Get Up and Fight [Fairy Tail Quest]

As the scenery flies by, you remember something. Namely, that you had picked up the latest issue of Sorcerer's Weekly from the train station, and that it was currently sitting at the bottom of your satchel.

Reaching a hand into your bag and pulling out the aforementioned magazine, your mood lightens as you look at the extremely flashy cover. Flipping it open, you flick through a couple of different sections, until you find one that seems interesting.

Titled 'Legendary Mages of Our Time: Part 1', the article seems to be the first of a series of brief synopsis of some of the major wizarding forces of Earthland. Shifting a bit in your seat, you get comfortable and start reading.

Simple summaries of the four lowest seats of the Ten Wizard Saints are given in this part, along with a basic description of their powers and some of their major achievements. That one guy that Barry had mentioned, Iron Rock Jura, was listed as the tenth seat. Master Jose of Phantom Lord was also there, listed as the eight-seat. The other two were people you didn't recognize though. The ninth seat was a guy who went by the moniker 'Serena the Dragonslayer', who wielded Dragonslaying magic, whatever that was. And the seventh seat was held by 'Ur of the Bitter Cold', a woman who commanded some of the most powerful ice magic in the entire world.

It was crazy, these guys weren't even in the top half of the Saints, yet they wielded magical power that you couldn't even begin to imagine. If one of these four could probably devastate a country by themselves, then how strong were the people above them? And that's not to mention the fact that the article had specifically mentioned that this wasn't a comprehensive list! There could be even more powerful people out there, that just aren't known to the world at large!

Finishing your reading, you idly flip to the next page, only to take a sharp intake of breath at the resulting sight. Quickly raising your head, you inconspicuously (at least you thought you were) looked around the rest of the cabin, making sure no one was paying attention to you. Then, just to make sure, you angled the magazine away from the aisle before starting to read 'The Five Wizards You Absolutely Want to Be Your Boyfriend!'.

It was… a fascinating read to say the least. Certainly more interesting than the previous article. But that wasn't because of the full-body modeling foldouts! No sirree! It was just that the writing style of the article was much better! That was it!

Wiping a bit of accidental drool from your mouth (you hadn't eaten that much this morning that's all!), you read about the top voted wizarding bachelors in Earthland. This week's issue was a pretty good one... in your humble opinion.

As you are feverishly reading through the article, a cough comes from behind you, and you scream aloud. Spinning around as fast as possible, you shove the magazine into your satchel before looking around frantically for whoever dared interrupt your important reading time.

Heart racing, you start scanning the entire cabin. You realize too late that it had been the napping person coughing loudly in their sleep, and have to suppress a guilty wince when they stare dazed at the girl that randomly screamed aloud in the middle of their nap.

Feeling a warm blush rise to your cheeks, you give a sorry smile to the person you had rudely woken up. "Uh… I'm sorry?"


As you sit waiting in the garden outside the Mermaid Heel guildhall, an elderly woman slowly wanders into view from behind the mansion. Wearing simple robes of deep burgundy, with a matching stereotypical witch hat on her head, she looks exactly as a wizened witch would in the storybooks. She takes a meandering path, stopping and checking many plants along the way. You watch as the woman touches a previously withered plant and immediately causes it to return to full bloom.

And so she goes, slowly moving in your general direction, causing things like bright red hydrangeas and pure blue roses to bloom in her wake.

Eventually, she looks up from her plants and notices your presence. Smiling genially at you, she says "Oh! Hello, child. What brings you into my garden today?"

"I'm on a job! I have to deliver a package to Master Anna," you say.

"And I suppose Adrina went to go fetch her?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm..." The woman hums, leaning closer to you and squinting a bit. "Pardon me for my rudeness, but what magic do you practice child?"

"Cleaning magic miss."

She leans her head back and laughs a bit. "How fun."

"Fun?" You wrinkle your nose at the weird response. "What's fun?"

"The fact that you chose such magic to pursue, my dear. Usually, children like you go for the flashiest and most powerful magics out there after all. Or try to imitate one of the greats by emulating their once tread path. It's rare that you see someone taking such a poor path out of their own little desires."

Your smile fades a bit. "Cleaning magic isn't weak."

"I never said that child." The woman sits next to you, letting out a heavy sigh as she relaxes into her seat. "I said that it was a poor path, not a weak one."

Your eyebrow twitches at the vague response. "Well, what's the difference?"

"Weak means just that. The opposite of strong. A lack of power. The inability to force your will upon the world." A beat of silence. "Poor is something inherently different. It means that what you attempt will be difficult, the conditions unfavorable to your continued relevance to the world. For every step you take forward, another will take ten with equal effort."

Her tone turns from exploratory to serious. "I am a veteran witch. I have seen hell-on-earth and survived." She idly rubs a faded scar on her left hand. "I have seen things you dream about in nightmares and defeated monsters of such vile evil that you cannot even imagine. I know what I am talking about."

"And so, I know that the path you have chosen will be a difficult one indeed." She turns to stare at you, and you are taken aback by the sheer steel that rests within that gaze. This is a woman that has seen the worst the world has to offer, and spit in its face anyways.

A second's pause, before she continues, "So may I ask, knowing this, would you regret choosing this path? Knowing that there is a high possibility that you will never be strong enough to matter? That the stigma of weakness will forever follow you, the belief that no matter how strong you get, another path would have made you even stronger?"

The air stills. You can feel the overwhelming power radiating off the woman now. It's like you are standing right next to the sun. A primal fear awakens in your heart, the feeling of the tiny mouse cowering in front of a titanic dragon. Hairs on your arms raise. Your throat dries up. You feel scared. No, you feel terrified.


But still you stare back into those weary eyes, not backing down even as you feel an overwhelming pressure on your shoulders, driving you down with the weight of a thousand suns. Your hands ball into fists, your nails nearly drawing blood they're gripped so tight. Working your jaw, you open your mouth and whisper...

[][Regret] "Maybe one day I will. But not today."
[][Regret] "I don't care about any of that. This is the path I chose and this is the path I'll follow. From now until the end."
[][Regret] "Whoever 'they' are can take their comments and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. I'll prove them wrong. No matter how long it takes."
[][Regret] "I'm not doing this for strength, but for what I believe in. And that's good enough for me."
[][Regret] "Just because something is impossible, doesn't make it any less worth chasing."
[][Regret] Write-In?

The woman doesn't break her gaze, her mouth set in a firm line. The tension in the air skyrockets, weighing down on your shoulders like a massive boulder. You can barely breathe. Your blood pounds in your ears, the only noise in the deafening silence.

Darkness slowly starts to creep in around the edges of your vision.

Then, a quiet laugh. The pressure drops away instantly, leaving you with a racing heart and shaking limbs. "Good. That's good. Don't lose that fire child. No matter what others say, follow the path your heart wants you to."

The woman reaches out and plucks the package from your lap, standing up and saying "I can get this to the master for you. May our paths cross again child."

You sputter incoherent protests, trying to get up and stop the woman, who was already walking away. Your limbs still feel like jelly though, and as you shakily try to stand on your feet, your legs give out from underneath you.

A squawk of surprise is ripped from your lips as you fast approach the hard dirt ground, but a strong hand grabs your arm to steady you. You are kept on your feet by Adira, who is smiling warmly at you. "Looks like I wasn't really needed, huh?"

"Bwah?" is your incoherent question, head still spinning from the encounter.

"Well, you managed to find and deliver the package to Master Anna all by yourself, didn't you?"