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CHAPTER START---
Standing around one of the hundreds of lit braziers around the sea of tents, Grand Doma warms his hands as the biting midnight air chips away at him. He glances up at the cloudy winter night sky before looking to the other men around the fire.
"Final checks complete," one of them says. "Squad thirty just sent me a telepathic message. Everyone is accounted for, we're ready to move."
"We should move quickly," another man says. "I don't like the look of those clouds. This far north in Iceberg, blizzards are always a problem."
"They've been working on it for almost a day, shouldn't be much longer," Gran Doma says, looking down at the fire. "Moving everyone with Gravity Magic won't be viable in this freezing air, so we'll have to dig in for one more night."
"The muster point outside the village should have everything by morning. The only problem is about the rest spots along the way. Not much terrain to set down a few thousand people."
"Let me deal with that. All of you double check the perimeter. I'll go get an update from them, when I'm back we'll get ready for whatever comes next."
"All that's left now is to get some rest before the trip, sir. Don't want to get caught out by some of the monsters out here, even with a Wizard Saint escorting us."
"He's not a Wizard Saint," Gran Doman reminds them.
"In all but name he is."
Gran Doma sighs. "Don't remind me," he turns and walks off into the mountain.
Minutes later, Gran Doma descends the unstable cavern system toward the altar room, seeing bright golden light shining out of the doorway and onto his pathway. He narrows his eyes at the sight, but thinks nothing of it.
He quickens his pace and turns to enter the altar room, but stops at the sight of Oberon floating above the broken platform. Around him are dozens of Super Archive screens displaying Runes he couldn't recognize.
Stepping inside, he looks to his right, seeing Laxus sitting on a large piece of rubble reading a book. His eyes shift between the two boys, trying and failing to make sense of this sight.
'I thought the light was from Laxus, but it's Oberon…yet I can't sense him.' Gran Doma walks over to Laxus, who glances up at him before returning to his Grimoire.
"He's in his research mode. He said he was almost done though."
"Are you helping him too?"
"Nah, this is a Lightning Enchantment Grimoire. I don't understand Runes as well as him."
"Doesn't seem like anyone does," Gran Doma stands beside Laxus, reading the foreign Runes on the screens. "We have everything ready to relocate the people. What will you need from us?"
"How far away do we need to carry them?"
"The village is just over fifty miles east of here. But the winds here are horrible, even more-so at night. We can't fly people through that so we'll wait until morning. I can send people out to check for rest points along the way, ones that can fit everyone safely."
"You don't need to worry about that. Oberon can handle it, once everyone is ready we'll leave as soon as he's done in here."
"His Gravity Magic is that powerful?"
"He's a softie so he takes it easy on everyone, even when he shouldn't. It's hard to tell how strong he is unless you see him train."
"Hmm, being in a guild with him must be exhausting," Gran Doma mutters under his breath, and is surprised when Laxus answers.
"Not really. Everyone knows not to compare yourself to Oberon, and it actually makes my life easier since when I'm guildmaster he'll be there as Ace. He does keep running out of space for his books though and grandpa's office and the library was filled…but his new library should fix that."
"Done!" Oberon says as he turns around to look at Laxus. "Oh, Gran Doma is here already."
"You didn't notice me?"
"I was busy reading."
"What'd you find," Laxus gets up and walks to the platform, Requipping his Grimoire away.
"Unfortunately, I was right. It is a Resurrection Altar," Oberon says, waving his hands to dispel the many screens before summoning one larger screen behind him. It shows the complete form of the broken Rune beneath their feet. "This Rune acts as the starting points, and a entry to the secondary sequence of the Runic Matrix."
"Meaning?" Gran Doma asks.
"This," Oberon forms a golden Magic Circle in his hand, complete with intricate layers of Runes from the Radiance Formula, with a large Fairy Tail emblem in the middle. "The Fairy Tail emblem acts as a Rune in this Magic Circle."
"So this is the middle?" Laxus asks.
"No, this rune is one of the tiny ones along the edge," he says. "This specific sequence has seven Runes along the edge, the middle is empty, because that's where the sacrifice goes."
"The people," Gran Doma mutters. "Then there are other chambers like this."
"Yeah, but not here. With an altar of this size, they were aiming for more than a few thousand people. This Matrix is meant to drain the life and Magic Energy from everything within it and perform a theoretical resurrection Spell. Zeref wrote about it in a few of the notes I found, but it was always inconclusive."
Laxus scoffs. "Well they're a cult of Zeref, so we don't need to guess who they want to bring back."
"How bad can this go?" Gran Doma asks.
"The altars can't be activated without this one, their plan is already impossible. If it succeeded, it would kill half the continent, if the Spell worked, Zeref would be resurrected."
"Half the continent?"
Oberon waves his hand, and the large screen shifts, showing a map of the continent of Ishgar with the altar Rune of this location marking their spot on the map. He then focuses, and six other Runes appear across Ishgar.
Bellum, Sin, Desierto, Minstrel, Fiore, Seven. Each boasting a location connected by straight lines in sequence, thousands of miles between each point. Together they form a heptagram, covering half of Ishgar.
"This is where the other altars should be, probably with bases just like this. We'll need to hit them all at once to get whatever notes and intel they have, and prevent the execution of their slaves."
"Half the continent," Gran Doma is sick to his stomach at the sight. "They'd kill so many, to resurrect such an evil thing."
"We got lucky this fortress collapsed," Laxus says. "Who knows what could have happened otherwise."
"The altar would have likely exploded and killed everyone in here," Oberon shrugs. "These Runes need a lot of Magic Energy to start the process, then they can start draining. If you don't have enough to power and stabilize them…boom."
"Regardless, we should move," Gran Doma says. "Is there anything else we can learn from this place?"
"Nope, now it's just time to go punch them in the face."
Minutes later, the trio are approaching the camp, having spent the time discussing the specifics of relocating everyone. And upon their arrival, they notice the commotion ahead. Rune Knights and survivors are all moving around with haste, relocating people and equipment toward the middle of the camp and packing everyone in as closely as possible.
One of the Rune Knights marches over to them. "Everything is ready for transport. But the winds are picking up, it may be better to wait until things are calmer."
"It won't be a problem," Oberon assures him.
Gran Doma looks down at the boy, then shrugs and walks toward the crowd. "Alright everyone, hold steady! We're going to a village fifty miles east of here. There are already more supplies there, along with working roads and train systems to get everyone to where they need to go. The Magic Council will assist you in any way we can!"
While they finalize everything, Oberon turns to Laxus. "Are you going with them, or—"
"No way am I getting into that thing. Days of falling in the train were bad enough." Laxus cloaks himself in golden lightning and floats into the air, unbothered by the biting winds and ever-growing snowfall. "I'll keep you on track to the village."
Oberon rolls his eyes, then focuses on the gathering of people. Seeing everyone ready, he stomps the ground, and a Light Barrier flows over the ground from his foot. It rushes to the crowd and their items, forming a layer of floor between them and the ground before becoming solid.
Most of the people, especially the children, are amazed by this. Oberon then floats above them, stopping beside Laxus, and raises his hand. The solid light platform lifts off the ground, but not by using his control of the platform itself.
Instead, he exercises his absolute control of Gravity Magic to keep everyone so stable that until the ground visibly shrinks and lowers, so they don't notice that they're moving. With the walls of the camp no longer blocking the harshest winds, some of the people huddle together against the cold.
But Oberon simply extends the glowing floor to form a dome from the edge. A translucent barrier that lets them see outside while protecting them from the snow and cold.
"Will they be alright in there?" Laxus asks.
"They have more than enough air, it's only a few minutes away," Oberon says as they begin moving east.
Laxus leads the way with him in the middle and the massive floating dome containing thousands of people behind him. After the first minute, Oberon signals to Laxus that he's more comfortable with their cargo, and they speed up.
The snow-covered mountainside and forest are illuminated by the light pouring off the massive dome, allowing everyone to see the surroundings rushing past them. The visual of a moving landscape paired with the lack of any physical sensation of motion upsets some people.
But for many of the Rune Knights, they're simply amazed by the precise applications of Gravity Magic.
Laxus slows his pace to fly beside Oberon. "When we drop off these people, we should hop on a train to Sin."
"Why Sin? Bellum neighbors Iceberg, we're a lot closer."
"Yeah. We'll pass by and confirm the Resurrection Altar location on the way, but we need to head to Sin. They'll call in Wizard Saints and powerful Wizard Guilds for this. There aren't any in Sin right now, and we're already closer."
"And you'll get to see more of Ishgar along the way."
"That's only a small part of it…"
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]