the ground. Carla looked a bit uneasy as well. It was Minerva that glared at Arthur in the eye. “You’re going to go smash another dark guild aren’t you?”
The adults looked at each other. “We just have some errands to attend,” Angel said, “Right, Arthur?”
“Wendy told me that the other night you kept her out of the loops, and people are beginning to look for you three. You probably need to throw off the scent, and if you’re actually hunting dark guilds demonstrating that you’re somewhere else with Arthur’s magic would be best,” Minerva said, having already completely grasped the situation.
“So what if we are?” Angel spat back, noticeably annoyed.
“I want to help,” Minerva said.
“You don’t owe us for our help,” Arthur began.
“I want to get stronger. This will give me an opportunity to learn,” Minerv stated.
Arthur’s hand smacked his face as he groaned. “No, no. We’re not making you two more of accomplices to a crime than you already are.”
“Why not?” Minerva said. “Compared to keeping him secret,” She pointed at Jellal who flinched back, “This is of little import and it’s a chance for me to get strong.”
“Because it’s dangerous,” Arthur said.
“I can handle myself, I was going to be fighting down there soon,” Minerva said, her voice cracking a bit with fear. Carla had a hand on Wendy’s arm. She’d been whispering something to her companion, but Arthur had failed to hear what the cat had said. He could guess she was why Wendy wasn’t speaking up to join in.
“You can always disavow us as kidnappers. If you’re seen fighting alongside us that’ll be harder. It risks being a step there’s no going back from,” Arthur said looking at Minerva.
Minerva paused at this. She had still been debating what to do if her father was released. She’d actually been hoping they could take the pegasus to Crocus and visit him today. Now, though, she was torn between the opportunity to get stronger and fear of being a hounded fugitive for the rest of her life. Following Arthur here would be making that very choice she kept delaying.
“I want you to help me become stronger,” She said. “You taught me stuff with that Archive Magic before, but there’s a lot more you could teach me isn’t there?” She asked. Arthur nodded. “Then teach me. I want to become strong like you. Stronger even.”
“As long as I’m here I’m willing to teach you, but really you and Wendy should be getting to Fairy Tail.”
“No,” Minerva answered. “They don’t have someone who knows Territory Magic, do they? They couldn’t teach it to me like you could. The rarity of finding someone else who has a true mastery of your natural magic means I can’t just pass up the chance to learn from you.”
“It’s not really an option. I’m going back to Guiltina soon.”
Minerva looked down. “You could take her with you,” Jellal suggested.
“My guild only accepts dragon slayers,” Arthur countered.
“Then I’ll slay a dragon,” Minerva said with a mask of quiet confidence which was hiding that she was trembling at the very idea. Still if she could slay a dragon she would be strong.
Had he just adopted a teenager? Arthur didn’t know how to raise a kid… much less a teenager. “Down that path lies madness and loss of self as the draconic power overwhelms you and turns you into a monster. I’m here to stop that from happening to people, not to teach others to curse themselves. I’ll teach you Territory Magic, but not to slay dragons,” He said firmly.
“Really!?” Minerva asked half leaping with expectation.
“And you’re staying here with Wendy today.”
The mission was supposed to be easy. Angel identified the guild’s secret headquarters. Arthur created a dome out of his territory magic around it, and then Aries filled it with her sleep inducing fluff. Then Angel and Jellal go through and sort the captives being shipped to a neighboring country as slaves, from the dark mages. It was exhausting in the sheer output of magical power needed, but ultimately was supposed to be easy.
Angel was confident no one in the guild could stand up to Aries if Arthur really fed her the power that she needed. Still Arthur wore his Territory around him like armor as they entered, Angel going first since she knew the layout. He’d used a huge amount of magical energy ensuring everyone possible would fall asleep, and he hadn’t actually closed Aries’s gate yet, allowing her to help with things while they worked.
Angel was surprised that they seemed to have gotten the whole guild. It had a roster of 18 people, and they’d quickly found the lower ranking mages. Arthur and Jellal checked out the basement together - if anyone escaped it was probably in there - but soon only 3 of the mages were unaccounted for, and they’d found several prisoners as well.
When they reached the ground floor again, Angel wasn’t back yet. They deposited the captives they were carrying on the ground and rushed upstairs.
Arthur saw Jellal come flying back, crashing through a wall to the outside. Arthur hesitated then. He was low on power. He couldn’t keep Aries up, maintain the outer wall, maintain his armor, keep his Archive running, and summon another spirit.
He stepped forward first, leaving Aries behind him. The three mages seemed to be accounted for. Probably. One was a lizard-guy like you’d sometimes see working for the Magic Council. He’d have to ask Angel or Jellal more about them sometime. One seemed to be an inumimi, a large guy with furred arms and paw hands, along with pointy canine ears, and a canine tail. The third was a woman. Arthur actually recognized the latter two from Angel’s briefing with Gemini last night. The inumimi was the Guildmaster of Arachne’s Tear; he used Transformation magic particularly of the Takeover Animal Soul variety. According to Angel he was the biggest physical threat in the guild, and the only one who might win hand to hand against Scorpio. The woman was his lover, and ‘weak point’. One of Arachne’s Tear’s strongest mages, she used water make magic; capable of being quite dangerous but she’d not be a match for someone like Juvia or Fairy Tail’s Ice Make wizard even if their general skill and magical power were equalized.
The lizard-dude on the other hand Arthur had no idea about, but gave him a bad vibe. He could feel enough of their respective magical powers. The takeover mage and water make mage could wail on his armor all day and night and not make him have to reinforce it. They couldn’t hurt him, and he doubted even with surprise they’d have taken down Angel. The lizard-dude, though, was strong. Not as strong as Arthur by a long shot, but strong enough he felt more like Gray or Natsu than he did the other two. If Arthur unsummoned Aries or dropped the wall he could take him out, that was certain. But while maintaining them his options were limited, and if he unsummoned Aries suddenly this 3 on 1 could become 18 on 1, and if he dropped the wall there went the protection against collateral. Innocents could rush in, the fight could spread out of the building, and the 3 could get away as could anyone who did manage to wake up despite Aries still being summoned.
Arthur decided against releasing Aries or the wall, a moment after the inugami’s “Spinning Wolf Uppercut!” had sent him flying after Jellal. He didn’t really feel it, so much as see the world moving around him, his Armor insulating him against the outside forces.
He never landed, teleporting back to where he’d been standing to catch the takeover mage’s tail before he could attack Aries.
“He’s back!” The water-make sorceress called out.
“I believe my point is made,” the lizard said. “With the Oracion Seis gone, you need new protectors.” The lizard grinned then, showing reptilian teeth. “I trust you will comply with my masters’ terms,” He continued.
Arthur was still hanging onto the wolf-man’s tail, even as one of those clawed paws smacked his face. It couldn’t penetrate his armor, and lacked the force to force him to let go, merely knocking him staggering back, pulling the wolf with him.
“Yes! Just help!” The wolf-man howled.
“Kick him hard,” The lizard said, raising a wooden staff. “Barrier Magic - Reverberating Shield!”
A shield of pink energy appeared behind Arthur, as the wolfman kicked him hard backwards. He pulled the wolf with him, even managing to hit him with a punch charged with his territory magic and designed to explode outwards on impact. But Arthur felt himself hit the barrier and then the barrier hit him back with more than twice the force it’d received when he hit it.
It was enough he felt it - albeit barely - through his armor as he flew into Aries and tumbled down the stairs in a ball with her.
“Miike!” The water-make mage screamed, rushing for the inumimi, only for Jellal’s fist to send her flying back towards the lizard-dude.
The lizard-dude was invoking more barrier magic against Jellal, but by the time Arthur had ran up the stairs the fight was over. Angel and Scorpio had come from behind, and taken out the lizard-dude while he was failing to stop Jellal from closing with him.
Angel didn’t recognize the lizard-dude, but she did recognize the guild mark he had on his tongue. Grimoire Heart. Between Angel and Gemini, Arthur learned - roughly - what had happened. The lizard-dude had been at the guild making moves for recruiting Arachne’s Tear into the Grimoire Heart network. His barrier magic had blocked Aries’s fluff enough to keep him and 2 of the three higher ups he was meeting conscious. Angel had sent Gemini to check on them because they were the 3 most dangerous mages in the guild. They played dead and ‘knocked out’ Gemini who was disguised as Angel, and played opossum. While they were fighting Arthur and Jellal, Gemini had summoned Scorpio and taken them out. It was all as simple as that.
Ensuring the guild got punished was harder. Corruption was rife in the governing bodies of Ishgar. They had deals with the local government. But with them all knocked out, several prisoners, and a rather visible territory dome enough people would be asking questions they couldn’t hush it completely.
Still in Angel’s mind the more important thing was that they’d probably just pissed off Grimoire Heart.
They woke up the captives before they left, making certain they got a good look of Angel and Jellal, but not Arthur. Witnesses were necessary for those two. The magic council needed to know.
Once they’d sent them to get the authorities, there was a brief wait as they gathered the dark mages, wrapped them in sleep inducing ram wool, and then returned to Gazania. Arthur was tired, but somehow he still had to take Minerva and Wendy into the woods to spar with Orion and train them.
“You crushed another guild without me,” Orion protested when he was summoned. He towered amongst the trees, a great, bulky giant, his blue skin mostly covered by his mass of belts.
“Look, you get to fight them,” Arthur said, pointing at Wendy and Minerva.
“Spar with, not fight. Besides I’ve fought them, they’re not strong enough,” Wendy and Minerva both were visibly crestfallen.
“I can be strong!” Wendy protested. Minerva, however, remained silent which worried Arthur.
Orion scoffed. “Show me, then.”
“Fine, this time you spar with me,” Arthur said. “I need to learn to fight for real and not just rely on power.”
The giant looked at Arthur and grinned.
The battle ended with Arthur bruised, battered, and exhausted, his magical stamina having run out to force Orion back to the Celestial Spirit World. “You really don’t know how to fight without your magic,” Minerva commented to the increasingly exhausted and irate Arthur.
He sort of just glared at her. Arthur knew she was right, but he was not in the mood for it right now. “Still the power is something else,” She looked about the clearing. She knew how it had formed, and why nothing grew here. Mages used it for practice, especially her father. Arthur’s ‘sparring’ had just expanded it and turned the stream that flowed through it into a slowly filling lake.
Minerva was fairly sure that Blast Magic was more destructive than Territory’s Explosions in raw destructive output, all other things equal and considered. At least Jiemma had always believed such and hadn’t expected her to ever outpace him there. But this had blown away what he could do with it. It’d have taken his summoning one of the Battle Gods of the Yakamo to match this. And this had been a tired Arthur sparring.
She had to learn what he could teach her. Not all of it could be raw magical power. Minerva looked at Arthur. “Can you take me to Crocus to see my father?”
Arthur knew she actually meant the Magic Council’s Fiore Branch Office near Crocus, but well… given his involvement with Jellal and Angel, and pass experiences with Jiemma, it might not be best for him to walk directly into the Magic Council’s Branch Office so he probably would be staying in Crocus. Still it wasn’t like Angel or Jellal could take her.
“Of course,” He said.