Chapter 105
Three days into our journey north, the countryside had started to change. The landscape below us shifts from Fiore's rolling hills to something more mountainous as we head toward the border. I kept the Regalia at a steady pace, enjoying the scenery while NIMO's navigation system guided us along the most efficient route to Midi.
Midi's supposed to be this tiny country nestled between bigger nations, the kind of place that gets overlooked on most maps.
"So," I say, keeping my eyes on the horizon, "you ever been to Midi before?" I asked Irene who was seated besides me in the passenger seat.
"Once," Irene replies, her voice carrying that distant tone she gets when she's remembering something from her long life. "Centuries ago. It was... different then."
"Smaller. More isolated. The people there practiced a very specific type of magic—earth-based, focused on agriculture and construction. They built their entire civilization into the mountainsides."
Astra tilts her head, curious. "What changed?"
"Time," Irene says simply. "Progress. The outside world eventually found them."
I nod, processing that. It's easy to forget sometimes that Irene's been around for four hundred years. She's seen entire civilizations rise and fall, watched the world change in ways most people can't even imagine.
"Well," I say, "hopefully they're still the quiet, keep-to-themselves type. We could use a low-profile stop."
Astra shifts in the back seat. "Is this related to the 100 Year Quest?"
I nod, adjusting the Regalia's course slightly as we navigate around a particularly tall mountain peak. "Yup. The quest is to investigate the ancient ruins of Midi."
"Ancient ruins?" Irene's eyebrow raises. "I don't recall any significant ruins during my previous visit."
"That's because they're buried," I explain, pulling up a holographic display. The blue projection shows a detailed map of Midi with several marked locations. "Deep underground, carved into the mountain roots themselves. The Magic Council has known about them for decades, but every expedition they've sent has either come back empty-handed or... well, hasn't come back at all."
"What makes these ruins so dangerous?"
"Nobody knows for sure. That's part of the problem." I gesture at the display, highlighting one particular area. "The few reports that made it back mentioned strange magical phenomena."
Irene's expression shifts, becoming more thoughtful. "Actually, now that you mention it... I remember reading some reports about these ruins when I was still part of the Spriggan 12. Zeref had our intelligence division investigate anything that might pose a potential threat or hold strategic value."
She pauses, her brow furrowing as she recalls the details. "The reports were... concerning. Even Alvarez's best reconnaissance mages couldn't get close enough to gather meaningful data."
I grin widely. "If Alvarez couldn't discover it, then we're definitely looking at something fun. No wonder it's a 100 year quest."
"The final report recommended avoiding the area entirely," Irene continues. "Whatever's down there, it's been actively defending itself for centuries."
"Even better," I say, my excitement clearly showing. "Finally, something that might actually be challenging." I dismiss the hologram with a flourish. "I was starting to worry this would be boring."
The conversation falls into a comfortable silence as we continue flying. The mountains are getting taller now, more jagged, and I can see the border markers coming into view. Midi really is small—I bet we could fly across the entire country in under an hour.
"Hey Astra," I say, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. "How are you adjusting to life here in Earthland?"
She's quiet for a moment, and I can see her considering how to answer. "It's... different from what I expected,"
"Is that good or bad?"
"Both," she admits.
"For what it's worth," I say, "you're doing great. And Fairy Tail's lucky to have you."
"We all are," Irene adds quietly.
Astra nods, a genuine smile crossing her face.
"There," I say, pointing ahead as the landscape opens up into a valley. "Looks like we found our destination."
The town spreads out below us, nestled against the base of a massive mountain range. It's exactly what you'd expect from a small border settlement—maybe a few hundred buildings, most of them built from the same gray stone as the mountains themselves.
"It's smaller than I expected," Irene observes.
"It's perfect I guess.," I reply, bringing the Regalia down in a gentle descent.
As we get closer, I can see people stopping in the streets to stare up at us. Right. Flying car probably isn't something they see every day. Or ever.
"So much for subtlety," Astra comments from the back seat.
I laughed.
"Alright," I say, shutting down the systems and stretching. "Time to work."
We climb out of the Regalia, and I can see the crowd of onlookers murmuring among themselves. A few of the braver ones start walking over, led by an older man with graying hair and the kind of weathered face that screams "local authority figure."
The man approaches with cautious but practiced diplomatic steps. "Good afternoon, travelers. I'm Mayor Hendrick. Welcome to Bellwood." His eyes dart between us and the Regalia with barely concealed amazement. "That's quite a... vehicle you have there."
"Thanks," I say with a grin, stepping forward. "I'm Aiden, this is Irene, and that's Astra. We're mages from Fairy Tail."
The mayor's eyebrows shoot up. "Fairy Tail? The guild from Fiore?" He looks us over with new interest. "What brings you all the way out here to our little town?"
"Actually, we're here about the 100 Year Quest," I say, getting straight to the point.
The mayor's expression immediately shifts from curious to concerned. "Ah." He glances around at the gathered crowd, then back to us. "Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private. Would you mind coming to my office?"
We nodded.
The mayor's office is a modest stone building near the town center. Inside, it's simple but functional—wooden desk, a few chairs and maps on the walls.
"Please, sit," Mayor Hendrick says, settling behind his desk. "I have to ask—are you really planning to go down there?"
"That's the plan," I say, leaning back in my chair.
"I've had a few fellows, some I knew personally over the years who accepted the quest," The mayor's face grows grim. "Mages from the Magic Council, independent explorers, treasure hunters. Some of them made it back to town. Others..." He shakes his head. "We stopped keeping count after the first dozen or so."
Irene leans forward. "What exactly do people encounter down there?"
"That's just it—nobody knows for sure. The ones who come back are usually... confused. They talk about voices in the walls, corridors that lead nowhere, rooms that exist one moment and vanish the next." Mayor Hendrick pulls out a worn folder from his desk drawer. "I've been keeping records of every expedition that's come through here. Figured someone might find it useful eventually."
"Mind if we take a look?"
"Of course. Maybe you'll see something the rest of us missed."
I flip open the book, and immediately I'm hit with the scope of what Mayor Hendrick has been dealing with. Page after page of expedition records, sketches, maps, testimonials. The guy wasn't kidding when he said he'd been thorough.
"Look at this," I mutter, pointing to a hand-drawn sketch on one of the pages.
Irene moves closer to examine the drawing over my shoulder. It's rough, clearly done by someone with shaky hands, but it shows strange symbols carved into what looks like a stone wall.
"These runes..." Irene's voice trails off, her brow furrowing in concentration. "They look familiar, but I can't quite place them."
I flip through more pages, finding similar sketches and even a few rubbings that someone managed to make before whatever drove them out of the ruins got to them. The symbols appear consistently throughout multiple expeditions, which means they're definitely real and not just hallucinations.
"NIMO," I say, pulling out my omnitool. "I need you to analyze these symbols."
The AI materializes its holographic interface, scanning the pages with rapid precision. "Analyzing runic patterns... cross-referencing with historical databases... comparative linguistic analysis in progress..."
Astra leans forward from her chair, studying the projections with interest.
"Analysis complete," NIMO announces. "These symbols belong to the ancient Ishgard Empire script."
I blink. "The what now?"
Irene's eyes widen suddenly, recognition dawning on her face. "Of course. How could I forget?" She looks up from the book, her expression a mix of amazement and concern. "The Ishgard Empire was a massive civilization that existed about two thousand years ago. It spanned the entire continent for nearly a thousand years."
"An empire that covered the whole continent? What happened to it?" I asked, amazed at this information. The anime didn't really delve much into detail about the geography and history of earthland.
"That's the question we all wanted to know," Irene says, her voice growing more serious. "Historical records from that period are fragmentary at best, but from what scholars have pieced together, the empire simply... vanished. Not gradually declined or was conquered—it disappeared almost overnight. The few records that survived speak of an 'unknown force' that brought about their destruction."
Mayor Hendrick looks between us with growing unease. "You're saying these ruins are connected to a lost empire? One that covered the entire continent?"
"It would explain the scale of the magical defenses," Astra observes. "An empire that large would have had access to incredible magical resources."
I stare down at the symbols in the book, a slow grin spreading across my face. "And now we get to find out what was powerful enough to wipe them off the map."
"That's not exactly reassuring," the mayor mutters.
Irene continues studying the symbols, her finger tracing over one particular set of runes that appears in multiple sketches. "Wait," she says suddenly, her voice taking on a different tone. "Some of these symbols... they're not just Ishgar Empire script."
I look up from the book. "What do you mean?"
"I've seen these before." Her expression grows distant, the way it does when she's digging through four centuries of memories. "There was a time when I saw Zeref studying runes exactly like these. I was curious, so I asked him about them, but he refused to explain. It took me months, but I eventually identified them." She looks up at me, and I can see the gravity in her eyes. "These are Divine script used by the gods themselves."
The temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees. Even Mayor Hendrick, who probably doesn't know the full implications, looks uncomfortable.
Oh.
Those guys.
"You seem remarkably calm about this," Astra observes.
I shrug.
"If Divine Script are mixed in with Ishgar Empire script, it means the gods were directly involved with whatever happened down in those ruins." I tap the book thoughtfully. "Which would explain why an entire continent-spanning empire just vanished overnight."
"The gods destroyed the Ishgar Empire?" Mayor Hendrick's voice is barely above a whisper.
"Maybe, maybe not" I say, my mind already working through the possibilities. "Either way, we're looking at divine-level magic that's been sitting under your mountain for two thousand years."
The silence stretches for a long moment as everyone processes that information.
"So," I say finally, grinning "anyone else excited to see what the gods thought was dangerous enough to bury this deep?"
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