Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August, x784.
A few hours later, the three troop transport vehicles returned to Magnolia. After driving past the gates, they did not stop until they were all behind the guild hall. However, when they reached the building that housed them, they stopped before entering.
Sitting in front of the building was Ultear, looking positively bored out of her mind. Scattered around her were all sorts of things that would indicate that she was trying to keep herself entertained for the last few hours, such as several different books and magazines. There was also a bottle of red nail polish, and anyone who was interested enough to look would notice that her nails were looking rather exquisite.
Stopping the transports in front of the building, all the wizards inside got out while Happy landed with Natsu, once again exhausted. Meanwhile, the drivers of the vehicles, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Makarov approached Ultear.
"Ultear, why are you waiting out here?" Makarov asked in curiosity.
The difference in Makarov's expression before and after this trip to Oak Town was like night and day. He looked so much more relaxed after getting the chance to vent over his children's injuries.
"I'm guarding the prisoners." Ultear replied.
"Ah… now that you mention it, Jose did say something about sending someone to take Lucy away." Makarov said with an enlightened gaze.
"That's right, a couple of S-Class wizards." Ultear replied with a nod.
"I guess that means you put them in there?" Alfonzo asked, pointing at the building behind Ultear.
"Yup." Ultear replied, nodding once again.
"Why didn't you put them in the underground prison? Makarov asked curiously. "Only the parts of the guild that were above ground were destroyed."
"Because of the girl." Ultear replied. "Lucy said her name was Juvia, I think. She had the ability to turn her body into water. We didn't know if using the magic sealing cuffs would work on her, either. So, we thought it was safer to put her in here before we unfroze her."
"Ah, being cautious then." Makarov said with a nod. "Good work, Ultear. And how is Lucy? I hope she's not blaming herself for the attacks. And where is Gray?""
"For the most part, Lucy is fine." Ultear answered with a wry smile. "She's probably gonna have a chill for a while. Oh… And… She's kinda homeless… For the moment. And Gray is watching over her."
"Huh? A chill? Homeless?" Makarov asked in confusion. "What exactly happened while we were gone?"
With that, Ultear explained the entire series of events from her perspective. While the trio listened with differing expressions. Still, they all thought the same things.
'And that's why we don't like our wizards to take quests in the town.' Alfonzo, Elicia, and Makarov thought simultaneously. 'Even if it's a non-combat quest, the chances of Fairy Tail wizards destroying something are always high.'
Eventually, Ultear's story ended. After hearing the details of the attack, Makarov turned his attention to the building that held the troop transport vehicles.
"Alright, let's deal with them." Makarov said as he approached the building.
Falling in step behind Makarov were Alfonzo, Elicia, Ultear, Erza, and Mirajane, all of the guild's on sight S-Class wizards. However, just before he could open the doors to the building, he was stopped by a shout that echoed over the area.
"Who the hell did this?" Ur, who just returned to Magnolia shouted from the front of the destroyed guild hall, her voice carrying all the way to the rest of the wizards in the guild.
"Oh, Mom's back." Ultear said with a smile. Then, she gestured to use her magic. "[Ice-Make: Rose]."
A moment later, a large rose made of ice, towering above every nearby structure, grew from the ground. After that, it did not take long for Ur to make her way behind the guild hall and meet up with the rest of the guild.
"Old man, what the hell happened to the guild hall?" Ur asked as she approached the members of the guild.
"*Sigh* It's all because of that fool, Jose Porla." Makarov said in exasperation. "He wanted to spark a war between our guilds so that he could kidnap Lucy in the process."
With that said, Makarov explained the recent events to Ur, who had been away on an S-Class quest for the last two weeks.
After hearing what Makarov had to say, Ur turned her attention to Alfonzo.
"Hey, Kid, do you think that living metal of yours could restore my old leg after so long?" Ur asked with a stern gaze.
"Are you saying that you still have it?" Elicia asked with a weird, confused expression on her face. "Why would you keep an old, severed leg? Is it hanging over your fireplace as a medal of honor or something?"
Hearing Elicia's genuinely confused questions, most of the guild, Makarov included, could not help but chuckle, despite themselves. Even though they knew Ur would make them regret it sooner or later, they could not help it.
After hearing Ur's question, they were all wondering why Ur would still have her severed leg. But after hearing Elicia's funny way of asking, there was nothing they could do about the chuckles that followed.
Throwing a quick glare in Elicia's direction, Ur returned her gaze to Alfonzo, waiting for his response.
"Honestly, I'm not sure." Alfonzo replied. "Your leg was dead way before you got to Magnolia. And I'm guessing it's been on ice ever since."
"That's right." Ur replied with a nod.
"I could give it a try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up." Alfonzo said after a few moments of contemplation.
"Well, that's too bad." Ur replied with a shrug.
"Mom, what made you think about that now?" Ultear asked curiously. "I mean, Alfonzo fixed his arm like… Three years ago and you never asked him to do the same for your leg."
"Oh, it's because I was already used to the Automail." Ur replied while waving dismissively. "It would have been a pain to have to get used to my old leg again. On top of that, I would have been out of commission while my leg went back to normal, too."
"Plus, it would have hurt like a mother fucker." Alfonzo added.
"That too." Ur nodded in agreement. "But after hearing about what that dumb ass did to the members of our guild, I had a brilliant idea."
"Brilliant?" Ultear muttered skeptically. "I'm certain that's debatable."
"I was going to waltz over to the Phantom Lord guild hall and beat the hell out of Porla." Ur said with a dangerous grin.
"Well, not brilliant, but understandable." Ultear muttered in response.
"Then, once he was properly beaten up, I was gonna put my Automail foot up his ass, literally." Ur continued.
"What's the point of doing that after you already beat him up?" Ultear continued to mutter.
"After that, I would freeze it solid before literally breaking my foot off in his ass." Ur said, finishing her explanation. "After that, I would need a new leg. Making one with my [Ice-Make Magic] would be enough to get me home. But I've gotten rather use to walking on something not made of my own magic, ya know."
"Even if the Techno Organic Metal can't fix it, I can still build you another leg." Alfonzo said casually. "And since I'm more experienced, it would feel even more natural than the one you're using now. Plus, if you really break your foot off in Jose's ass and take a picture with a lacrima, I'll do it for free."
Hearing that, everyone in the guild gasped in surprise. For the second time in two days, Alfonzo has mentioned doing something for free. Several of the guild members looked up into the sky, checking to see if Fiore's doomsday was falling from the heavens. The few that focused on Alfonzo rather than his words, however, were close to wetting themselves after seeing the expression on his face.
"I don't know what that old fool said, but he threaten my Lici. Hehehe." Alfonzo said in an ominous tone. "And that's not something I will tolerate."
"Oh, you really didn't hear him, huh?" Elicia asked in surprise. "I thought you did, that's why you flooded Phantom Lord's guild hall with killing intent. Oh well, whatever. Back then, he threatened to rape me."
Immediately, Alfonzo's killing intent exploded. This time, it was even more potent than it was back in the Phantom Lord guild hall.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Oak.
At the same time, just outside the town, Jose and the rest of his guild were traveling towards a towering structure located in the hills surrounding Oak Town. This structure was the true headquarters of the Phantom Lord guild. Usually, it would remain out of use. However, the guild hall in the town took an extensive amount of damage after the battle with Fairy Tail.
"Damn that Fairy Tail scum." Jose grumbled as he walked. "Even if I can't get my hands on the Heartfilia girl, I'll make them pay for this humiliation. Especially that Magic Seamstress, she'll pay for mocking me so blatantly."
At that moment, back in Magnolia, Elicia had informed Alfonzo that Jose threatened to rape her earlier in the day. Then, after a few steps, Jose felt a killing intent lock onto him.
Reflexively, Jose flared his magic power, forcing the weaker members of his guild to their knees due to the pressure. Meanwhile, the three remaining S-Class wizards, namely, Gajeel, Aria, and Totomaru, a young man with two toned white and black hair split down the middle and a tattoo across his face, looked at Jose with confusion.
"Master Jose, are you alright?" Aria, wrapped in bandages asked.
Ignoring Aria's question, Jose carefully looked around the area. After realizing that there was no one nearby who would attack him, he slowly lowered his magical pressure. Then, he continued walking towards the headquarters without answering Aria's question.
'Damn it! It's just like when I felt those brats' killing intent before.' Jose grumbled internally. 'There's no way it could be because of them. They're only brats. Was there another Wizard Saint nearby messing with me? They'd better not let me find out who---.'
Before Jose could finish that thought, however, the same thing repeated itself once again. This time, however, Elicia was in the process of telling everyone how Jose planned to torture Alfonzo until he signed over all his patents to Phantom Lord.
"Damn it!" Jose roared in annoyance while once again flaring his magic power. "Who the hell is there? Show yourself!"
The rest of the guild, those who were still conscious after being pressured by Jose's magic power, could only look on at their guild master with confusion. Unlike earlier, when Alfonzo and Elicia were in the guild hall, no one could feel the killing intent. So, to them, it looked like Jose had lost it.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
"I think you two need to calm down." Makarov said, now in his giant form shielding the rest of the guild from the killing intent that was washing over the area. "You're only harming the rest of the guild at this point."
After hearing Makarov, Alfonzo and Elicia looked around at their guild mates. While the S-Class wizards, S-Class candidates, and most of the A-Class wizards seemed to be more-or-less fine, the weaker members of the guild had paled and were breathing heavily.
Seeing the state of the guild, both Alfonzo and Elicia reigned in their killing intent slowly. It was very rare for either of them to get so angry about anything, so they were not used to controlling their killing intents.
"*Whistle* That's some pretty terrifying killing intent for two kids who have never taken a life." Ur said, impressed by Alfonzo and Elicia's display.
"Well, since emotion is such a big part of magic, it still makes sense." Makarov said as he shrunk to his normal form. "The bond between those two is one of the strongest I've ever seen. So, it makes sense that their emotions would go out of control when the other's well-being was threatened in such a way."
"I guess you're right, Master." Ur replied with a nod. "Still, we need to train them to control it. With out proper control in situations like that, it will only lead to them hurting themselves or someone they care about."
"I know." Makarov replied with a nod. "And we will. But for now, let's check up on our prisoners."
With that, Makarov made his way over to the building.
"What do you plan to do with them? Ur asked as she followed behind Makarov.
"Not much." Makarov replied. "I'll set them free after getting as much information as I can out of them. Need evidence that we did not start this war between legal guilds. Lord knows the Magic Council will try its best to blame it on us.. even though we don't have a history of starting guild wars…"
Once he got to that point, Makarov's face morphed into a savage smile.
"… but we're quite accustomed to ending them." Makarov continued in a tone that resembled a growl.
At the same time, Makarov put his hand on the wall and channeled his magic power into the sigils. Then, the door opened and revealed the prisoners, Juvia and Sol. However, when Makarov and Ur saw them, they were both dumbfounded.
Leaning against the wall, Sol was foaming at the mouth, his eyes were rolled back in his head, and he was sitting in a puddle of urine. Meanwhile, Juvia was little more than a puddle on the floor at this point. She too was showing the whites of her eyes.
The two of them ended up like this after being hit with Alfonzo and Elicia's killing intent, simultaneously. Although they were both S-Class wizards as well, the killing intent was meant for Phantom Lord, though mostly for Jose, they ended up in a much worse state than Fairy Tail's S-Class wizards.
"What do we do now?" Ur asked, surprised that the killing intent was so effective on those Alfonzo and Elicia considered enemies.
"*Sigh* We'll have to wait until they wake up." Makarov replied as he closed the wall to the storage building.