The entire guild turned as one, their eyes fixed on Makarov.
"Welcome back, Master," Mirajane said, her face lighting up with a practiced smile.
"Is this really the time for pleasantries?!" Lucy shouted, her voice dry with disbelief.
Kael's eyes brightened the moment he saw the old man. "Master, forget the small talk. Did you score me an S-Class mission or not?!"
"That's not the time for that either!!" the rest of the guild yelled in unison.
Erza stepped forward, her expression focused. "Master, what happened? Give us the details."
Makarov let out a heavy breath. "At the recent conference, the movements of the Oración Seis were brought up for discussion. It's become a problem we can no longer ignore. The debate eventually turned to which guild should be the one to hunt them down."
Gray scoffed. "So you pulled the short straw again, didn't you, old man?"
"Is Fairy Tail taking this mission alone?" Juvia asked, voicing the anxiety shared by the crowd. Facing one of the three pillars of the Balam Alliance—a dark guild of only six mages—was a daunting prospect.
"No... the enemy is too powerful. If we execute this alone, the Balam Alliance will turn their sights solely on us once the Oración Seis are gone. We'd be painting a massive target on our backs."
Makarov paused, looking at his "children." "Because of that, we've decided to form an alliance."
"An alliance?!"
"Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, and Cait Shelter. Each of these four guilds will select their elite to join a joint task force to crush them."
The hall erupted into a flurry of voices. Official guilds were commercial competitors; they didn't exactly have a history of playing nice with each other.
"Why do we need them?!" "We're enough on our own! I can take them all by myself!!"
Erza cut through the noise. "The Master is thinking about the future."
If Fairy Tail members were singled out and hunted by the dark alliance later, the fallout would be catastrophic. By forming a coalition, the Dark Guilds wouldn't dare act so brazenly. It ensured that if one side was attacked, the others wouldn't just stand by and watch.
"Who's going, Master?"
The guild went silent, waiting for the names. For a hunt against the Oración Seis, the lineup was everything.
"Kael!"
Makarov's gaze locked onto him immediately. With the Oración Seis on the move, Kael was the only one he could trust to anchor the team.
Kael looked skyward, his face a mask of exhaustion. He knew it. Every time a disaster struck, the old man's first thought was to throw him at it. He'd crossed over to a fantasy world only to end up a glorified workhorse.
"Fine. I'm in."
He couldn't turn down the Master's direct request. He had a vague memory of the Oración Seis—villains who would eventually try to "whitewash" and redeem themselves later. But Kael didn't care about their redemption. He wouldn't be soft. If they gave him a reason, he'd break them. If any were lucky enough to survive, he'd just bundle them up and ship them to the Magic Council.
"Erza."
Makarov turned his eyes toward her. While Kael had shown incredible power recently, his "Maximum Output" wasn't something he could maintain indefinitely. He ended fights fast, but for a long-term operation, he needed a reliable partner. Erza was the perfect fit.
To take down the Oración Seis, Makarov was putting his strongest pieces on the board. He wanted to ensure the mission succeeded, but he also wanted to flex Fairy Tail's muscles in front of the other guilds.
Lately, Fairy Tail was called the strongest guild in the Kingdom of Fiore, but many outsiders thought it was a fluke. They attributed the "strongest" title solely to Makarov being one of the Ten Wizard Saints and Kael's victory over Jose Porla. To them, the rest of the guild was a joke—a bunch of rowdy screw-ups who regularly made the front page for scandals.
With Makarov now eighty-eight years old, some believed that the guild no longer held any power. Like the fools Laxus had encountered in that village, some individuals required a thorough beating before they learned to show respect.
Erza's expression turned lethal. "Understood, Master. Consider the mission done."
Makarov nodded. "I'm counting on you both."
"Kael and Erza?!" "The strongest duo in the guild is back together." "Master isn't playing around this time." "With those two on the field, we wouldn't even need the other guilds."
"Wait a second! Master!" Natsu shouted, waving his arms. "What about me? Where's my name?!"
"Don't you have a debt to pay off?"
During the harvest festival, Natsu and Gajeel had caused enough damage to drain the guild's accounts. They had been working as manual labor to pay back the guild's advance. The pressure had actually made Natsu productive for once, and he'd managed to stay out of major trouble while earning his keep.
"That doesn't matter! I'm going to crush those dark guild bastards!!"
"Actually... the money is pretty important..." Makarov muttered. The guild reconstruction had already left them strapped for cash.
"Fine. Since you're so eager, you're going too."
The intel suggested the Oración Seis were moving with their allied dark guilds. The numbers were uncertain, but they wouldn't be small. They needed the extra firepower.
"Hell yeah! Watch me take them all down!!"
Gray stood up, his face set. "Count me in. I've got nothing going on, and I want to see how 'strongest' these dark guild freaks really are."
"Gray, what are you doing sticking your nose in?!" Natsu shouted, turning on him. He was fine with Kael and Erza, but he didn't want Gray tagging along. "There aren't any spare pairs of underwear for you to steal out there!"
"You son of a...! That was one time! Stop bringing it up!!" Gray yelled, his temper flaring.
Makarov slammed his hand down, settling the matter. "That's enough. Kael, Erza, Natsu, and Gray. The four of you will represent Fairy Tail."
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